Current research

Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in children following the newborn period in Southeast Asia. While Pneumococcal vaccines (PCVs) are effective at reducing these deaths, delayed introduction and low coverage have left >70% of children in Southeast Asia unvaccinated. In Timor-Leste coverage is estimated to be only 71%, leaving an estimated 9,000 children unprotected each year.

Timor-Leste was the first country beyond India to introduce Pneumosil, a low-cost PCV from the Serum Institute of India, in 2023 using a 3-dose schedule for infants. The local and global need for real-world evidence on this vaccine’s effectiveness underpins the need to evaluate Timor Leste’s experience.

As more countries move to self-finance their vaccination programs, local data is essential to justify the benefits of investment. This must include social data that reflect the implementation, policy and political contexts in which uptake can be optimised. In particular, there is global interest in reduced dose schedules,4 opportunistic timepoints for vaccination, and integration between vaccination and other child health services. But data is limited (especially from Southeast Asia) on how these could be done safely while informed by community preferences.

This project is supported by a SSEAC 2025 Ignition Grant.

Lead investigator: Dr Nicholas Fancourt

The Asian Tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, is a globally invasive species and a vector for Dengue, Chikungunya, and Zika. Its rapid expansion from Southeast Asia, driven by climate change, is exacerbated by its opportunistic feeding. The detection of Ae. albopictus in the Torres Strait Islands raises significant biosecurity concerns for Australia due to its proximity to Indonesia, which has a high dengue incidence. While Wolbachia-engineered Aedes aegypti have been released in Indonesia, they cannot interbreed with Ae. albopictus and insecticide resistance further complicates control efforts .

Ae. albopictus has demonstrated vector competence for Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV), which is circulating in Indonesia and expanding southward in Australia. While Culex spp. are the primary JEV vectors, they also play a key role in Ross River virus (RRV) transmission in Australia. Given that Ae. albopictus and Culex spp. thrive in similar environments, there are concerns about potential viral co-circulation and spillover risks. Aligned with WHO’s Global Vector Control Response, this project will investigate Ae. albopictus and Culex spp. as arbovirus bridge vectors between Indonesia and Australia. It will we use targeted metagenomics to analyse the mosquito microbiome to improve arboviral surveillance and strengthen biosecurity strategies for Australia and Indonesia.

This project is supported by a SSEAC 2025 Ignition Grant.

Lead investigator: Associate Professor Tanya Golubchik

This project addresses a crucial and growing concern in Southeast Asia: the convergence of child malnutrition, climate vulnerability, and water and sanitation crises in increasingly urbanised coastal areas. It focuses on Kampung Cangkol, an informal settlement in Cirebon with extremely high rates of open defecation, stunting cases, and poor water sanitation, compounded with the community’s long-rooted waste reclamation practices – a perfect candidate for addressing regional and global issues while pursuing local solutions. Stunting affects 25% of Indonesian children under five, with much higher rates in informal coastal communities, and similar trends in Vietnam, Philippines, and Myanmar,  where climate risks like floods and erosion destroy water and sanitation infrastructure, perpetuating poverty and illness. This aligns with Indonesia's National Stunting Reduction Strategy (2021–2024) and the ASEAN Post-2025 Health Development Agenda, both emphasising multisectoral approaches to malnutrition and climate-resilient health systems.

Globally, the effort supports SDGs 2 (Zero Hunger), 3 (Good Health), 6 (Clean Water), and 13 (Climate Action). Coastal Southeast Asia, home to millions in climate-vulnerable areas, is a hotspot for these interrelated challenges. Rising sea levels and increased cyclones disproportionately relocate marginalised populations, an issue exacerbated by irregular land tenure, which excludes locals from access to water and government sanitation initiatives.

This project is supported by a SSEAC 2025 Ignition Grant.

Lead investigator: Dr Luke Hespanhol

The project contributes to Vietnam’s strategic information capabilities by providing a framework that describes how influence operates across digital communication campaigns and platforms, especially through artificial intelligence. The project expects to generate new knowledge of influence and communication that draws on three disciplines of expertise: media and communication, political science and psychology. The research will explore how to map the existing tools and techniques that identify and measure influence across digital communication in Vietnam, the scholarly foundations for this mapping exercise, and how this exercise can provide a scoping assessment of future activities that examine influence and digital communication.

The project will create a computational tool that integrates the current ways in which social media is measured and convert this into an influence measure. This will be presented as a ‘dashboard’ prototype that can be used by non-data scientists for their own work.

This project is supported by a SSEAC 2025 Ignition Grant.

Lead investigator: Associate Professor Jonathon Hutchinson

This project uses exile as both a trope and a provocation to examine women's contributions in postcolonial Southeast Asia. Women’s visual and literary expressions in socialist and anti-colonial movements in Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam have been systematically erased or misrepresented. Recovering these histories aligns with global and regional priorities in cultural preservation, gender equity, and historical justice. Using digital mapping and archival research, this project repositions Southeast Asian women’s socialist pasts within broader feminist and decolonial frameworks. 

