Latest news with #AustralianResearchCouncil
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Researchers make breakthrough in cleaning up the 'forever chemicals' used in chip manufacturing
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A team at Australia's Monash University has published its work on a new water filtration membrane that can successfully remove small PFAS molecules from water flow. PFAS, or polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a key piece in multiple facets of semiconductor manufacturing that have earned the name "forever chemicals" for their difficulty to clean up. Monash's research team is ready to utilize some key partnerships to bring the filters to market at a high scale, keeping PFAS out of the groundwater at plants in all of the various industries that work with forever chemicals. The semiconductor industry, however, has long been opposed to legislation or other initiatives to restrict its use of PFAS in fabrication, forming lobbying groups and other coalitions to conserve the use of forever chemicals in chipmaking. Monash University's team, led by Ph.D. candidate Eubert Mahofa, has designed a modified graphene membrane that selectively stops PFAS chains while allowing water to pass through freely. The membrane stops over 90% of PFAS that pass into it, a major improvement over traditional polyamide membranes, which can only remove around 35% of PFAS. "PFAS are difficult to manage because they dissolve easily in water and can spread far from their original source, making contamination challenging to contain and remediate," shared Mahofa. "Our approach solves this by filtering out and concentrating these harmful chemicals while still allowing water to flow through efficiently, making it a strong candidate to supplement the technologies for PFAS destruction." PFAS have been known as forever chemicals since their societal reckoning in the 1990's. Defined by carbon-fluorine bonds, which can have half-lives over eight years long, PFAS chains consistently leech into groundwater supplies, remaining there indefinitely. Certain PFAS are highly dangerous to humans if inhaled or ingested, and others will end up "stuck" in humans or animals after death. The new filtration method utilizes specific chemical relationships to catch even the smallest PFAS bonds, which typically slip past traditional polyamide methods. The new barrier stops these bonds at varying temperatures while still maintaining efficient water flow, making the new tech nothing short of a breakthrough development. "This breakthrough in PFAS filtration has the potential to revolutionize how PFAS contamination is managed globally, with applications ranging from landfill leachate treatment to industrial wastewater purification," says Professor Mainak Majumder of the Australian Research Council, which contributed to the research, in the press release. Monash University and the Australian Research Council have close connections with NematiQ, a graphene-focused manufacturer that has pledged to help bring the new filter to market. Commercialization seems like a likely next step for the new technology, made easier by the study's focus on using highly scalable shear alignment printing to produce its filters. PFAS have been used in industrial manufacturing since Teflon's invention in the 1930s. Today, countless industries, including semiconductors, use the chemicals in various facets of manufacturing. PFAS were originally thought to be chemically inert and harmless to humans, an assumption that held for decades. However, once PFAS was found swimming in the bloodstream and organs of longtime industrial workers, more research was done, and more risks were found. PFAS chemicals are now linked to a variety of toxic effects by governments and health organizations, including developmental issues, infertility, and cancer. PFAS exposure comes from industrial chemicals that soil water tables and rainwater but also from clothes, cosmetic items, and consumption of animals with PFAS exposure. It is estimated that the majority of humans living today have some amount of PFAS already permanently in their bodies. Certain PFAS, including PFOS and PFOA, have already been banned by the European Union and eventually worldwide as of 2009 for their egregious health risks. The EU is beginning to pursue legislation that would ban the entire PFAS group, but this legislation has been challenged by myriad lobbyist efforts, including serious resistance from the semiconductor industry. The semiconductor industry uses PFAS up and down the microchip supply chain, and as such has launched multiple efforts to slow progress on PFAS restrictions. Semi, an industry association representing companies across the electronics supply chain, publishes an explainer guide on the semiconductor industry's use of PFAS in chip fabs. The guide includes all of the following uses for PFAS in chip fabs. PFAS are present in chemicals necessarily used during chip fabrication, including photoresist liquids used during lithography and etch chamber gases used in wafer production. Chemical purifiers that produce hydrogen for use in EUV lithography also may contain PFAS, along with more tertiary parts of development like lithium batteries or plastic chip packaging. Semi's public page presents an overwhelming amount of possible places where PFAS may be used, tacitly stating that PFAS use is so widespread that to remove it entirely from chipmaking is too uphill a fight. A collection of industry members also recently established the Semiconductor PFAS Consortium, a group more obviously dedicated to combating efforts to stop PFAS use in chipmaking. While the Consortium claims on its homepage that it is not focused on advocacy, this is not the case. The group's efforts in American politics were widely reported in August, when the Consortium spread its whitepapers against PFAS restrictions across Capitol Hill. The PFAS Consortium's parent company successfully lobbied lawmakers for a bill removing chip fabrication plants from inclusion in certain environmental restrictions on manufacturing byproducts. The Consortium promised lawmakers that it would voluntarily self-regulate and eventually