Translate4Impact grants announced

Congratulations to the successful applicants for Translate4Impact, ACU’s knowledge translation and research impact grant scheme.

We are pleased to announce funding support to three projects under the Change Grant scheme, two projects for Event Support and one project for Resource Production. These projects are highly impactful and designed with specific knowledge translation activities at their core.

An outline of each successful project is provided below.

For more information about knowledge translation and research impact visit the Research translation and impact web page or contact the Research Impact Unit.

Change Grants

The Education Research Trust: A Policy and Practice Impact Hub at ACU

Investigators: Dr Jessica Holloway, Dr Debra Phillips, Dr Helen Sheehan, Dr Kylie Kerr, Dr Luke Rowe, Dr Marie White, Dr Mellie Green, Dr Rafaan Daliri-Ngametua, Dr Rebecca Pagano, Dr Sarah Digan, Dr Steven Lewis

The project will translate academic research into impactful, relevant and accessible products that can support evidence-informed policymaking by industry end users and external stakeholders. Building upon an active research collaboration between the ACU School of Education and ILSTE, the project will develop a Research Trust Impact Hub to house co-designed translations of high-impact research for end users, including the South Australian Department for Education. The project will also evaluate how the translated research on the Impact Hub makes measurable impacts to education policy work at the DfE.

Fire Knowledges

Investigators: Professor Susan Broomhall and Kate Gregory

The project aims to unsettle historical and contemporary understandings of Aboriginal fire practices and land management through side-by-side storytelling of fire knowledges in traditional cultural and modern practice. It listens to Aboriginal Elders and practitioners and foregrounds particularly the fire knowledge of women.

Fire knowledge has been essential to the survival and cultural practices of Aboriginal communities over millennia. This project listens to leading Aboriginal Elders, female rangers and land managers, their cultural perspectives in Western Australian fire management, little-known fire knowledge from the perspective of women’s business, and how Aboriginal women are increasingly leading the way in contemporary fire practices.

Raising Awareness of the Risks and Benefits of Children's Interactions with Electronic Screens to Parents and Policymakers

Investigators: Dr Taren Sanders, Dr Michael Noetel, Professor Stuart Biddle, Professor Chris Lonsdale

Screen time is the number one concern Australian parents have about their children’s health and behaviour. However, academic evidence does not always support parents’ concerns. There is substantial nuance in the way screen time influences outcomes – such as what children are doing, and with whom – which is not always captured in guidelines.

To support parents and other decision makers (eg policymakers) to make informed decisions, we will translate a comprehensive summary of the most robust systematic reviews into a data visualisation system. Our review details almost 200 effects of different types of screens on a range of outcomes. Working with government and non-government partners, we will ensure that this system is suitable for end users and that the system can be widely disseminated to maximise impact.

Resource Production

The Compassion Project

Investigators: Professor Joseph Ciarrochi, Dr Baljinder Sahdra, Dr Keong Yap, Dr Madeleine Ferrari

The funding will translate extensive research on the key components of compassionate practice – mindfulness, non-attachment, empathy, self-compassion and pro-social behaviour – into a highly accessible online program that guides people in the development of both self-compassion and other compassion. This will include the creation of 20 high-quality five-minute videos and five original colour illustrations, with written content and audio added to these basic materials to build a high-quality, appealing online course on compassion. The course will be designed to be highly accessible to the public.

Event Support

Stepping Forward Incubator Initiative

Investigators: Associate Professor Mark Chou, Ben Vockler

This event will be run through the Victorian Local Governance Association (VLGA) – the peak body of local councils in Victoria – to disseminate the investigators’ research on the experiences and insights of young people who ran during the last local government elections in Victoria. The event will feature their research findings and use them to educate and encourage more young people in Victoria to run for, and get involved in, local government in the future.

This workshop event will be held at ACU’s Melbourne campus and will be the feature event of the VLGA’s Stepping Forward Incubator Initiative, which seeks to encourage more young people across Victoria to participate in local government.

The Behaviour, Environment and Cognition Research Program (BECRP) Networking Event

Investigators: Professor Ester Cerin, Dr Anthony Barnett, Dr Govinda Poudel, Dr Maria Soloveva, Dr Miguel Alvarado Molina, Miss Lara Pigatto, Professor Jim Sallis

The Behaviour, Environment and Cognition Research Program group seeks to understand how to create healthy and sustainable urban environments for all members of the community. This networking event will foster knowledge translation and collaboration amongst researchers, policymakers and industries who are committed to sustainable practices and are eager to create healthy urban environments, which aligns with the translation and impact components of ACU’s Research and Enterprise Plan 2022–2023.

At the event, the research group’s work will be showcased to professionals from various sectors, such as NGOs, the Department of Health, Parks Victoria and urban planners, to stimulate conversation and knowledge exchange. With this event, the investigators intend to bridge the gap between science and policy, and expect to facilitate collaborative projects and initiatives for the creation of healthy and sustainable neighbourhood environments.