Seed Funding Projects 2018

Six projects were successful in securing seed funding from the Future Cities Research Cluster in 2019.

Stakeholder engagement in future proofing urban infrastructure systems

Environment quality (air pollutant concentrations, temperatures, relative humidity, lighting, sound level, odour, outside view, visual amenities, acoustic, connection to nature) affects physical wellbeing, psychological wellbeing and productivity. This project will employ IoT and wearable sensors via mobile apps to investigate the effects of environmental quality on humans.

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The social and material lives of urban soil

The import of soils to urban living is increasingly recognised in terms of dealing with contamination, fostering restoration and food security, and promoting urban liveability. And yet, soil processes and health have received scant attention in social sciences. Developing a case study of CERES (Melbourne) analysed through social theory, this pilot project asks: how does soil become understood and managed through urban everyday practices?

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Making the City of Melbourne more inclusive for people with disability

This study brought together people with disability, City of Melbourne staff, disability advocates, and academics, with the aim of generating ideas on how to make the City of Melbourne more inclusive for people with disability. Throughout a series of workshops, 240 unique ideas were devised. The most promising ideas are being used to inform the City of Melbourne’s upcoming Disability Action Plan.

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Prosthetic Habitats: Designing urban nests for the Powerful Owl

This project aims to deliver a cross-disciplinary solution to address habitat loss caused by urbanisation and its impacts on biodiversity within cities, using the University of Melbourne's Systems Garden to deploy and evaluate prosthetic nests for the Powerful Owl.

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Creating a social research instrument for The Living Pavillion

This project explored how Indigenous-art-science collaborations can inform public engagement that catalyses agency, adaptation and resilience.

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Maximising communication accessibility in public transport services

This project aimed to create a new research program by examining existing approaches and future directions in communication accessibility in public transport. It built on collaborative relationships within the university and with industry, government and disability advocacy groups to build an interdisciplinary research and practice program around communication access in transport services.

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