Research projects that work towards securing sustainable futures for Charles Sturt University’s regions form the bulk of projects that have received $1.2 million in funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC).

The ARC recently announced its competitive grants for 2003, funding 1 252 projects around Australia. CSU has received funding for seven research projects, two of which are industry partnership grants. 

Researchers from environmental, agricultural and wine sciences and cultural studies have been successful in obtaining grants. CSU has increased its number of ARC Discovery projects from one in 2002 to five in 2003. 

Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Goulter said the rise in the number of successful projects was evidence of CSU’s consolidation of research strengths.

“The University has implemented a number of programs to strengthen our research profile, evidenced by the steady growth in our ARC grant successes. The fact we continue to improve in such a competitive environment is testament to our research capabilities,” Professor Goulter said. 

“Among the successful projects is research focussing on development of new natural herbicides; examining how colonisation has impacted on natural ecosystems and the role of the weed mistletoe as an indicator of the health of the Australian bush. 

“Our collaborative industry partnerships will allow CSU researchers and the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service to look at the damage caused to rice crops by waterfowl and another project, in partnership with NSW agriculture will look at vineyard soil health.

Examination of new journalism training by Professor John Tulloch will investigate the role of media and popular culture in democratic reform and renewal in war zones such as Kosovo.
 
Applications to the Australian Research Council are assessed by researchers of international repute. The grants committee provides feedback to each applicant before finalising its grants allocation.

“ARC grants are extremely competitive, and success marks you as a leading researcher,” Professor Goulter said.

Successful CSU ARC grants in 2003:

Discovery – Project Grants: (5)

Effects of European colonisation on Indigenous ecosystems: multiple-scale spatial structure of pre- and post- settlement Callitirs forests.
Dr Ian Lunt.

Novel compounds as natural herbicides for weed management
Professor Jim Pratley, Dr Terry Haig, Dr Min An and Dr Hanwen Wu.
 
Testing the Flood Pulse Concept for rivers with variable flow regimes
Professor Alistair Robertson.

Risk, media and identity in Kosovo: local/global trends in democratization
Professor John Tulloch.

Mistletoe as a keystone resource – an experimental test
Dr David Watson.

Industry Partnership - Linkage Grants: (2)

Vineyard soil health and microbial biodiversity under different crop cover and floor management practices
Associate Professor Terry Harden, Dr Melanie Weckert, Ronald Hutton and Professor Dennis Greer with NSW Agriculture.

Integrating the rice industry with biodiversity conservation: the spatial ecology of waterfowl in agricultural and natural landscapes
Dr David Roshier, Associate Professor Nick Klomp, Dr R Kingsford and R McDonnell, with NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.