Scholarships and awards
The University of Queensland scholarships can help you pursue your goals and develop your research career.
Current Opportunities
In crop and livestock breeding, combining numerous desirable alleles for important agronomic traits, such as disease resistance, drought and heat tolerance, end-use quality and high yield potential in the shortest possible time remains a major challenge. Because of the number of alleles that need to be considered for these traits, the number of possible mating combinations increases exponentially. This projects aims to develop novel strategies that enable breeders to design improved breeding programs via more efficient mate allocations, ultimately contributing to substantially increasing the rate of genetic gain.
Apply by 31 March 2021
PhD Scholarship: Advancing crop growth simulation capabilities for optimising crop grain yield
The project aims to advance a leading plant/crop growth simulation model to allow testing and redesigning of key plant physiological traits for crop resources capture and growth, and their dynamics throughout the crop life cycle with environmental interactions. Initial focus will be on traits such as leaf photosynthesis and stomatal conductance, which affect crop water use; leaf development, area expansion, and leaf angle, which affect within-canopy light distribution and photosynthetic processes. The project will deepen physiological understanding on how cereal crop species have adapted to different environments by studying crop species and genetically modified materials, develop algorithms to capture the new knowledge in the simulation model, and exercise the model to explore untapped adaptation avenues for higher yields in water limited environments.
Apply by 30 September 2021
The primary focus of this PhD position is to undertake functional research in the exploration and analysis of multi-temporal and -spatial hyperspectral sensing data. Developing and application of current and novel data fusion approaches to integrate climate, sensing and biophysical data for detecting of crop type and phenological stages for main winter crops across Australia. This PhD is part of the four year project funded and supported the GRDC funded “CropPhen: Remote mapping of grain crop phenology and crop type prediction” project lead by UQ QAAFI.
Apply by 30 September 2021
Environmental hyperthermia is a welfare and economic problem in pig reproduction, particularly given the rise in heatwave episodes and the hyperprolificity of modern sows. This project aims to address the impact of heat stress in gestating and lactating sows by testing different nutritional interventions with complementary modes of action, reducing metabolic and microbial heat production and increasing cellular protection. In addition, resilient sows will be selected and characterized in terms of blood and liver biomarkers (differential transcripts, proteins, and metabolites) and microbiome profiles associated with heat tolerance. The proposal is the first-ever studying heat tolerance metabolic biomarkers and microbiome signatures in gestating and lactating sows using a holistic approach under controlled environments.
Apply by 31 March 2022
PhD scholarship: Study of the breeding of self-fertile macadamia cultivars
Macadamia is predominantly a self-incompatible nut crop and this creates complications in commercial orchards with a requirement of cross-compatible cultivars and insect-pollinators. Some level of self-fertility has been identified in macadamia. Incorporation of self-fertility in elite cultivars may reduce production costs and assist in sustainable orchard production. The extent of this variability in our existing germplasm and the mechanism of self-compatibility is unclear. In addition, current trait-phenotyping is time consuming and costly. Exploiting genetic and molecular technologies may assist us in rapid selection of elite self-fertile cultivars.
Apply by 30 September 2022
Tospoviruses are among the most economically important plant viruses worldwide, which in part reflects their very wide host ranges. Ornamental plant species are important tospovirus hosts, and the commercial trade of nursery plants or cut flowers facilitates the spread of the viruses. Tospoviruses are transmitted by thrips, and the major virus vectors such as the Western Flower Thrips are already present in Australia, hence the establishment potential for exotic tospoviruses is very high. In production nurseries, the two major disease management practices for these viruses are to eliminate infected plant material and to control the thrips vectors.
Apply by 31 March 2023
RNA interference, or gene silencing, offers a significant opportunity to improve fungal disease resistance in plants. The main aim of this project is to assess the efficacy of Bioclay-delivered dsRNA for sustained protection against fungal pathogens. The project will include controlled environment bioassays and molecular investigations on the uptake and responses of selected crops and fungal isolates to the Bioclay-delivered RNAi molecules.
Apply by 30 September 2023
Higher Degree by Research scholarships
Are you commencing or continuing a HDR program at QAAFI? Check if you are eligible to apply for the following scholarship and financial options.
