Project-based graduate research scholarships

We offer a range of doctoral scholarships available for specific research projects. Successful scholarship applicants will receive a generous stipend, tuition fee scholarship and allowances. Stipends are valued at $34,000 per annum (2024 full-time rate) for 3.5 years.

Applications for the 2024 mid-year scholarship round are now open

Applications will close for both domestic and international applicants on 31 March 2024.

How to apply

  • If you want to apply for a graduate research scholarship to undertake one of these projects, please make sure to:

    • review details on how to apply for PhD candidature
    • select a project from the available projects listed below
    • check the project requirements for eligibility and any additional special conditions
    • contact the nominated contact person for your preferred project via email to express your interest and obtain their in-principle agreement for you to apply. Your application cannot be accepted without in-principle agreement for you to apply from the nominated contact of the research project.
    • complete your application for admission into La Trobe’s PhD program – indicating the relevant project code as listed below (PRO-24---)
    • International applicants should complete a Research Statement Form for your nominated project (only one project can be nominated) and attach this to your application
  • Domestic applicants

    Domestic applicants will need to submit their application via the Domestic Online Application System. Please select the ‘Graduate Research - Mid-year Scholarship Round’ scholarship option when prompted.

    If you have any further questions about the application process, please contact research.study@latrobe.edu.au

    International applicants

    International applicants will need to submit their application via the International Online Application System. Please select the ‘Project-based PhD Scholarship OR La Trobe Industry Research Scholarship’  scholarship option when prompted.

    International applicants will need to complete a Research Statement Form for the nominated project (only one project can be nominated) and attach this to your application

    If you have any further questions about the application process, please contact research.studyinternational@latrobe.edu.au

Available projects

School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment

Description

Cardiovascular disease claims 40,000 Australian lives per year due to deadly events such as heart attacks and strokes. While current medications reduce the risk of these events in some patients, they are not effective in all cases. Thus, many patients remain at risk of a heart attack or stroke. Clearly, there are disease mechanisms at play that current medicines don’t address. Our group focusses on identifying these unknown mechanisms to find new biomarkers for early disease detection and develop more effective therapies. This project will use animal models of cardiovascular diseases and patient samples to determine how immune and gut microbiome disturbances promote vascular damage in cardiovascular disease.

Supervisors

Professor Grant Drummond, Dr Maria Jelinic and Dr Antony Vinh

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Professor Grant Drummond

Email: G.Drummond@latrobe.edu.au

Description

Programmed cell death, in particular apoptosis, occurs in essentially all tissues as part of normal development, and in diseasesettings such as infection and chronic inflammation. During apoptosis, dying cells can disassemble into smaller membrane-bound extracellular vesicles known as apoptotic bodies. The formation of apoptotic bodies has been proposed to aid the efficient removal of apoptotic materials and carry biomolecules such as proteins and RNAs to facilitate communication with healthy cells. Thus, the formation of apoptotic bodies is thought to be a key process downstream of apoptotic cell death. Surprisingly, the mechanisms underpinning apoptotic body formation, and their role in disease settings is not well defined. To address this knowledge gap in the field, my team have identified a new mechanism of apoptotic body formation, where byapoptotic bodies are generated through the formation and fragmentation of a new type of membrane protrusion called apoptopodia. In this project, the molecular basis underpinning the apoptotic cell disassembly process and the role this process in disease settings, in particular during cancer progression will be investigated.

Supervisor

Dr Ivan Poon

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Dr Ivan Poon

Email: I.Poon@latrobe.edu.au

Description

This project is focussed on revealing new knowledge about the molecular mechanism(s) of synthesis and regulation of (1,3;1,4)-β-glucan (mixed-linkage glucan, MLG), a major soluble dietary fibre component of cereal grain cell walls. The major polysaccharide synthase is CSLF6, an enzyme of Glycosyltransferase (GT) family 2 (www.cazy.org/), the same family to which many of the enzymes that make cell surface glycans in plants, bacteria, fungi and mammals belong. The student will: (i) attempt to reconstitute CSLF6 with the aim of obtaining detailed structural information about the enzyme, and (ii) undertake domain-swap experiments in plants and bacteria to obtain further insight into the synthesis and regulatory mechanisms utilised by MLG synthases.

