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The first awards have been announced under a new bilateral research collaboration agreement between The University of Western Australia and The University of Queensland.

Under the accord signed by UWA's Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Robson and UQ's Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield in October 2009, the universities agreed to "promote staff and student interchanges, especially of post-graduate students, post-doctoral and early-career researchers, collaborative research projects, joint workshops and the exchange of expertise and information on a regular basis".

To facilitate this, a new joint funding scheme, the UWA-UQ Bilateral Research Collaboration Awards, ran for the first time this year with the first grants announced today.

The awards offer up to $20,000 to support joint projects between researchers at the two institutions aimed at establishing new collaborations or taking existing relationships to the next level.

In the first year of the scheme's operation, 19 projects have been funded, from 41 applications received.

Projects that won funding in the inaugural round include:

• Understanding the function of non-coding RNA machines through genomic, structural and cell biology approaches. UWA's Professor Charles Bond, working with UQ's Professor John Mattick, $18,795.
• Investigating the growth of structure in the universe using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder and SkyMapper. UQ's Dr Tamara Davis, working with UWA's Professor Lister Staveley-Smith, $17,675.
• Australian Literary Futures. UWA's Professor Philip Mead, working with UQ's Professor Gillian Whitlock, $20,000.
• Developing multi-scale integrative approaches to tropical and dryland ecohydrological dynamics in data-poor environments. UQ's Dr John Nikolaus Callow, working with UWA's Research Assistant Professor Matt Hipsey, $19,918.

Other joint research projects winning awards this year cover diverse topics including quantum-optical theory, plant growth, gas processing, star formation and galaxy groups, electromagnetic fields, learning processes, melanoma genes and vaccines, high strength-to-weight materials, Japanese family structures, Western Australian places, oilseed genetics, burn patient treatment and Moreton Bay marine habitats.

Professor Robson said the universities were fostering innovation and excellence through "the exchange of information, ideas and expertise at the highest level".

"UWA offers its research strengths to this partnership and welcomes those of UQ," he said.

"These collaborations are fundamental to addressing the issues of importance to Australia and globally.

"As members of the Group of Eight research intensive universities, we are ideally placed to apply world-leading research to the issues and problems of our time."

Professor Greenfield said there were many synergies between UWA and UQ.

"We are each based in vast States that have strong resource industries, rich biodiversity and major sustainability challenges," he said.

"UQ and UWA have complementary research strengths and similar research cultures.

"This funding gives excellent researchers from both sides of the continent an added incentive to work together.

"It will enhance existing partnerships and support new collaborations, with a view to achieving outcomes of national and global significance."

Media references

Fiona Cameron (UQ Communications)  (+61 7)  3346 7086
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716