decrease its use of pollutants if legislation was not enacted forcing them to do so. The semiconductor industry stands staunchly opposed to any further restrictions on PFAS use, with the PFAS Consortium's 2023 paper containing the quote, "it is going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible in some instances, to find viable alternatives [to PFASs] without stepping back decades in technological advancement." This stance has been defended even in the face of breakthrough findings that disprove it. The Consortium recently argued against a widespread study proposing safer and effective alternatives to PFAS use in chipmaking. While the study identifies multiple surfactants that are both superior in quality and lower in toxicity than PFASs in etching wafers, surfactants which are now used instead of PFAS by some smaller fabs, the Consortium quickly published its own negative response to the study, only accessible by approved members of certain companies. How the semiconductor industry responds to the recent breakthrough study on PFAS filtration remains to be seen. Data taken in 2022 from an unnamed chip fab found 78,000 parts per trillion of PFAS in the fab's wastewater, worlds higher than the EPA limit of 4 ppt, proving that Monash University's new water filtration would directly positively impact the local ecosystems around high-PFAS-use chip fabs. It is nice to hope that fabs across the industry will voluntarily use the new filters for the well-being of their communities, but the semiconductor industry's track record shows this will likely not be the case.
The Guardian
31-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Changes to ARC grants will make it harder for Australia to combat Trump chaos, researchers warn
It will be tough to attract international research talent if prestigious Australian Research Council fellowships are axed under proposed changes, researchers say, with lack of funding making the nation not 'match fit' to take on Trump-led uncertainty. The overhaul proposed axing most standalone positions in favour of shorter fellowships that are 'embedded' into projects. It would reduce the number of competitive grant programs from 15 to six, ending prestigious three-year fellowships for early-career researchers and four-year future fellowships for mid-career researchers. According to an ARC discussion paper, 'Traditional four-year fellowships concentrate a significant amount of funds on a small number of individual researchers.' The proposed replacement of two-year 'embedded fellowships' would distribute funding 'to more people and projects', it suggests. The decision has been criticised by academics amid global research uncertainty brought by the Trump administration's attacks on science and education in the US. The changes would 'harm international recruitment and retention,' said Prof David Schlosberg, director of the Sydney Environment Institute at the University of Sydney. 'Two years is not going to attract people. What they are proposing for a replacement is inadequate,' he said. 'For a young person, that's not really enough time to get into a project and make progress, produce results and really build a career,' said Aidan Sims, a distinguished professor of mathematics at the University of Wollongong. 'Three years is really a minimum for that.' Unlike in North America or Europe, most early-career researchers in Australia are not directly funded by the universities where they work. 'The only source of postdoctoral positions in the Australian system is via the research grants,' Sims said. 'The new model will very substantially reduce the opportunities not only for us to attract excellent researchers from abroad … but also to provide opportunities for our emerging superstars to kick off their careers.' The proposed overhaul comes amid drastic US government cuts to research funding, including to Australian projects, which is driving American researchers to move internationally. In Europe, the European Research Council has doubled its relocation allowance for researchers outside the EU, while universities there are also actively recruiting US academics. An Australian researcher who runs social media accounts under the moniker ARC Tracker said: 'It's going to be very hard to convince any new talent to come – even Australians overseas to come back – to a two-year research position where the longer term prospects are really not very clear at all.' 'We're not match fit to fight this uncertainty that is now global in research. We don't have our own research house in order, and can't take opportunities because of that,' they said. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email 'The Europeans have their house in order, and they're taking an opportunity that they see because they're ready to.' Australia's investment in research and development – the current subject of a separate review – is 1.7% of GDP, lagging behind the OECD average of 2.7%. Schlosberg, who was recruited to Australia from the US 15 years ago, said Australia took for granted its current high level of research impact. 'Australia really does well in the international rankings but that's because of past investment,' he said. 'If we don't continue to invest, those rankings are going to plummet.' Prof Sharath Sriram, president of Science and Technology Australia, said the peak body welcomed the 'overdue' ARC review to simplify its grants programs, but said: 'We are concerned about the unintended consequences.' 'By the time you're into the meat of your project you already looking for your next job or your next grant.' Sriram called for more clarity around employment lengths, as the ARC's new schemes will allow early career researchers to draw a salary 'for the full duration of the project' from any grant they are awarded. 'I think that's not clearly articulated,' he said. Schlosberg praised the introduction of a 'really well designed' scheme for early-career researchers, which will fund 'high risk, innovative work where people without track records can apply'. Public consultation on the proposed changes will close on 13 April. The ARC, which will deliver its final report to the government in mid-2025, was contacted for comment.