Supervisors

Dr Monika Doblin and Professor Antony Bacic

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents.

Special conditions

Preference will be given to a candidate who is available to start immediately (Sem 1 2024). A background in protein biochemistry is desired.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Dr Monika Doblin

Email: M.Doblin@latrobe.edu.au

Description

This project is part of a recently funded ARC Linkage Project examining the escalating threats to coastal freshwater fish from drought, fire and other disturbances. The project expects to generate new knowledge on contemporary distributions of NSW coastal freshwater fishes and will develop models of population dynamics to explore the consequences of alternative water management and disturbance scenarios. The expected outcome of the project is to revolutionise management by replacing the current practice of managing river basins separately, with a framework that accounts for among-basin linkages that are essential for the long-term persistence of fish populations. Significant benefits include more efficient use of water resources and improved conservation outcomes for native fish.

Supervisors

Professor Nick Bond, Dr Michael Shackleton and Dr Luke McPhan

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

Special conditions

Top-up scholarships to the value of $15,000 pa may be available for a particularly strong candidate.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Professor Nick Bond

Email: N.Bond@latrobe.edu.au

Description

This project is funded under a broader National Environmental Science Program (NESP) project looking at management options to conserve threatened freshwater fish species across Victoria under a changing climate. Under this broad umbrella there are opportunities for a motivated and capable student to explore a range of questions pertaining to native freshwater fish conservation. Areas of particular interest include understanding the efficacy of novel detection methods, such as eDNA, understanding the effects of hydro-climatic drivers on species distributions and abundance, and, how to adapt existing strategies such as in-situ vs ex-situ conservation under a changing climate.

Supervisors

Professor Nick Bond and Dr Michael Shackleton

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

Special conditions

Top-up scholarships to the value of $15,000 pa may be available for a particularly strong candidate

More information

For more information, please contact:

Professor Nick Bond

Email: N.Bond@latrobe.edu.au

Description

While pollinators are critical for plant reproduction, they are very rarely considered when establishing new populations of endangered species. Our innovative approach to conservation translocation involves using pollinators in site selection, developing strategies to mitigate risks of hybridisation, and optimising plant reproduction through planting design. Our main focal genus will be Caladenia, the spider orchids, a primarily southern Australian genus famed for its intricate flowers, and high prevalence of sexually deceptive pollination strategies.

Supervisors

Dr Ryan Phillips, Professor Rod Peakall (ANU) and Dr Noushka Reiter (Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria)

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Dr Ryan Phillips

Email: R.Phillips@latrobe.edu.au

Description

In fishes, the ability to detect, perceive and react to water-soluble odorants (chemoreception) is critical for survival. Many species of fish face a critical challenge from the impact of an increasing number of water-soluble chemical pollutants entering waterways on chemosensory-driven behaviours. Exposure to these contaminants can have serious impacts on chemoreceptor sensitivity and function. This research will combine multidisciplinary approaches (anatomy, physiology and behaviour) to assess the impacts of critical environmental contaminants on chemosensory perception in key taxa of Australian bony fishes. The findings will inform Australia’s environmental and fisheries management strategies and effluent policies for riverine and coastal regions.

Supervisors

Professor Shaun Collin, Dr Aleicia Holland, Associate Professor Ewen Silvester and Dr Travis Dutka

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Professor Shaun Collin

Email: S.Collin@latrobe.edu.au

Description

Current predictions of climate change vulnerability ignore species interactions, yet species interactions shape all aspects of a species ecology including the capacity to adapt to climate change.  Using Drosophila species this project will examine how temperature and competition shape evolutionary responses in key traits linked to climate change.

Supervisor

Dr Vanessa Kellermann

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Dr Vanessa Kellermann

Email: V.Kellermann@latrobe.edu.au

Description

More than 80,000 Australians are affected by Parkinson's disease (PD), a progressive neurological disorder. There is a pressing need to develop reliable, easy-to-access biomarkers for early diagnosis of PD to enable effective treatment. This project aims to leverage cutting-edge technology to generate ‘molecular signatures’ of dysfunctional proteins that are unique in blood cells from individuals with PD. Specifically, we plan to profile the basal and stress-dependent damaged proteome in lymphoblasts from individuals with idiopathic PD, familial PD with genetic mutations, prodromal PD with high risk of developing PD symptoms, and healthy controls by using our technology. Molecular signatures of each group will be extracted as blood-based biomarkers and correlated to the clinical measures. We expect this project will deliver significant advances in understanding the fundamental protein quality control and stress response mechanisms in PD required for early diagnosis and precision treatment.

