The Life Course Centre congratulates its researchers who were awarded Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Projects 2025 funding.
Professor Francis Mitrou; Dr Vincent Mancini; Emeritus Professor Steve Zubrick; Dr Vu Vuong; Dr Jan Kabatek – How Australian fathers shape the trajectory of their children’s wellbeing.
Life Course Centre Chief Investigator Professor Francis Mitrou, Research Fellows Dr Vincent Mancini, Dr Vu Vuong and Dr Jan Kabatek, and Emeritus Chief Investigator Emeritus Professor Steve Zubrick have secured $1.3 million in funding. Their project aims to examine how father involvement, and the factors that shape it, influence the long-term wellbeing trajectories of Australian children across developmental stages. The research will advance Australia’s position toward promoting equitable parenting, while the new knowledge from this project could inform the development of innovative and targeted policies or interventions optimising father involvement and promoting improved developmental outcomes for Australian children.
Professor Jennifer Smith-Merry – Disability and Digital Citizenship
Life Course Centre Research Fellow Professor Jennifer Smith-Merry has been awarded $2.1 million to investigate people with disability’s full participation in the digital age by advancing a new conceptualization of digital citizenship. Via a co-designed benchmark Australian study, the project will generate knowledge on how people with disability experience digital technology, barriers encountered and how to address inequities. The project’s benefits should help optimise national digital policy, and strengthen national research capabilities in the emerging area of inclusive and accessible technology.
Professor Leah Ruppanner – Equitable reskilling for the future of work
Life Course Centre Associate Investigator Professor Leah Ruppanner has secured $500,000 in funding to examine how workers, households and communities in Australia are reskilling in diverse ways. Through quantitative and qualitative research, this project expects to create new knowledge about the social and geographical dimensions of reskilling in order to better evaluate the barriers and enablers of reskilling. Expected outcomes include an interdisciplinary collaboration that will enhance Australia’s research capacity in understanding the social and geographical dimensions of the future of work.
Associate Professor Marian Vidal-Fernandez; Dr Jordi Vidal-Robert – The Socio-Economic Impacts of Colonialisation in Australia
Life Course Centre Associate Investigator Associate Professor Marian Vidal-Fernandez and Research Fellow Dr Jordi Vidal-Robert have been awarded $824,000 in funding. Using newly collected British and Irish records of settlers, Australian arrival records and subsequent censuses, together with current and recent rich administrative health records and surveys, this project will create a rich dataset to measure the impact that British colonialisation had on Australia on a range of socio-demographic and economic outcomes in the short and long-run. Understanding the dynamics of these foundational periods is crucial for shedding light on the root causes of contemporary disparities among disadvantaged Australians and informing effective policy measures.
The full list of funded projects is available on the ARC website.