The Guardian
27-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
ARC suspends $870,000 grant to pro-Palestine academic Randa Abdel-Fattah, senators told
A prominent academic and Palestinian advocate has had her $870,000 grant suspended after the education minister requested the board of the Australian Research Council (ARC) investigate her fellowship. Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, the recipient of an ARC Future Fellowship and an academic at Macquarie University, has faced sustained criticism from the Coalition, some Jewish bodies and media outlets for controversial comments on Israel, including alleging Zionists had 'no claim or right to cultural safety'. Abdel-Fattah's project, which was awarded funding by the ARC in 2022, was commissioned to research Arab and Muslim-Australian social movements. On 31 January, the education minister, Jason Clare, wrote to the ARC board requesting they investigate her research grant as a 'matter of priority', expressing concerns over her speech at an anti-racism symposium headed by the Queensland University of Technology's Carumba Institute. During her speech, Abdel-Fattah said 'I look to ways to bend the rules, and I subvert them', revealing she had refused an ARC requirement to hold an academic conference as a condition of her grant, instead inviting women to contribute revolutionary quotes. The chair of the ARC, Prof Peter Shergold AC, confirmed at Senate estimates on Thursday evening that the grant had been suspended pending further investigation. It was now up to Macquarie University to provide evidence that the grant had been managed appropriately. Shergold said the ARC had begun to look into the case before the education minister's correspondence or articles in media outlets, and said the ARC had been engaging with Macquarie University 'for a year' on the academic. 'The ARC, every year, investigates 10, a dozen, sometimes more, grants to make sure they are administered appropriately by the university that is responsible,' he said. 'This is not an issue about freedom of speech … it's about the acquittal of public funds.' The Greens deputy leader and spokesperson for higher education, Mehreen Faruqi, questioned the education department at estimates about why Clare had requested the intervention of the ARC after introducing reforms last year to end the days of 'political interference' in the council. Faruqi argued his request was 'based on allegations in the racist Murdoch media'. 'As a brown Muslim woman who was an academic in a previous life I find it deeply, deeply disturbing for a white education minister to lead the charge against Dr Abdel-Fattah, an Arab woman, and for what?' she said. 'For the crime of speaking at an anti-racist conference.' The assistant minister for education, Anthony Chisholm, replied that the minister was motivated to write to the ARC because Abdel-Fattah had said at the anti-racism conference that she was 'bending the rules of the grant'. 'That is something the minister thought needed to be clarified,' he said. 'I'm sure he would want to make sure that the integrity of the ARC is maintained.' Pressed at estimates by Faruqi about why the ARC had suspended the grant, which she labelled as 'legitimise[ing] an article in the Australian', Shergold said he was 'bewildered'. 'If your job is on behalf of government, to administer public moneys, and … it's brought to my attention a significant allegation that money is being misused, the first thing that I will do is have an investigation,' he said. 'I haven't prejudged this case … we talk to universities about where grants are being spent under the purposes that were intended … it is not unusual.' The shadow minister for education, Sarah Henderson, welcomed the suspension of Abdel-Fattah's grant, which she had been lobbying for over the past 10 months. 'It is only after sustained pressure from the Coalition and Jewish organisations, coupled with revelations in The Australian, that Minister Clare finally asked the ARC to investigate,' she said in a statement. 'We need strong action to ensure Jewish students and staff feel safe and supported at all times.'
