AISRF 2026 fellowships
Twelve researchers across Australia have been awarded the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF) Early and Mid-Career Researcher (EMCR) Fellowships. From a broad preview, the projects span a wide spectrum of fields — cybersecurity and AI, technological innovation, public health, microbiology, green energy technology and material science.
The cohort reflects the priorities increasingly shared by Canberra and New Delhi with several topics focusing on common challenges like cybersecurity, clean energy transition and rural healthcare.
Among the recipients is Dr. Krishna Manaswi Digumarti from the Queensland University of Technology whose work combines AI with healthcare. Aimed at developing an AI-powered wearable device to detect breast cancer, it underscores a need for innovation in the area of women’s health and medicine. AISRF 2026 fellowships
Beyond healthcare, Dr. Saheli Biswas’s project focuses on recycling critical minerals from electrochemical devices like batteries. It connects Australia’s key role as a major producer of cobalt and lithium with New Delhi’s appetite for green energy transition and electronic manufacturing hubs, emphasising the budding bilateral relationship over critical minerals.
Similarly, Dr Jinshuo Zou’s focuses on CO2 capture and conversion into urea, a key component for fertilizer production. Dr Nisa Salim, meanwhile, proposes developing sustainable electrochemical energy storage using 3D printing technologies. Together, their projects highlight sustainable energy innovation and address the harder, less visible challenges of building a green energy ecosystem incapable of achieving Net Zero targets.
The Australia-India relationship has been growing at a considerable momentum for the past several years with the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP), the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), and the upcoming Quad Leaders’ Summit which will be held in Australia in the first quarter of 2026. Several of these projects focus on issues that are most likely to be discussed at such bilateral and multilateral platforms, demonstrating a real-time demand for innovative and collaborative research.
The full list of successful recipients of the fellowships are:
- Dr. Alireza Jolfaei, Flinders University: Proactive threat hunting and predictive defence using agentic AI
- Dr Deval Mehta, Monash University: Advancing cross‑national digital health collaboration: Improving skincare through AI‑powered system for rural communities in Australia and India
- Associate Professor Emma George, University of Adelaide: Co‑designing population approach occupational therapy research and practice with marginalised women in India
- Dr. Jinshuo Zou, University of Adelaide: Integrated electrochemical urea synthesis system for concurrent carbon capture and conversion
- Dr. Krishna Manaswi Digumarti, Queensland University of Technology: Evaluating a wearable device for automated breast cancer detection
- Dr. Lihong Su, University of Wollongong: Development of novel cost‑effective high‑entropy alloys with superior mechanical performance by additive manufacturing
- Dr. Nisa Salim, Swinburne University of Technology – 3D printing of multifunctional 2D materials for sustainable electrochemical energy storage
- Dr Pankaj Sharma, Flinders University: Topological polarisation textures in twisted oxides
- Dr Rishabh More, Monash University: Data‑driven modelling of sedimentation dynamics of microplastics in aquatic environments
- Dr. Saheli Biswas, CSIRO: Recycling of critical minerals from electrochemical devices
- Dr. Shanmuga Sundar Dhanabalan, La Trobe University: MXene‑polymer composites based battery‑free wearable platform for remote health monitoring
- Dr Sohinee Sarkar, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute: Developing live oral biotherapeutics for Helicobacter associated diseases
As both the nations continue to deepen their ties through trade, security and diplomacy, this cohort represents a strengthening partnership based on mutual development, innovation and real progress.
