The Sydney Southeast Asia Centre (SSEAC) has awarded seven new Incubator Grants following a highly competitive round that attracted 37 strong applications. The projects form part of SSEAC’s ongoing Grand Challenges program, designed to facilitate collaborative, policy-relevant research and deepen the University of Sydney’s partnerships in Southeast Asia.
“I’m inspired by the calibre of the applications received this year – an outstanding response that demonstrates the depth and diversity of the University of Sydney’s research engagement in Southeast Asia,” said Professor Tiho Ancev, Deputy Director of Research.
“The projects chart an important program of work that brings new methods, new partnerships and practical pathways to address some of the region’s most pressing challenges. The outcomes will lay the groundwork for scalable impact across the region.”
This year’s awardees reflect SSEAC’s commitment to research that is locally grounded and globally relevant. The 2026 cohort spans climate finance, biodiversity, agricultural land-use change, infectious disease surveillance, neurological health and the social impacts of AI – each project designed to generate actionable insights with partners across Southeast Asia.
Incubator Grant recipients and Grand Challenges projects
Subordinated Futures: Climate, debt and development in Southeast Asia
This project investigates how historical and emerging financial structures shape climate policy, uneven development and socio‑ecological relations across Southeast Asia, offering strategies to align climate finance with equitable development.
Grand Challenge: Climate change resilience and the clean energy transition
Forecasting Asia-Pacific ant invasion impacts under climate change
Using Singapore and Sydney as comparative hubs, this study integrates nutrition science, thermal physiology and ecological modelling to predict the spread of invasive ants and ecosystem impacts under climate change, strengthening proactive management across urban-agricultural landscapes in Southeast Asia.
Grand Challenge: Climate change resilience and the clean energy transition
Cultivating change: Agricultural transitions and landscape impacts in North Vietnam
Focusing on Vietnam’s northern borderlands, the team will map recent land-use transitions and quantify their effects on soil erosion, forest cover and biodiversity to guide sustainable land management and conservation policy.
Grand Challenge: Agricultural development and sustainable use of natural resources
Philippine CP Register: Advancing global understanding of cerebral palsy in Southeast Asia
Establishing the first national cerebral palsy (CP) surveillance platform in the Philippines, this project will generate standardised data on prevalence, risk factors, severity and service gaps, connecting with a global LMIC CP register to inform policy and improve care.
Grand Challenge: Healthy and resilient societies
Adaptable mini-brain platform to benchmark cerebral malaria and extend to Southeast Asia pathogens
The team is developing a “humanised” mini-brain laboratory platform that replicates key aspects of cerebral malaria, enabling standardised protocols and training so labs across Australia, Singapore and Southeast Asia can benchmark experiments and accelerate translation.
Grand Challenge: Healthy and resilient societies
AI, education and democratic citizenship: Teacher education for democratic futures in Southeast Asia
Embedded in Indonesian teacher education institutions, this research examines how AI-generated misinformation shapes electoral discourse and social cohesion and equips future educators with practices to foster ethical reasoning and civic engagement.
Grand Challenge: Digital transformation and AI
Developing integrated genomic surveillance of mosquitoes and arboviruses in Sarawak, Malaysia
Introducing a high throughput laboratory method capable of detecting 114 arboviruses and analysing vector genomes, the project will deliver integrated surveillance of dengue cases in Malaysia to guide rapid public health responses and track viral evolution and insecticide resistance.
Grand Challenge: Digital transformation and AI
About the SSEAC Incubator Grants
The SSEAC Incubator Grants support high-potential, multidisciplinary teams to pilot methods, consolidate partnerships and generate the preliminary data needed to unlock larger competitive funding.
Congratulations to this year’s recipients and their international partners.
To read more about the projects, project teams and partners, visit SSEAC’s Current research page.