The Australian Research Council (ARC) grants commencing in 2023 will provide almost $390m in funding from 2023 for Centres of Excellence around Australia.
In the social sciences, several Fellows are among recipients including Professor Jacqui True who will lead the new Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, thanks to a $34.9m grant from the ARC.
Other Academy Fellows among recipients include Bronwyn Fredericks, Larissa Behrendt and Sandra Eades (ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous Futures) and Lynette Russell (ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures).
For details of the ARC announcement click here and for a detailed breakdown of ARC selection and funding allocations visit the ARC Selection report.
CoE for the elimination of violence against women
For Jacqui True and her team, which includes Academy Fellows Heather Douglas and Sara Davies, the funding, over seven years, means the capacity to drive innovation in understanding the problem of violence against women by examining the structures that underpin violence against women and use survivor-centric and Indigenous methodologies for a holistic approach to the problem across institutional systems.
Jacqui True noted that funding for the CoE for the Elimination of Violence Against Women represents a number of firsts.
‘This is the first CoE focused on “women” to be funded by the ARC, the first to be led by a political scientist and with both Indigenous leadership and international reach for the research and translation’, she said, adding that ‘that of the 11 ARC Centres of Excellence funded, it is the only one with a woman director, and one of three with an Indigenous focus.
‘These “firsts” tells us something about how far we have to go in Australia to build an inclusive research community,’ says Professor True and the work ahead ‘for social sciences and humanities to be recognised as equal partners in research discovery and for the impact we have and can have in our communities and societies.
‘On behalf of the CEVAW team—our 49 partners, 14 chief investigators and 17 partner investigators—we are thrilled to have this opportunity to scale up our research and partnerships to seriously tackle how to eliminate the range of harms to women that constitute “violence against women” (VAW) affecting women’s participation, productivity and wellbeing – but in fact, affecting us all.’
The funding will allow the Centre to establish a regional network of Violence Against Women researchers and practitioners. It will provide global reach of open access, real-time data for researchers and stakeholders as well as foster a new generation of VAW researchers who are trained in Indigenous perspectives and methodologies, co-design and field test VAW prevention programs. Part of their work will be to develop and test innovative justice and perpetrator engagement models.