Supervisors

Dr Yuning Hong, Professor Paul Fisher and Dr David Greening

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

Special conditions

We are recruting two directions, either experience with synthetic chemistry or cell biology. Experience with mass spectrometry proteomics is a plus.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Dr Yuning Hong

Email: Y.Hong@latrobe.edu.au

Description

PhD scholarships are available investigating the biogeography and conservation of forest invertebrates.  Insect biodiversity decline has been recognised as an environmental crisis. In Australia, only one third of terrestrial invertebrates are described, making it difficult to target conservation efforts. Narrow-range endemic species are less likely to be described, yet are at higher risk of extinction due to anthropogenic causes.  This project aims to address gaps in our knowledge of invertebrate endemism and conservation approaches for litter invertebrates in the forests of south-eastern Australia.  PhD projects will be based at La Trobe University, Deakin University, Monash University and UNSW, in collaboration with partners from Zoos Victoria, DEECA (Victoria), the Australian Museum and the South Australian Museum.  A large field sampling program will sample litter invertebrates from forests in south-eastern Australia and use barcoding and morphological identification approaches to document species distributions.

Projects will address the following topics:

Consequences of historic habitat loss for short-range endemic species (LTU - PhD)

In this project, the student will generate phylogenetic trees and use current distributions of phylogenetic endemism to predict pre-European distributions and the likely loss of species due to land clearing.  They will identify and sample likely locations for persisting habitat island endemics in the agricultural and forestry matrix.

Litter transplants for post-fire restoration of litter invertebrates (LTU – PhD)

This project will resample sites burnt during the 2019-2020 mega-fires to determine the recovery of litter fauna.  Many litter invertebrates are dispersal-limited and may struggle to recolonise following fires, so the student will trial restoration methods to maximise the efficacy of leaf litter transplants in restoring invertebrate assemblages following high severity fire.

Phylogeography and population genetics in cryptic leaf litter species (LTU – PhD)

This project will undertake genetic studies of leaf litter invertebrates to better understand species delimitation in rainforests and to determine the historic and present-day environmental factors that permit or prevent dispersal and connectivity.

Candidates should prepare an Expression of Interest which includes a copy of their CV and a cover letter outlining their interests and relevant skills and motivation for applying to Prof. Heloise Gibb (h.gibb@latrobe.edu.au) and Dr Nick Murphy (n.murphy@latrobe.edu.au) by 13 March 2024 and receive an invitation to apply before submitted their full application.

Supervisors

Professor Heloise Gibb and Dr Nick Murphy

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

Special conditions

Candidates should have a degree in the field of ecology, evolution or entomology, and hold a first class honours, or a Masters by Research qualification. Publications will also assist in competitive selection.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Professor Heloise Gibb

Email: H.Gibb@latrobe.edu.au

School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport

Description

Australia’s public hospital system is experiencing alarming rates of Allied Health workforce shortage, with difficulty recruiting and retaining Allied Health staff leading to high staff turnover. Existing Allied Health staff have been grappling with reduced capacity to manage patient caseloads, which can lead to poor staff and patient outcomes. Optimising existing Allied Health hospital workforce capacity via innovative workforce design is vital to ensure that patient care is not compromised. This PhD project will work towards future-proofing the Allied Health workforce and ensuring it is fit for purpose via 3 complementary streams: 1. Understand the current Allied Health public hospital workforce capacity; 2. Quantify the impact of current capacity on staff and patient outcomes; and 3. Explore the utility of innovative workforce design on current capacity limitations.  We are seeking a candidate with a background in an Allied Health profession, health care, health services research, or other relevant discipline/background. The successful applicant will collaborate with the Project Lead (Associate Professor of Allied Health - a joint position between La Trobe University’s School of Allied Health, Human Services & Sport and Alfred Health), to develop a project that reflects the interests and aspirations of the individual. The PhD project is based at The Alfred Centre (99 Commercial Rd, Melbourne). The successful candidate will be supervised by the Project Lead and work in collaboration with their wider network of Professors and Associate Professors of Allied Health, who are based at Melbourne Health, Eastern Health and Northern Health.

