UWS secures new ARC research funding

The University of Western Sydney has been awarded more than half a million dollars in Australian Research Council Linkage funding for two new projects focusing on the environment and the performing arts.

The ARC Linkage grants will further the University's collaborations with research partners from across industry and business, as well as government and non-government organisations and other universities.

Funding for UWS amounting to more than $280,000 over four years will be used to address the capacity of trees to respond to climate change.

With the frequency and intensity of droughts increasing, the project will aim to address the risk of large-scale drought damage in a quickly changing climate.

Dr Paul Rymer from the UWS Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment will lead the study alongside Professor David Tissue of UWS, in collaboration with Professor Giles Hardy of Murdoch University, Dr Margaret Byrne from the Department of Parks and Wildlife, and Dr Nora Devoe from Charles Darwin University.

The research project will be completed in partnership with the Department of Parks and Wildlife, the Department of Environment and Conservation and the Forest Products Commission, Western Australia.

In another grant, funding amounting to $243,000 over four years will see the development of a music recommender system in collaboration with the University of Waikato, New Zealand.

The system will be similar in style to Amazon but focus on loudness and tone quality rather than popularity. It's intended this system will provide further exposure to unfamiliar artists.

Professor of Sonic Communication, Music, Cognition and Action, Roger Dean of the MARCS Institute will lead the project, alongside Associate Professor David Bainbridge from Waikato University.

In addition, UWS researchers have also been successful in collaboration with colleagues at other universities, with Dr Camellia Webb-Gannon from the School of Humanities and Communication Arts and Dr Ming Zhao from the School of Computing, Education & Mathematics awarded funding.

Ends

8 July 2015

Elliott Richardson, Media Unit