Want to help fund a research project to develop a the next-gen condom? Or maybe you'd like to support a research program to help fish better navigate the world's oceans? What about helping scientists develop technology to harness 3D printing technology to build replacement human organs?
Thinkable.org's Inspire Australia Research Competition is currently open to public voting, with a host of cutting-edge entries from young researchers across the country.
The competition is a partnership with the Australian Academy of Science EMCR forum, has already attracted a prize pool of about $14,000 plus, which anyone can contribute to.
Scientists looking to secure funding post a video and pitch their project on the Thinkable website. Later this month, the pitches will be judged by a panel of experts and the public.
Thinkable aims to create an alternative model of science funding that breaks away from grants based on experience or the length of a scientist's tenure, often overlooking young scientists in the process.
Here's a taste of what you can contribute to and/or vote for:
Cathal O'Connell, University of Wollongong
3D printing is changing the world by providing new ways to make anything from cars to houses to rocket turbines. But what if you could use living cells as the ink? Could you print an organ?
Cathal O'Connell is part of a team figuring out ways of creating artificial replicas of human body parts.
Once implanted, these spare parts are designed to stimulate the body to regenerate itself, then to degrade naturally, dissolving in the bloodstream and eventually excreted.
Central to the research is 3D printing technology—a tool which is revolutionising research across many disciplines. In medicine, it's already been used to fabricate custom prosthetics, cranial implants, and hips that perfectly reproduce the patient's unique anatomy.
- SEE ALL THE RESEARCH PROJECTS: VOTE HERE
Tullio Rossi, University of Adelaide
Ocean acidification has profound effects on marine life, but knowledge of its effect on navigating oceanic larvae is lacking.
Ocean acidification causes disorientation in fish larvae during critical settlement stage. The dispersal of larvae and their settlement to suitable habitat is fundamental to replenishment of marine populations and communities. Sound is a critical part of this process because many larvae use it as a cue for orientation towards suitable settlement habitat.
Rossi's research shows that ocean acidification strikingly caused a switch in role of marine sound cues from attractor to repellent in the auditory preferences of fish larvae. This effect puts at risk the complex process of larval orientation, settlement, and habitat connectivity.
- SEE ALL THE RESEARCH PROJECTS: VOTE HERE
Sofie De Meyer, Murdoch University
Agriculture depends on fertilisation to improve crop yield. An alternative to industrial fertilisers, which require fossil fuels for production, is the use of legume plants which are able to fix nitrogen from the air, with the help of soil bacteria.
The south-west of Western Australia is a major farming area in which annual rainfall has declined by more than 20 per cent in the last 30 years. Most farming systems in these areas use annual legumes for nitrogen fixation, but these plants are reliant on lots of water. As rainfall in these areas become more unpredictable, they are becoming unreliable.
The deep rooted, herbaceous shrub Lebeckia ambigua, which De Meyer and her colleagues discovered in the Western Cape of South Africa, does not only grow on poor, acidic, sandy soils with annual rainfall of 150-400mm, but it also produces high quality forage in those conditions.
Because of these qualities, she believes that it is a prime candidate that will help to support farmers turning the poorest soils into green farmable landscapes.
- SEE ALL THE RESEARCH PROJECTS: VOTE HERE
Disclaimer: the Herald's science editor Nicky Phillips is a Thinkable judge.
