Record year for Murdoch ARC grants

MURDOCH'S outstanding research strengths were highlighted following the announcement of the results of the 2003 Australian Research Council (ARC) grants.

In a major coup, Professors Mike Jones and Richard Oliver were awarded $630,000 in Linkage Infrastructure funding for the Division of Science and Engineering to establish a joint facility for Plant Genetics.

In another breakthrough, the Director of the Murdoch Interactive Television Research Institute, (ITRI), Professor Duane Varan, secured more than $800,000 in Linkage Infrastructure and Linkage Projects grants for the Division of Social Sciences, Humanities and Education (SSHE).

`These results illustrate that when pitted against the best in the country, Murdoch researchers consistently come out on top,' said Murdoch Vice Chancellor Professor John Yovich.

He added that Murdoch's ability to succeed in niche markets - such as digital television and plant genetics - clearly showed that the University's policy of concentrating on what it did best, had paid off.

The results showed that Murdoch's ARC research income had increased by nearly $1 million - up from $3,262,492 in 2002 and $2,767, 578 in 2001 - to $4,024,955 for 2003.

On top of the more than $1 million worth of Linkage Infrastructure grants awarded, seven Discovery projects were also funded.

These included Professor Geoffrey Bolton ($110,000 - SSHE), Dr Treena Burgess/Dr Giles Hardy and Associate Professor Bernie Dell ($260,000 - DSE) and Professor Tom Gedeon/Dr K. Wong ($263,000 - BITL).

Six Murdoch Linkage Project applications were also approved including Professor Andrew Thompson/Dr Una Ryan ($300,000 - Division of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences - VBS) and Dr J. Pluske/Associate Professor David Pethick ($255,000 - VBS), leading to total funding of $1,713,919 for the years 2003-2005 for Murdoch.