ABP researchers secure ARC Discovery Project 2025 grant in highly competitive built environment field

Researchers Prof Sarah Bell and A/Prof Crystal Legacy from the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning have been awarded an ARC Discovery Project 2025 grant of more than $696,000 for their project Bottom-Up Urban Resilience: Community Networks in Infrastructure Governance.

Prof Bell and A/Prof Legacy hope to contribute new theories on urban resilience, methods for community-based research and the practice of community planning. Together, they aim to deliver frameworks that allow cities to be better prepared for, and able to recover from, increasingly frequent, intense and inter-connected shocks and stresses, including climate change and pandemics.

“We are very excited to be able to start work on this project with our community partners A Real Deal for Geelong and Regen Melbourne. Community networks are increasingly important in making cities resilient to climate change and other hazards. This research will help us to better understand how they work so we can build better urban infrastructure,” Prof Bell said.

Together, the researchers will bring an interdisciplinary approach to the project, recognising that community engagement is multifaceted and complex.

“Our project examines the nexus of infrastructure and community engagement in a way that brings our respective research expertise – environmental engineering and participatory planning – together. In doing so, we hope to address the critical and interconnected issues of fostering community resilience, delivering appropriate infrastructures and supporting community planning through interdisciplinary research,” A/Prof Legacy said.

The project will investigate the underdeveloped area of study surrounding the practice of community planning which is vital to the delivery of resilient infrastructure services and fostering community resilience.