Research projects on transgender rights in Indonesia, food security, and prevention of reincarceration of people with intellectual disability are among the six projects to receive financial grants from the Australian Human Rights Institute's 2023 seed funding round.
There were 30 applications for financial support in 2023. The grants program is open to UNSW research projects that address and relate to human rights, with applications accepted from Institute Associates across all UNSW faculties and partner institutions.
This year, as well as the usual offering of grants in the range of $5000-$10,000 from the Institute, new partnerships with the UNSW Disability Innovation Institute and the Faculty of Engineering provided additional joint seed funding opportunities with a $20,000 grant and two $25,000 grants, respectively. These grants were made available for projects with a disability-focus and for research at the intersection of engineering and human rights.
2023 seed funding grant recipients
- Dr Benjamin Hegarty: Transgender rights and health in Indonesia: A rapid ethnographic assessment ($9,000)
- Dr James MacGibbon: Non-therapeutic male infant circumcision: Rights to bodily integrity and autonomy ($6,845)
- Dr Yunfei Shi: Using geographic information systems to power the right to food in Australia ($5,936).
Joint Engineering Human Rights Research Grant
- Associate Professor Mohsen Kalantari: Informal settlements in Fiji: Addressing land tenure challenges through engineering capacity building ($25,000)
- Associate Professor Pierre Le Clech: Initial validation of novel water treatment for renal dialysis units in remote Aboriginal communities ($23,880).
Joint Disability Human Rights Research Grant
- Dr Jane Hwang: (PReP-ID): Preventing the (re)incarceration of people with intellectual disability ($19,890).
*In 2023 the Institute also providing funding to Professor Natalie Klein’s research on 'Addressing human rights at sea in Southeast Asia: A study of forced labour and slavery in the fishing industry' ($7,363.00).
There are currently more than 170 Institute Associates across every UNSW faculty, with expertise across a broad array of human rights issues. You can learn more about the Associates program here.
You can explore some of the many different Associate projects financially supported by the Institute in previous years here.