New Melbourne-Toronto funding program supports research collaboration

These are just three of the research projects that will share $A150000 under the inaugural funding round of the University of Melbourne – University of Toronto Joint Research Program.

The program was established in 2020 to support collaborative research initiatives. Seed funding helps researchers at the two universities visit each other to start and extend their research collaborations. This financial support also enables researchers to make joint proposals to other funding sources for the next phase of their research.

Projects funded include:

• Changing times: parents' re-evaluations of work-family boundaries and time allocations in a pandemic era
  Associate Professor Leah Ruppanner (Arts), with Professor Melissa Milkie (University of Toronto)
• Using human inner ear organs to develop new regenerative therapies for hearing and balance disorders
  Associate Professor Bryony Nayagam (Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences), with Associate Professor Alain Dabdoub (University of Toronto)
• Strengthening antibiotic discovery at the University of Melbourne and University of Toronto
  Dr Sacha Pidot (Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences), with Professor Justin Nodwell (University of Toronto)
• The technical study of Bernini’s bronzes: art history, conservation, and material science
  Dr Jonathan Kemp (Arts), with Professor Evonne Levy (University of Toronto)
• Energy harvesting and storage in remote communities
  Dr Wallace Wong (Science), with Professor Dwight Seferos (University of Toronto)
• City-science workshops: Tree removal or loss as experimental opportunities to accurately measure the social and ecological benefits of urban trees
  Associate Professor Stephen Livesley (Science), with Professor Tenley Conway (University of Toronto)

Image: Ayesh Rathnayake/Unsplash