Many congratulations are due to the three of our members who were successful in their applications for the ARC (Australian Research Council) DECRA (Discover Early Career Researcher Award) 2026 round.

Dr. Sarah Austin: University of Melbourne
Children as cultural agents: New frameworks for creative arts practice. Currently under-researched, there are limited opportunities for children and young people from marginalised backgrounds to assume artistic decision-making responsibilities within the creative industries. This has resulted in systemic exclusion from cultural citizenship and artistic leadership. This project aims to utilise co-design methodologies to design inclusive, culturally safe spaces for children and young people to exercise creative agency and leadership in arts participation contexts. Expected outcomes of this project include developing evidence-based replicable frameworks for cultural leadership, thus providing significant benefit and re-establishing Australia as a world-leader in arts participation for children and young people.

Dr Sarah Thomasson: University of Queensland
Mapping the International Arts Festival Network of Australia and Aotearoa. This project examines Australian and New Zealand arts festival programming to reveal trends and patterns in touring circuits and how these can be strengthened to better support the nations' cultural health. At a time when festivals’ economic viability is in question, this research examines long-term trends via innovative digital tools to determine how festival networks can better support access to arts at home while promoting Australian culture abroad. Expected outcomes include a monograph, industry report, symposium, and additional scholarly publications. Potential benefits include a fuller socio-cultural and economic understanding of historical trends in funding and programming to inform future strategic decisions by festival organisers.

Dr Robert Walton: University of Melbourne
Why the robot crossed the road: can AI perform believable comedy? This project investigates whether AI and robots can perform believable comedy, addressing a significant gap in our understanding of machine capabilities and human-robot interaction. Using innovative theatre-based methods, it aims to develop and evaluate performance techniques that allow machines to create authentic comedy. The research will produce the first major study on robot comedy performance, a theoretical framework for more-than-human comedy, and new interdisciplinary methods for collaborating with AI. Outcomes will enhance Australia's research capacity in creative technology, improve understanding of how machines use humour and manipulation in everyday life, and contribute to fields ranging from entertainment to social robotics.