The head of CAL, Yusuke Hioka, was granted NZ$166,865 as the Faculty Research Develoment Fund to conduct a project titled “Spatial release from sound masking in non-native listeners with different proficiency level”. The project is a collaboration with Prof Catherine Watson, Department of Electrical, Computer and Software Engineering, University of Auckland, and Prof Hinako Masuda, Faculty of Science and Technology, Seikei University, Japan.