Supervisors

Dr Julia Gilmartin-Thomas and Professor Nicholas Taylor

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Dr Julia Gilmartin-Thomas

Email: J.Gilmartin-Thomas@latrobe.edu.au

Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute (School of Cancer Medicine)

Description

Immunotherapy has revolutionized the treatment of cancer, with checkpoint blockade therapy showing remarkable efficacy in several cancer subtypes. Despite this success, the majority of patients do not respond, for reasons that are not well defined, or acquire resistance after treatment. Thus, there is an unmet need to unveil novel approaches to boost the response rate and prolong the extent of the benefit­­­. Similarly, despite the success of adoptive cellular therapy (ACT) in the context of haematological malignancies, response rates against solid is poor, likely due to tumor-associated immunosuppression and subsequent T cell exhaustion. Indeed, it is becoming clear that the failure of T cells to elicit a successful and long-term anti-tumor immune response is controlled by transcriptional, epigenetic and post-translational modifications, however, our current understanding of the molecules involved in these processes is poorly understood. Furthermore, tumor cells often engage in a process known as ‘tumor immune evasion’ whereby tumor cells become immunologically silent to both the innate and adaptive immune system. While some mechanisms of tumor immune evasion have been identified, including disruption MHC-I expression, our understanding of these immune evasion processes remains incomplete. This project will use cutting edge technology including in vitro and in vivo CRISPR/CAS9 genetic screens, high throughput drug screens, novel single cell sequencing protocols and the development of novel screening assays to identify novel underlying molecular mechanisms leading to T cell dysfunction and tumor immune evasion.

Supervisor

Dr Conor Kearney

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute student enquires

Email: students@onjcri.org.au

Description

The Mucosal Immunology and Cancer Laboratory focuses on identifying new immune targets that can be explored to develop novel therapeutics to treat bowel cancer. We study heterogeneous populations of T cells, known as intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) that are unique to the gastrointestinal tract. Our preliminary studies show that one population of IELs, known as gamma delta T cells, play a protective role in preventing development and progression of bowel cancer. We are working closely with the Tumour Immunology Laboratory that shares an interest in therapeutically exploiting gamma-delta T cell subsets in multiple cancer types. In this project we will collaboratively study a range of surface receptors and cell-cell crosstalk molecules predicted to modify the function of gamma delta T cells and their ability to engage other immune cell subsets and prevent cancer growth and metastasis. We will study the role of these molecules in gamma delta T cell function, in disease models and patient samples. We will use various techniques including flow cytometry, immunofluorescent microscopy and single cell RNA sequencing. We will determine if gamma delta T cell surface receptor expression can be exploited therapeutically to limit bowel cancer progression.

Supervisor

Dr Lisa Mielke

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute student enquires

Email: students@onjcri.org.au

Description

The aim of this project is to use our preclinical models of breast cancer dormancy to image and isolate cells in the dormant cell niche in bone and lung and to generate transcriptomic profiles of both tumour cells and the surrounding host cells. With this knowledge, we will assess the efficacy of therapies designed to maintain tumour dormancy or target a dormancy-specific vulnerability to eradicate these cells. We will use mouse-based breast cancer models that naturally display dormancy to image and investigate the tumour cell niche in mice using confocal and multiphoton microscopy. Tumour cells will be recovered for transcriptomic profiling as a basis for testing different therapies designed to either maintain dormancy of disseminated tumour cells or to specifically target dormant cells.

