The Australian Research Council (ARC) has invested $279 million (USD$185 million) to develop eight major Centers of Excellence including one for Our Future Oceans. The centers will bring together leading researchers from across Australia and internationally to tackle some of the biggest questions and challenges facing our society, environment and industries.
“In these Centres, we see the value of bringing together diverse expertise and perspectives to address the complex challenges of our time,” said ARC Chief Executive Officer Professor Ute Roessner. “Their work will not only advance knowledge, but also strengthen our communities, inform public policy, and help shape a more resilient and prosperous Australia. This investment is about fostering collaboration and ensuring that research serves the public good, now and into the future.”
The ARC Centre of Excellence for Our Future Oceans at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, will harness new and emerging technologies to better observe, model and predict the changing oceans. In one research project, they will examine the physical and biophysical change in Australia’s marine environment, including temperature extremes, marine heat waves, sea-level, coastal hazards, nutrient availability, ocean acidity, oxygen depletion, and circulation change.
Present–day prediction systems have resolutions too coarse to inform robust decision making at a national and local scale, the university said. The research team aims to develop and integrate new ultra-high-resolution downscaled projections of the ocean environment, seamlessly resolving scales from the open ocean, to regional, coastal and nearshore waters.
Digital Oceans
The group’s Digital Oceans research project will be about developing innovative digital ocean technologies and models to underpin the other research projects. This includes physical observing and modeling tools and data products and using data science, AI, machine learning, data assimilation, ensemble methods, statistical tools, and uncertainty quantification to translate raw ocean measurements and model output into usable data streams and products for marine industries and other stakeholders
Science for Ocean Resilience
In the third research project, Ocean Resilience, they aim to deliver “the next decade of science and a legacy of tools and prediction systems” for Australia to adapt to the country’s changing ocean environment. The five scientific research areas of ocean resilience that we will target are: Sea Country; Coastal Hazards and Adaptation; Marine Extremes; Fisheries and Aquaculture and Marine Parks.
Science for Ocean Resources
The fourth project stems from the fact that Australia’s marine industries contribute around $120 billion annually to the economy, with our oceans and coasts providing a further $25 billion annually in ecosystem services, including carbon dioxide absorption, nutrient cycling and coastal protection. Researchers will work to develop the process understanding and predictions to sustain and grow Australia’s Blue Economy across five major resource sectors that are critically dependent on oceanic conditions:
1. Ocean Energy
2. Marine CO2 Removal
3. Navigation and Shipping
4. Ocean Productivity
5. Ocean Tourism
The other centers of excellence include:
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computer Performance and Integration.
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Advanced Peptide and Protein Engineering (CAPE)
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Mathematics for Quantum Era Security and Trust (MathQuEST)
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Renewable Fuels (University of Wollongong): Innovating next-generation renewable fuels such as green hydrogen and ammonia, helping Australia become a global leader in clean energy exports.
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Transforming Human Origins Research.
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Prisoner Reintegration.
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Quality Work in a Digital Age (QWiDA)
