CIES Staff Feature in close to $3 million in Australian Research Council (ARC) Major Grants Announced for 2016

Eleven CIES staff have featured in close to $3 million of funding in the latest Australian Research Council (ARC) Major Grants announced for projects commencing in 2016.

Nine CIES staff have featured in five ARC Discovery Projects to be led at UNSW totalling close to $2 million.  Furthermore, three CIES staff also featured in two successful ARC Linkage Infrastructure Equipment and Facility (LIEF) grants totalling over $1 million for National test facilities to be led by Monash University and the University of Queensland respectively.

ARC Discovery Projects:

Professor Mark Bradford and Dr Hamid Valipour received $435,000 for their project DP160104092 which aims to deliver a novel composite steel–timber system that alleviates many of the environmental concerns of the industry, while improving efficiency by using lighter materials.

Associate Professor Arnaud Castel and Professor Abhijit Mukherjee (Curtin University) received $370,000 for their project DP160104092 which aims to develop models and methods to enable the early detection of active steel corrosion.

Associate Professor Wei Gao, Professor Yong Lin-Pi and Dr Sawekchai Tamgaramvong received $390,000 for their project DP160103919 which aims to develop a high-performance tool for the dynamic safety assessment of softening structures.

Professor Ian Gilbert and Dr Ehab Hamed received $330,000 for their project DP160104628 which seeks to improve understanding of the long-term structural behaviour of precast concrete sandwich panels and thus facilitate their use in civil engineering applications.

Professor Chongmin Song received $390,000 for his project DP160104626 which aims to establish an innovative numerical framework for the computer simulation of systems of engineering structures subject to dynamic loadings.

ARC LIEF Projects:

Professor Mark Bradford and Professor Brian Uy were involved in the successful bid led by CIES Alumnus, Dr Amin Heidarpour (Monash University) which received $235,000 for the project LE160100138 to establish a National drop weight impact testing facility.

Associate Professor Adrian Russell was also involved in the successful bid led by Professor David Williams (University of Queensland) which received $800,000 for the project LE160100206 to build a National rock, concrete and advanced composite testing capability.

Full details of all ARC grants awarded for this round are available at www.arc.gov.au