This project will generate a digital timeline exhibition mapping the histories of Southeast Asian women in communist movements and a bibliography, with the aim to identify and speculate on potential visual and literary works that were “lost in exile”.

This project is supported by a SSEAC 2025 Incubator Grant.

Lead investigator: Dr Yvonne Low

Artificial intelligence (AI) is incredibly efficient at analysing massive data sets. Research suggests sentencing is a useful procedure to be automated because it is premised upon established principles, weightings and key factors. Some people erroneously believe algorithmic programmes contain less juridical bias embodied by a human decisionmaker. This project will engage with key members of the judiciary in Malaysia to understand how AI is being optimised through the Police and Criminal Justice System Review.

The AI Sentencing System (AISS) was developed in a collaboration between the judiciary Sabah and Sarawak's ecourt systems. In 2021, the Chief Registrar of the Federal Court of Malaysia issued a press statement announcing AI-based sentencing guidelines would be adopted in Peninsular Malaysia's Sessions Court and Magistrates Court. In 2024, Malaysia launched a national artificial intelligence office to pursue several deliverables, including developing a code of ethics, an AI regulatory framework and a five-year AI technology action plan until 2030. The project will build an evidence-based framework to enable the criminal justice system (CJS) to implement responsible AI, while addressing the needs of both citizens and the CJS.

This project is supported by a SSEAC 2025 Ignition Grant.

Lead investigator: Professor Azrini Wahidin

See Exploring AI in criminal justice: What Malaysia can teach us

Poultry is a crucial source of affordable, high-quality protein in Southeast Asia, with widespread acceptance across religious and socioeconomic groups. As demand and production increase, feed costs, which make up 70–80% of expenses, remain a significant challenge. The reliance on imported poultry genetics, not optimised for tropical climates, further complicates efficient production. 

In Thailand, crossbred native Korat chickens have been developed for small-scale producers. However, their amino acid nutrition and veterinary care is still in the early stages. The project aims to optimise small-scale poultry production for native Korat chickens in Thailand and large-scale centralised production using commercial breeds. 

This project is supported by a SSEAC 2024 Ignition Grant.

Lead investigator: Associate Professor Sonia Liu

Poor diet and food insecurity significantly contribute to childhood malnutrition in Southeast Asia. The UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 Zero Hunger aims to eradicate all forms of malnutrition by 2030. However, the climate crisis is hindering and reversing progress towards these goals. This project will explore the complex relationship between climate stress and child undernutrition in Maluku Province, Indonesia. The study aims to deepen understanding of climate-nutrition links in specific settings, informing evidence-based strategies to address climate-sensitive undernutrition alongside nationwide assessments. The findings will generate a risk map for climate impact on child undernutrition. 

This project is supported by a SSEAC 2024 Ignition Grant.

Lead investigator: Professor Michael Dibley

As one of the largest producers of rice husk and sugarcane bagasse waste, Thailand faces significant environmental challenges. These agricultural residues are often burned, contributing to poor air quality, reduced visibility and haze. While Thailand has implemented policies to address residue burning, challenges remain, especially for small-scale farmers who rely on manual harvesting methods.

This project aims to develop innovative and sustainable processes for converting biomass waste from rice and sugarcane into biofuels in Thailand, fostering a local biofuel economy. Additionally, the project will provide new alternatives for converting gaseous air pollutants such as CO2 and ammonia into other fuel products, potentially reducing the environmental and health impacts associated with traditional biomass management practices.

This project is co-funded by SSEAC and the Net Zero Institute.

Lead investigator: Associate Professor Alejandro Montoya

Southeast Asia is highly vulnerable to natural disasters, including typhoons, floods, and droughts, which have led to significant loss of life and infrastructure damage. The urgency for more effective disaster preparedness and resilience strategies are evident, particularly in countries like Vietnam where in 2024 Typhoon Yagi had a catastrophic impact. 

This project aims to investigate how immersive technologies (e.g., virtual reality, augmented reality) and AI-supported tools can enhance community engagement and build crisis resilience in Southeast Asia, with a focus on Vietnam.

This project is supported by a SSEAC 2024 Incubator Grant.

Lead investigator: Dr Joel Fredericks

Climate change, COVID-19, and the global food crisis exposed the vulnerability of food systems in Southeast Asia, where hunger and malnutrition have increased for the first time in years. Whole-of-food system governance – governance mechanisms and structures that help streamline action across all food system actors – is widely seen as the solution. Indonesia is one of the few innovators globally that has established a whole-of-food system governance approach.

This project will investigate whole-of-food system governance in Indonesia by mapping the government agencies working across food systems and the governance mechanisms connecting them. It will also explore lessons that can be drawn for other Southeast Asian countries seeking to create healthy, sustainable and equitable food systems. 

This project is supported by a SSEAC 2024 Incubator Grant.

