The Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Georgia Curran and Monahs University’s Alon Ilsar have been selected amongst the newest recipients of the Australian Research Council’s ARC Future Fellowships, securing funding for ambitious research projects that “contribute to Australia’s research capability and future prosperity”.

Alon Ilsar. Photo © Jon McCormack

Supplying $344 million to over 290 projects in 2026, the ARC Future Fellowships scheme provides funding to mid-career, high achieving academics in their field, in areas of national priority to complete a project over a 4-year period.

For her fellowship, Georgia Curren will continue her work on her project ‘Holding on to Warlpiri Songs: Supporting intergenerational transmission of Indigenous cultural heritage,’ aiming to reconnect Warlpiri communities with past documentation and recordings of their cultural heritage.

Photo supplied

Curran is a Robinson Senior Research Fellow at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and has been working with Warlpiri communities around the Central Australian Tanami desert since 2005. She assists with the documentation of cultural traditions to pass down knowledge, and to sustain them for future generations. Curran has since published 2 songbooks to aid this preservation: Jardiwanpa yawulyu | Warlpiri women’s songs from Yuendumu (2014) which is about a song series sung by Warlpiri women before a ceremony, and Yurntumu-wardingki juju-ngaliya-kurlangu yawulyu: Warlpiri women’s songs from Yuendumu (2017).

Alon Ilsar ‘s research centres on design instruments accessible to people with a physical disability, showcasing how accessibility fosters innovation and creativity. This technology is intended to be implemented in educational settings, therapy and policy, driving collaboration, social connection and inclusivity in creative spaces.

Ilsar holds a PhD in instrument design through UTS and is the co-designer of Airsticks, a digital instrument that combines physical movement, digital sound and acoustic performance, allowing the manipulation of sound and visuals in a 3D playing space. Airsticks has featured in Triple J’s Like A Version, Sydney’s Vivid Festival and NYC’s MET Museum.

Curran’s institution, The University of Sydney, has secured the largest number of Fellowships of any other university in the country with $45 million awarded to 39 recipients. This funding will go towards research in areas of national importance and in achieving the University’s Sydney in 2032 Strategy for the common good. Other fields of research covered by USYD academics in this fellowship include climate action, AI and technological innovation, medical advancements and social justice.