Achieving good education outcomes for indigenous students, improving support for indigenous children with disabilities, and investigating help-seeking behaviours among Indigenous Australians are some of the new research projects to be awarded Australian Government funding today.

Minister for Education and Training, Senator Simon Birmingham announced the funding in Adelaide as part of the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Major Grants Announcement.

The $4.1 million was awarded under the ARC Discovery Indigenous funding scheme, which supports research programmes led by Indigenous Australian researchers.

Senator Birmingham said that the ten researchers (and their teams) sharing in this new funding would make a valuable contribution to Australia’s knowledge base and many would look at new ways to assist Indigenous Australians across a range of services.

“This funding scheme allows the Government to develop and support the research expertise of Indigenous Australian researchers.

“It also allows us to build research capacity of higher-degree and early-career researchers, increasing opportunities for young indigenous researchers.

“Many of these projects will also help deliver improved services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” Senator Birmingham said.

Examples of some of the ten projects funded today include:

• $572,000 to the Australian Catholic University that will allow Dr Anthony Dillon and his team to identify the characteristics of schools that are helping Indigenous students’ to achieve their potential.
• $513,783 to The University of Sydney that will see Dr John Gilroy and his team explore challenges Aboriginal families with children with disabilities experience when living in remote communities.
• $382,929 to Associate Professor Bronwyn Carlson at the University of Wollongong to investigate formal and informal help-seeking behaviours among Indigenous Australians.

For more information about the funding awarded today please visit ARC Funding Announcements or the ARC website.