There are 13 new Linkage grants announced in the Australian Research Council’s March release. Projects CMM thinks he understands include;

UWA and partners are funded to “test and evaluate a seamless progression of learning modern physics through primary and secondary school.” This follows research that found, “it is possible and beneficial” to teach Einstein’s “paradigm of space, time, matter, light and gravity” to eight-year olds.

The University of Melbourne will lead developing a model to simulate streamflow, needed to assess the impact of drought.

Monash U and the Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta will research how five to eight year olds learn maths

QUT and partners will consider how regional arts funding can have “lasting impact for end- users”

ANU, ANSTO and Sydney Harbour Bridge managers will explore cleaning it with lasers, to conserve structural integrity and iconic status

UoQ and the (presumably state) DoT will develop data analytics for traffic movement.

In very bad news for people with teen-age neighbours, researchers from Western Sydney University have $335 000 to develop a “novel computational partner” which will “output musical structures” to meet user-desired features, “while encouraging innovation and exploration”

“The expected outcomes will be a tool for musicians, but also for untrained people, young and older, allowing such untrained people to make personalised music.”