The Australian Research Council has announced the successful applications for Discovery Projects and Discovery Indigenous funding schemes for 2015 which include members of the Research School of Social Sciences.

DISCOVERY PROJECTS
Professor James Raymer
Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute (ADSRI)
The Demographic Consequences of Migration to, from and within Australia.
The long-term demographic consequences of migration to, from and within Australia, and the dynamic pathways that produced them, will be studied. This will involve the identification of the specific contributions made by international and internal migration to the age and sex population compositions of nine birthplace-specific populations from 1981 to 2011. To do this, publically available data will be collected and augmented with statistical methods to provide a complete, consistent account of population change for around 60 subnational areas. As migration and population change underpins many aspects of societal change in Australia, this research aims to provide an invaluable resource to other scientists and policy makers.

Professor Edith Gray (with Dr Ann Evans)
Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute (ADSRI)
Inequality in First Family Formation in Contemporary Australia.
The timing and context of Australians' entry into parenthood differs across the socio-economic spectrum. This project investigates the socio-economic disparities in entering parenthood, particularly focusing on education and employment differentials as well as socio-demographic factors such as ethnic and religious background, and experience of family dissolution. Using longitudinal panel data, this project aims to: determine the socio-economic and demographic differentials of inequality in first family formation in Australia; discover how inequality in first family formation has changed since the middle of the 20th Century; and, assess how family-policy regime mediates or exacerbates this inequality

Dr Maria Maley
School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR)
‘Political’ public servants: challenges, risks and rewards
The current ministerial and parliamentary staff system in Australia, established by the Member of Parliament Staff Act 1984, created a mechanism by which public servants can disengage from the public service while working as ministerial and parliamentary staffers, and later re-engage with the public service. This project will explore the phenomenon of the so-called 'political public servant' and the nature of impartiality and partisanship, asking whether these attributes are easily adopted and discarded or whether in fact they coexist within a subset of 'hybrid' public servants

Dr Fiona Jenkins (with Dr Helen Keane, Emeritus Professor Marian Sawer)
School of Philosophy
Gendered Excellence in the Social Sciences
Gender equity has still not been realised, despite decades of activism, policy and research. In some of the social sciences, women make up less than 15 per cent of the professoriate. Yet these are the disciplines that should most aid our understanding of how gender works in society. The project asks what impact women's limited influence and status in these key fields of research has upon our capacity to grapple with the social and political changes necessary for progress toward gender equality. In doing so, it builds persuasive arguments about how and why gender matters in the social sciences. By examining how we judge excellence in social science research, the project aims to contribute to advancing women in all fields.

Dr Rich Frank (due to commence in 2015)
School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR)

Roughly a quarter of national elections around the world are accompanied by the use of deadly violence. While the frequency of violence has remained almost constant for decades, researchers are only beginning to explore comparatively the myriad causes of election violence and what can be done to prevent it. Therefore, the proposed research focuses on answering two fundamental yet unanswered questions: why do various types of election violence occur, and what interventions are most effective at preventing them? The research design centres on analysing data on specific election violence events (perpetrators, victims, and method) and data on election interventions to test hypotheses on underlying causes and effective interventions.

DISCOVERY INDIGENOUS
Ms Elizabeth Ellis
Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
Western Desert speech styles and verbal arts
Verbal arts are central to social interaction. In the Western Desert Ngaanyatjarra and Ngaatjatjarra people use special speech styles to mark particular occasions and life transitions. Led by Ngaatjatjarra linguist, researcher and educator Elizabeth Marrkilyi Ellis, the research team aims to build on a corpus of these endangered oral traditions. Following in-depth linguistics analysis the project aims to implement strategies to revitalise these endangered styles through dynamic contemporary applications thus reintegrating them into the language socialisation framework of youth. The project aims to assist Aboriginal people to safeguard their heritage and contribute to a wider public appreciation of Aboriginal languages and cultures.

The ARC awarded the Australian National University more than $35million in prestigious grants for a total of 90 projects, enabling world-class research across the university (read more).