Supervisors

Professor Robin Anderson and Associate Professor Sarah Ellis

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute student enquires

Email: students@onjcri.org.au

Description

Lymphoma is a cancer of the immune system, with more than 80 different subtypes of disease, all of which can respond differently to treatment.  While new treatments are being tested to improve outcomes for patients, the standard treatments can result in patients becoming immune compromised, requiring interventions to help manage this for the patient during treatment.  The human gut contains a ‘microbiome’, which is a complex system of bacteria and other microorganisms that play a crucial role in overall health, including digestion, metabolism and immune function.  Evidence is emerging that many diseases, including cancers, may be linked to changes in the ‘good’ bacteria/microorganisms.  Likewise, the treatments used to treat cancers may further change the microbiome and result in decreased effectiveness of treatment or adverse events as a result of treating the lymphoma.  The role of the microbiome in lymphoma is an emerging field.  We propose here to establish the methodology of stool collection, processing and analysis, in treatment naïve and relapsed refractory lymphoma patients to build a repository of real-world samples and data.  Importantly this will be paired to blood samples to enable correlation with circulating metabolite, tissue and clinical information collected. This Australian first resource aims to identify novel interventional targets to improve outcomes in a patient population with significant unmet medical needs.

Supervisor

Dr Eliza Hawkes

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute student enquires

Email: students@onjcri.org.au

Description

When detected early, cancers are often localised, and surgery alone may be curative. However, when detected late, cancers have often progressed beyond the initial tumour site, substantially increasing disease severity. Current cancer screening approaches can often lead to false positive and false negative results. The accurate ability to detect the presence of cancer early and to predict patient outcomes is of utmost value. Activated B cells have various functions in cancer, including the production of cancer-specific high-affinity antibodies, which can be measured in the blood. These antibodies have been proposed as attractive cancer biomarkers due to their molecular stability in circulation, ease of extraction, presence in early stages of disease, and extensive half-life in the blood. Cancer-specific arrays have been developed to detect antibodies against over 100 tumour antigens in parallel using less than a drop of blood. This project will use such arrays to investigate if cancer-specific antibodies can be used to detect the onset of high incidence and low survival cancers, including melanoma, bowel cancer, lung cancer and pancreatic cancer. We will also investigate how these antibody reactivities change across disease stages within cancer types, potentially identifying tumour antigen specificities with prognostic value. Moreover, we will incorporate the use of blood cards as an alternate sample collection method across a subset of samples, which enable the collection of drops of blood via finger prick for downstream antibody profiling, avoiding the need for local laboratory facilities.

Supervisors

Dr Jessica da Gama Duarte and Dr Andreas Behren

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute student enquires

Email: students@onjcri.org.au

Description

Colorectal cancer claims the lives of over 5000 Australian’s each year.  Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are routinely used to treat these tumours, however not all patients respond to these treatments. This PhD project will seek to develop new ways to increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation therapy by testing new therapeutics in cell line, organoid and mouse models of this disease, and investigating their underlying mechanisms of action. It also involves the use of genetic screens such as CRISPR/Cas9 to discover new drivers of drug resistance.  The project will provide the candidate with extensive knowledge of cancer biology, and the transcriptional and signaling pathways which drive the respnse to drug treatment. The candidate will also gain expertise into the use of cutting-edge discovery tools such as molecular profiling, CRISPR screening and drug screening, and the use of mouse models and clinical samples to address critical questions that can improve outcomes in cancer patients.

Supervisors

Professor John MariadasonDr Ian Luk and Dr Fiona Chionh

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute student enquires

Email: students@onjcri.org.au

School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences

Description

This project aims to alleviate cyberattacks, which are increasingly being crafted to attack software vulnerabilities and weaknesses by utilising advanced knowledge graphs and deep learning techniques. This project expects to construct an innovative software vulnerability knowledge graph and develop advanced graph-based algorithms and models. Expected outcomes of this project include theory development in graph theory, refined graph neural network models, improved graph transfer learning algorithms and achieved better performance on various vulnerability risk assessment tasks.

Supervisor

Dr Jinli Cao

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

Special conditions

Students who are interested in and have experience in research topics, such as deep learning, graph neural networks, knowledge graphs, federated learning, transfer learning and vulnerability assessment.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Dr Jinli Cao

Email: J.Cao@latrobe.edu.au

Description

This project aims to uncover the molecular structural dynamics of a bacterial enzyme responsible for protein folding in bacteria (disulfide bond forming enzyme A, DsbA). DsbA is a drug target for a new family of antibacterials that target pathogenicity rather than viability. A student interested in structural biology, biochemistry, X-ray physics and data analysis would be most suitable for this interdisciplinary project. The work will involve crystallography, developing time-resolved serial micro-crystallography at the Australian Synchrotron and possibly international synchrotron sources and X-ray free-electron lasers.

