Grand visions for broad social reform and ecosystem research efforts will get underway in 2025, with timely funding from the Australian Research Council Linkage Projects scheme.
The latest two Australian Government ARC Linkage grants led by Flinders University will be supported and co-funded by a range of government, not-for-profit, private and university partners.
A new project led by Professor Svetlana Bogomolova, from Flinders University’s Centre for Social Impact, will work with social, health and community sectors to develop a new ‘social prescribing’ model to “tackle growing unmet social needs of people experiencing disadvantage”.
“We are delighted to team with six partners, including at federal, state and local government level, to co-design, implement and evaluate a better way to connect Australians experiencing vulnerabilities to essential social and community services,” says Professor Bogomolova. “The project tackles silos and high levels of fragmentation in health and social sectors, by co-designing referral systems that work in coordination.”
In the second new Flinders University-led project, Associate Professor Martin Breed, from the College of Science and Engineering, will expand on a proven system to increase the resilience of restoration efforts underway in large areas of degraded land in south-west Western Australia.
The restoration project, led by Associate Professor Breed with biodiversity and restoration experts in South Australia and WA, will build on much-needed evidence on how to restore ecosystems damaged by agriculture, mining and forestry in the face of climate change.
“With Australia’s ecosystems supporting our nation’s biodiversity plus supplying important social, cultural and recreational benefits, this project will address major hurdles to effective restoration of extensively disturbed landscapes,” says Associate Professor Breed.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Ray Chan, says the latest ARC grants cap off another positive year of growth in Flinders University research income and achievements.
“We are excited to head into 2025 at the forefront of Australian research looking to address and solve some of our most pressing problems, including on the community, health and environmental frontiers.
“In particular, the ARC Linkage projects allow our experts and scientists to engage with partners who are able to help develop and then adopt these new systems and vital developments in real time.”
More details:
‘Social prescribing: linking Australian social, health and community sectors’ (LP240100242)
Chief Investigators: Professor Svetlana Bogomolova, Dr Candice Oster and Dr Ashleigh Powell. Partner organisations: Flinders University and the Department of Human Services SA, Anglicare SA (in partnership with MarionLife, Baptist Care and Uniting Communities), Adelaide Primary Health Network, City of Onkaparinga, City of Marion and Semantic Consulting.
This project showcases cross-college collaboration between the Centre for Social Impact (College of Business, Government and Law) and the Caring Futures Institute (College of Nursing and Health Sciences) at Flinders University.
‘Improving ecosystem restoration under climate change’ (LP240100073)
Chief Investigators: Associate Professor Martin Breed, Dr Jake Robinson, Associate Professor Rachel Standish, Dr Craig Liddicoat, Professor Erik Veneklaas, Associate Professor Michael Renton. Partner investigators: Dr Siegfried Krauss, Dr David Merritt, Sarah Broomfield, Vernon Newton and Dr John Stephen. Partner organisations: Flinders University and the WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, The University of Western Australia, Murdoch University, Tronox Mining Australia, Hanson Construction Materials and the Australian Research Facility. The project includes a pivotal collaboration with senior research scientist at Kings Park and Botanic Garden (Perth), Professor Seigfried Krauss, from the WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.