Researchers from the Faculty of Business and Economics have been successful in receiving funding from The Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Projects scheme for 2026.
Governance, Diversity, and Information Design in Teams
Professor Nisvan Erkal has been awarded $436,894 for her project investigating how teamwork can be improved through effective design of team governance structures and information flow. The research aims to uncover new knowledge on effective governance to implement information systems in project-based teams and develop practical, low cost tools that can be applied across sectors.
These insights promise substantial benefits for fundraising platforms, community groups, and workplaces by mitigating under-provision of collectively beneficial goods, poor firm performance, and insufficient responses to environmental problems.
Demand- and Supply-Side Policies for Improving Housing Affordability
Associate Professor Lawrence Uren, along with colleagues Dr James Hansen and Associate professor May Li from The University of Melbourne, and Dr James Graham from the University of Sydney (co-investigators on this project), will receive $388,038 for their research addressing Australia’s housing affordability crisis using an innovative economic life-cycle model of the housing market.
This team will examine housing affordability proposals related to superannuation withdrawals, government equity participation, pension means-testing and increasing housing supply. Their findings will also help better understand how policy impacts on homeownership, prices, and wealth distribution, with a focus on low-income households and younger households.
This research will provide benefits to policymakers will benefit by offering model-driven insights to guide the design of effective, equitable housing policies.
Additional research highlights
Professor Tom Wilkening (Economics), Professor John De New (Melbourne Institute) and Dr Karinna Saxby (Melbourne Institute) have also made valuable contributions as non-leads successful projects. Respectively: 'Practical Mechanisms to Improve the Efficiency of Land Assembly'; 'Firm closures and layoffs: The impact on Australian families'; and 'Quantifying the Economic Causes and Costs of Family and Domestic Violence'.