Supervisors

Dr Nadia Zatsepin and Professor Begoña Heras

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents.

Special conditions

Up to $9,000 p.a. may be available for particularly strong students through the Postgraduate Research Award program at AINSE: https://www.ainse.edu.au/postgraduate/ if the applicant is heavily involved in the method development part of the synchrotron work.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Dr Nadia Zatsepin

Email: N.Zatsepin@latrobe.edu.au

Description

Moving Target Defence (MTD) is an advanced defence mechanism that confounds attackers by continuously changing the attack surface, making it harder for adversaries to learn and exploit systems and networks. The aim of the project is to build an intelligent MTD that can thwart advanced cyber-attacks in various network scenarios. To achieve this aim, This project expects to (i) design MTD techniques and leverage AI techniques to optimise the best deployment scenarios to defend against advanced cyber-attacks, and (ii) Evaluate the security and performance of the implemented MTD techniques using a set of security and performance metrics.

Supervisor

Dr Hooman Alavizadeh

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

Special conditions

Cybersecurity and computer science background.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Dr Hooman Alavizadeh

Email: H.Alavizadeh@latrobe.edu.au

School of Education

Description

Robots and AI are increasing being used in early childhood education right through to the completion of secondary education. This project will explore the use of a social robot as a teaching assistant, to explore the affordances and limitations in the classroom as well as whether students retain more information by interacting with the social robot compared to tradition methods of learning.

Supervisor

Professor Therese Keane

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Professor Therese Keane

Email: T.Keane@latrobe.edu.au

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Description

Led by two Elders, this project aims to develop accessible, Indigenous-led knowledge about policies which allowed government administrators to ‘exempt’ individual Indigenous people from oppressive state legislation. The project aims to enable Indigenous people to tell their own stories and to share these within Indigenous communities, as well as with the wider Australian community. This PhD project is for an Indigenous candidate who is invited to examine any aspect of the history of exemption policies.

Supervisors

Associate Professor Katherine Ellinghaus and:

Eligibility

Open to applicants of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Associate Professor Katherine Ellinghaus

Email: K.Ellinghaus@latrobe.edu.au

La Trobe Law School

Description

La Trobe Law School is offering a fully funded doctoral project scholarship for applicants who wish to explore laws concerning disability and impairment in the 21st Century, including matters related to mental health. Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged, and the scholarship is available to students with undergraduate and/or postgraduate studies in anthropology, economics, history, law, political science, sociology, and related disciplines. The successful candidate will be based within the Law in Context Cluster in the La Trobe Law School, under the primary supervision of Associate Professor Piers Gooding. The PhD research will be co-supervised by a specialist supervisor with expertise in the successful candidate’s chosen topic.

Supervisor

Associate Professor Piers Gooding

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents and International applicants.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Associate Professor Piers Gooding

Email: P.Gooding@latrobe.edu.au

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Description

Midwife-led group antenatal care and education (Group Care) is a new model of care that is becoming more common. It integrates antenatal care, childbirth preparation and early parenting education into group sessions for pregnant women. A Cochrane review shows the model is acceptable to women, with no obvious adverse outcomes, but despite its increasing popularity, there is inadequate evidence to recommend widespread implementation.

We are conducting a two-arm multi-site RCT to compare the effectiveness of midwife-led group antenatal care and education versus individual-based care on 1) labour and birth, physiological and psychological outcomes for women and their babies; 2) care provider satisfaction; 3) health service use and cost effectiveness.

Supervisor

Dr Della Forster and Associate Professor Touran Shafiei

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Dr Della Forster

Email: D.Forster@latrobe.edu.au

School of Psychology and Public Health

Description

A graduate research degree scholarship for an Indigenous student wishing to conduct research on a topic related to the disciplines of psychology and/or public health at PhD or Masters by research level.

Supervisor

Professor Monica Thielking

Eligibility

Open to Australian or New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents.

Special conditions

Applicants must identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.

More information

For more information, please contact:

Professor Monica Thielking

Email: m.thielking@latrobe.edu.au