The Guardian
14-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Education minister accused of ‘political interference' over review of funding for prominent pro-Palestinian academic
Academics have accused the education minister of 'arbitrary political interference' in the Australian Research Council after requesting the body's board investigate the fellowship of a prominent academic and Palestinian advocate. Randa Abdel-Fattah, the recipient of an ARC Future Fellowship and an academic at Macquarie University, has faced sustained criticism from the Coalition, some Jewish bodies and media outlets for a series of controversial comments, including alleging Zionists had 'no claim or right to cultural safety', and posting 'May 2025 be the end of Israel' in the new year and changing her profile picture to a picture of a Palestinian paratrooper after the 7 October attacks. On 31 January, the education minister, Jason Clare, wrote to the ARC board requesting they investigate her $870,000 research grant, commissioned to research Arab and Muslim Australian social movements, as a 'matter of priority'. It followed a speech by Abdel-Fattah at an anti-racism symposium headed by the Queensland University of Technology's Carumba Institute, where she revealed she had refused an ARC requirement to hold an academic conference as a condition of her grant, instead inviting women to contribute revolutionary quotes. Abdel-Fattah said she did not want to fulfil her ARC grant requirements in a 'traditional way'. 'Part of my funding is to hold a traditional academic conference, and I thought, 'No, I'm not going to do that','' she said. 'I took some of the funding, and instead of holding a conference, I did … a Jars for Preservation workshop, where I invited women … of all different backgrounds … to send me their most beloved quotes from their warriors, their feminist women, their scholars, people who have inspired them and given them that revolutionary zeal and nourished them. 'I printed it out in coloured paper, everybody got a jar, and we sat down as a workshop and we cut.' Abdel-Fattah's project is described as the first study of 'a neglected but constitutive part of Australia's social movement history: Arab/Muslim Australian social justice activism', building new knowledge about how the community has 'struggled against external systems and internal conflicts to build a socially just future in multicultural Australia'. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Clare said grant recipients were 'required to follow the rules' set out in their agreements. 'The government has asked the ARC Board to ensure that this is the case,' he said. But the president of the Australian Historical Association, Michelle Arrow, said Clare's directive represented a 'new kind of political interference' in ARC grants. In November 2023, Clare introduced legislation that would prevent ministers from approving competitive grants, after a review into the body found trust had been 'dramatically eroded' by controversial grant decisions made by former Coalition ministers. The review called for more 'checks and balances' on the power of ministerial intervention, limited to 'the extraordinary circumstance of a potential threat to national security'. Clare said at the time any future minister who tried to politicise the ARC would be subject to the scrutiny of parliament, adding the body had been 'bedevilled by political interference' which had 'damaged our international reputation'. Arrow said in directing the ARC to investigate Abdel-Fattah, Clare had created 'a new form of arbitrary political interference in research' that was 'seemingly triggered by an opposition and media campaign against an academic, and directed at a project already funded and in progress'. The general secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union, Damien Cahill, has written to the ARC chair, Peter Shergold, seeking assurances the process has not been influenced by 'external forces', including media corporations. 'The independence of the ARC is paramount and neither politicians nor any other external parties should be directing its priorities,' he wrote. 'Australia's future will suffer if research grants become political footballs.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The head of legal at the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Simone Abel, said there should be 'no question marks' about whether taxpayer money was being used to create 'culturally unsafe spaces' at universities, adding it was 'entirely appropriate' for the ARC to carry out an investigation. On Wednesday evening, an open letter condemning Clare's interference in the ARC had been signed by almost 700 Australian academics, including more than 50 at Macquarie University. The letter said Palestinian, First Nations and anti-racism academics had been subjected to 'particularly damaging campaigns that aim to end their careers' and silence criticism of Israel's actions, adding Abdel-Fattah's research project had been subject to 'rigorous peer review'. The opposition education spokesperson, Senator Sarah Henderson, has been lobbying the ARC to cancel Abdel-Fattah's research fellowship since April last year, when the academic conducted an excursion with children to the University of Sydney's pro-Palestine encampment. 'This research fiasco shows Labor's decision to remove ministerial discretion from taxpayer-funded research grants was grossly irresponsible and not in the national interest,' she posted to X this month. The Greens deputy leader and spokesperson for higher education, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, said Clare's decision was not just an attack on 'one individual, but on the very principles of free speech, anti-racism and human rights'. The vice-chancellor of Macquarie University, Prof Bruce Dowton, defended his university's response to concerns raised over Abdel-Fattah at a parliamentary inquiry into antisemitism earlier this month. He said he did not agree 'on a personal level' with Abdel-Fattah's controversial comments accusing Zionists of having no rights to cultural safety, but the university addressed concerns by urging staff to 'restrain themselves' and comply with university policies. 'We do have regard … about the rights, and … privileges of academic staff, around freedom of speech and academic freedom,' he said. 'The definition of anti-Zionism is ultimately a matter for the law on which the law is silent.' A spokesperson for the ARC said it was engaging as a 'matter of priority' with Macquarie University to ensure it was properly managing the grant and was separately conducting a 'thorough investigation'. 'The ARC has significant concerns about recent comments made by the researcher regarding the conduct of the research project,' they said.