Lead investigator: Dr Dori Patay

Leukaemia is the most prevalent form of childhood cancer, accounting for approximately one-third of all cases; and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) accounts for 75–80% of leukaemia cases. Most ALL cases in children are cured with regular chemotherapy utilising medicines such as asparaginase (ASP), listed on the WHO Essential Medicines for Children List. However, ASP-associated hypersensitivity can lead to a failure to receive the full course of ASP chemotherapy, leading to poorer cancer outcomes in children with ALL in low-to-middle-income countries.

This project will study the magnitude of the burden of ASP hypersensitivity in children with acute ALL in Vietnam. To inform national or regional clinical approaches, it will examine the incidence of ASP hypersensitivity in children with ALL in five hospitals in Vietnam, the factors associated with ASP hypersensitivity in Vietnamese children with ALL, and the barriers and facilitators to safe and effective ASP treatment in selected hospitals in Vietnam. 

This project is supported by a SSEAC 2024 Incubator Grant.

Lead investigator: Dr Md Irteja Islam

Addressing hearing loss, vision loss and social isolation are health priorities globally. Southeast Asia has the second-highest number of people with hearing loss and the highest number of people with blindness. The World Federation of the Deafblind estimates that 2.1% of the population has combined sight and hearing loss (2018).

In Indonesia, access to assistive technologies is problematic and uncommon. The impact of being without communication support for deafblind people is evident at all life stages. This project aims to assess the usefulness of a low-cost assistive technology to enhance the work of an Indonesian community organisation that supports people with deafblindness.

This project is supported by a SSEAC 2024 Incubator Grant.

Lead investigator: Dr Annmaree Watharow

Most studies evaluating the role of antibiotics on the microbiome have been conducted in adults (with cancer), despite evolving evidence suggesting antibiotic exposure in infancy can have profound long-term health impacts by disrupting metabolic and immune pathway development. The small observational studies that have been conducted in neonates identify the need for comprehensive, longitudinal studies to evaluate the neonatal microbiome and resistome, utilising cutting-edge sequencing technology to inform our knowledge regarding microbiome development and to reduce infant morbidity and mortality.

This project will evaluate the impact of antibiotic exposure on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) transmission dynamics and clinical outcomes in neonates admitted to national referral hospitals in Vietnam and Indonesia. It will also evaluate local prescribing patterns and construct local and regional antibiograms, to improve the treatment of life-threatening neonatal infections and promote antibiotic stewardship.  

This project is supported by a SSEAC 2024 Incubator Grant.

Lead investigator: Phoebe Williams

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and mental health disorders, pose a significant public health challenge in Southeast Asia. Modifiable risk factors such as poor diet, physical inactivity smoking, and vaping are increasingly prevalent among adolescents, a crucial life stage for shaping lifelong health behaviours. Studies show that engaging adolescents in meaningful participation in research, policy and program development enhances outcomes and develops their leadership capacity. However, there is a critical gap in identifying adolescents' own priorities and target areas for NCD prevention.

This project aims to fill this gap by integrating adolescents’ lived experiences with existing scientific evidence to inform effective NCD prevention strategies in Southeast Asia, focusing on assessing adolescents’ perspectives on NCD prevention in Australia and Indonesia. 

This project is supported by a SSEAC 2024 Incubator Grant.

Lead investogator: Dr Stephanie Partridge

Valued at US$312 billion dollars globally, aquaculture is the fastest growing primary industry, employing 61.8 million people in 2022 – 85% in Asia. Thailand, a key producer in Southeast Asia, currently ranks 11th in the world for aquaculture production and is expected to grow its industry by 14.6% by 2032.

The global importance of aquaculture, particularly in the context of human population growth and food security, has stimulated its rapid expansion and has led to the emergence of highly pathogenic microorganisms that often receive little attention. Between 2010 and 2016, disease outbreaks in Thailand's aquaculture industry led to losses of US$11 billion dollars and 100,000 jobs.

This project will explore the ecological and evolutionary drivers of microbial transmission in aquaculture in Thailand, aimed at developing biosecurity measures to reduce economic losses and zoonotic infection at the human-animal interface. It will employ metagenomic sequencing to assess the risk of microbial spillover in aquaculture, applying a One Health framework.

This project is supported by a SSEAC 2024 Incubator Grant.

Lead investogator: Dr Vincenzo Costa 

Southeast Asia has seen a sharp rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and respiratory conditions. According to the World Health Organization, NCDs account for over 60% of deaths across the region, and 74% of fatalities in Vietnam. This burden of disease is compounded by insufficient public health services, which are often underfunded and fragmented, leaving much of the population vulnerable, especially during times of natural disasters, conflicts or outbreaks of infectious diseases. The rising demand for healthcare, especially as the population ages, calls for innovative solutions to address this growing crisis.

This project aims to develop a cost-effective smart patch capable of simultaneously monitoring physical and biochemical markers crucial for early disease detection, providing cost-effective, person-centric healthcare in Vietnam.

This project is supported by a SSEAC 2024 Incubator Grant.

Lead investigator: Dr Syamak Farajikhah