7th July 2015

A QUT School of Economics and Finance research project to examine the links between cognitive changes and financial decision-making in late adulthood and another to develop an incentive-based programme to increase Indigenous students' school attendance have received ARC Linkage Grants.

They are two of the 16 QUT research projects to receive more than $4 million in the latest ARC funding round which also includes Dr Ronald Schroeter's project to reduce risky driving using augmented reality images on a 3D head up display, an anti-laminitis drug to prevent the deaths of domestic horses, and a drifting, real-time, waterways flow monitor to help manage storm surge and erosion.

Behaviour economist Professor Uwe Dulleck will lead the research into lifting Indigenous school attendance looking at whether such rewards as driving licence instruction would be effective to incentivise Year 11 and 12 students. The researchers will partner with Former Origin Greats for the project.

The research on financial decision-making, led by Dr Basu Anup, will aim for a greater understanding of how cognitive functioning and other factors affect older adults' financial capacity and inform policy on protecting the elderly and their family from the risk of financial mismanagement.

Other QUT research funded in this round:

  • Develop a literacy framework to inform the design and delivery of information to Australia's migrant communities, led by Professor Christine Bruce
  • Develop interaction and visualisation techniques to allow insurers to include social media and crowdsourced data in risk identification, led by Professor Marcus Foth
  • Investigate the relationship between indoor lighting, visual comfort and office workers' wellbeing for green buildings, led by Dr Veronica Garcia Hansen.
  • Develop a novel modelling framework to represent the biomechanical properties of red blood cells over time under stored conditions, led by Professor Yuantong Gu.
  • Develop methodologies for the condition-based maintenance in the sugar milling industry, led by Professor Lin Ma.
  • Develop design rules to support the use of facades using aluminium members with complex shapes, led by Professor Mahen Mahendran.
  • Explore the role digital technologies can play in improving self-determination and employment in young people with a disability transitioning to work, led by Professor Greg Marston.
  • Broaden resources for students, particularly for disadvantage students, to communicate emotions through speech, writing and images, led by Dr Kathy Mills.
  • Develop a sustainable, play-based program to increase executive functions such as working memory, inhibitory control and attention in children in the year prior to school, Professor Susan Walker.
  • Examine Australians' changing music consumption patterns in the digital download era to support the future growth of Australian music, led by Associate Professor Patrik Wikstrom.
  • Design, implement and test a model of integrated mental health service that links a new mobile interactive tool-kit for self-directed help-seeking with existing traditional helpline services for young people, led by Dr Oksana Zelanko.

Media contact: Niki Widdowson, QUT media, 07 3138 2999 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au. After hours 0407 585 901 or media@qut.edu.au.

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