Twelve Australian researchers have been awarded fellowships under Round 5 of the Australia–India Strategic Research Fund Early and Mid-Career Researcher program, the Australian Academy of Science announced today.
The fellowships support Australian researchers to undertake placements with leading Indian institutes, with funding directed towards travel and living costs. In this round, the Academy awarded 12 fellowships valued at just under $140,000 in total.
The program is funded by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources through the Australia–India Strategic Research Fund, which marks its 20th anniversary in 2026. Operating since 2006, the fund has supported more than 180 collaborative research projects between the two countries.
This year’s projects cover a wide range of fields. They include battery-free wearable sensors designed to continuously monitor health signals and research working with women in rural India to co-create approaches aimed at reducing social and economic barriers in daily life.
Dr Krishna Manaswi Digumarti from Queensland University of Technology is collaborating with Associate Professor Vishal Toka at the MNJ Institute of Oncology and Regional Cancer Centre to develop a non-invasive wearable device to detect breast cancer in younger women.
Dr Alireza Jolfaei from Flinders University is working with Professor M. Tanveer at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore on an artificial intelligence assistant for security teams to detect cyberattacks at an early stage. The tool is intended to support smaller organisations that do not have large in-house cyber security teams.
Other recipients include Dr Deval Mehta of Monash University, partnering with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay on an AI-powered digital health system aimed at improving skincare in rural communities across Australia and India.
Twelve Australian researchers have been awarded fellowships under the Australia–India Strategic Research Fund to undertake placements with leading Indian institutes. The projects span health, energy, cyber security and environmental science, continuing two decades of scientific collaboration between the two countries
Associate Professor Emma George from the University of Adelaide will collaborate with the Indian Institute of Public Health Hyderabad and Good Shepherd Hyderabad on occupational therapy research and practice with marginalised women in India.
Dr Jinshuo Zou, also from the University of Adelaide, is working with the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research on an integrated electrochemical urea synthesis system designed to combine carbon capture and conversion.
Dr Lihong Su of the University of Wollongong is partnering with the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad to develop cost-effective high-entropy alloys with enhanced mechanical performance using additive manufacturing.
Dr Nisa Salim from Swinburne University of Technology will collaborate with the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology on 3D printing of multifunctional 2D materials for sustainable electrochemical energy storage.
Dr Pankaj Sharma of Flinders University is working with the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore on research into topological polarisation textures in twisted oxides.
Dr Rishabh More from Monash University will partner with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay to model sedimentation dynamics of microplastics in aquatic environments.
Dr Saheli Biswas of CSIRO is collaborating with the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad on recycling critical minerals from electrochemical devices.
Dr Shanmuga Sundar Dhanabalan from La Trobe University is working with CIPET Chennai and BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus on a battery-free wearable platform for remote health monitoring based on MXene-polymer composites.
Dr Sohinee Sarkar of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute is partnering with Amity University to develop live oral biotherapeutics for diseases associated with Helicobacter.
Round 6 of the fellowships is scheduled to open in May 2026, with applications to be announced through the Academy’s awards and opportunities mailing list.
The announcement formed part of a broader program during the visit to India by the Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy, Dr Andrew Charlton.
