Four mid-career and three emerging researchers from the University of Newcastle have secured significant funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) to support their cutting-edge work.

The ARC Future Fellowships scheme and the new Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards (DECRAs) acknowledge Australia’s most promising young researchers and provide career support.

Newcastle will receive $2.5 million in Future Fellowship funding and $1.1 million for DECRAs. Today’s announcement brings to $26.3 million the value of nationally competitive research grants awarded to University of Newcastle researchers over the past month.

Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Mark Jones said the University was focused on attracting and retaining up-and-coming researchers and today’s funding supported those efforts.

“These schemes are critically important in nurturing young talent and ensuring they can pursue their careers in Australia,” Professor Jones said.

“National research funding is very competitive and we are pleased to see our three key areas of research strength acknowledged today - health, energy and the environment, and science and engineering.”

Future Fellowships awarded to Newcastle researchers are:

• $700,000 to Dr Christopher Kellett for research into the emerging area of hybrid dynamical systems, including next generation electricity distribution networks

• $625,000 to Dr Peter Ireland to develop a dry particle separation process based on triboelectric separation, a novel way to refine mineral ores without using water

• $620,000 to Dr Sarah Johnson to develop new error correction codes to underpin the success of next-generation communications technologies

• $565,000 to Dr Murray Elder for his work in experimental mathematics using computer-assisted research to give new insights into complex problems

DECRAs provide $375,000 over the next three years to:

• Dr Janet Holt to determine how the protein known as the Fizzy-related gene functions at the earliest stages of female egg development

• Dr Faramroze Engineer for his work using applied maths to help businesses make better financial, operational and strategic planning decisions

• Dr Lawrence Ong to develop new coding techniques to increase the data transmission speed of wireless networks