When applying for an UQ HDR program, you need to provide evidence to the Graduate School that you have living and tuition funding to support you throughout your entire HDR program. You need to discuss this with your potential HDR advisor when applying for advisor support and potential projects of interest to determine which of the following funding option/s you may be eligible for. Please remember that you need to be invited by QAAFI to complete Graduate School’s HDR admission application and that the outcome of this application will be dependent on whether you successfully secure minimal funding support (Living is at RTP base rate that is indexed annually, tuition offset is Agriculture Band B rate).
If you are a current HDR candidate you will need to investigate and discuss which of the following options may apply to you. Your advisor will need to nominate you for the UQ scholarship if they deem you are competitive enough in consultation with the QAAFI Postgraduate Coordinator.
External scholarships
You can browse for some external scholarship opportunities via UQ Graduate School’s webpage or other external resources.
UQ Graduate School Scholarship
Do you have outstanding research potential to be considered for a competitive Graduate School scholarship? Discuss with your potential advisor if they would nominate you or what other funding options might are available.
QAAFI HDR key projects prioritised for UQ Scholarship internal ranking
QAAFI will support UQ scholarship nominees who work on HDR projects that fit within QAAFI’s strategic priority research areas. The principal advisor must initiate the UQ scholarship nomination, and the Graduate School needs to approve HDR admission applications to be eligible for preferential scholarship rankings. For more details visit QAAFI HDR priority projects.
Availability & deadlines
2 rounds per year or varies if out-of-rounds. If living stipend is competitively awarded, then Tuition offset could be nominated for out-of-rounds. Refer to UQ Graduate School’s competitive scholarship rounds.
QAAFI HDR Travel Awards
QAAFI offers Travel Awards to QAAFI enrolled and confirmed Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students for travel to international or domestic scientific conferences. The awards will contribute to attendance costs including registration, airfares, accommodation and other transport. Students can apply as often as rounds are available, but will only be eligible to receive ONE award during their entire HDR degree with QAAFI.
Click to learn full detail about the QAAFI HDR Travel Awards
Undergraduate Research Program
The UQ Student Employability Centre's Undergraduate Research Program is available in twice a year.
Please check the UQ Student Employability Centre website for updates about the program.
View available QAAFI Undergraduate Research Program projects
QAAFI scholarship eligibility requirements
In addition to UQSEC's eligibility requirements, the applicant must meet the following QAAFI requirements:
- Have at least one supervisor who is a QAAFI staff member or affiliate;
- Be actively enrolled in an undergraduate or masters by coursework program during the Research Scholarship period and can provide evidence of this;
- Credit any and all publications arising from the project to QAAFI.
How to apply
- Ensure you have read the QAAFI eligibility requirements under QAAFI Scholarship Eligibility Requirements (above) and you are aware of all eligibility and requirements of the application and program. When you submit your application, you are agreeing that you have read and understood the QAAFI's and UQSEC's eligibility requirements.
- Find a project that interests you by browsing the current projects, then secure advisor support by contacting them directly by searching our website. If a project is missing, you can contact our researchers directly to discuss potential future opportunities. Please do not submit a UQSEC application until you have secured advisor support and have agreed on a research project together.
- To demonstrate your invitation to complete the UQSEC application, you must get mandatory written support from your potential Undergraduate Research Program supervisor, which needs to be submitted as part of your application by UQSEC’s specified deadline. If this evidence is missing, your application will be incomplete and thus will not be assessed.
The support evidence must contain the following details that can be sent from the researcher's email account (PDF file is accepted) or signed on a QAAFI-UQ letterhead:
- Applicant's full name and contact information;
- Specific recommendations geared towards why the advisor supports this particular student.
- The Undergraduate Research Program project title that was in the Advisor’s project submission, as it's a compulsory pre-text field in UQSEC online application form;
- Support is available on the condition that the application is successful in being awarded the research scholarship;
- Project start date (starting on a Monday or the next working day to avoid public holiday) and expected project period (in weeks);
- If the SIPCA (Student Intellectual Property & Confidentiality Agreement) needs to be completed and signed before project commencement.
- If this applicant is unsuccessful in the UQSEC-QAAFI funded assessment round, whether advisor/s can fully or co-fund instead.
4. Complete UQSEC online application form by the deadline stated on UQSEC website.
All QAAFI supervised students must agree to:
