The stipend value set by ACU aligns with the Australian Government Research Training Program Stipend Scholarship base rate and is indexed annually. Industry partner contributions are reviewed annually in line with this figure.

All amounts are in Australian dollars and are paid to ACU PhD candidates in Australian dollars.

The scholarship conditions align with the ACU Research Training Program Scholarship Policy.

Industry contributions cover the cost of the stipend for the lifetime of the scholarship and include a contingent for project costs.

Stipend values are indexed annually. Industry contributions are fixed for the life of the scholarship.

If your contribution exceeds the cost of the stipend over the duration of the scholarship, the surplus funds are used to offset project costs.

If your contribution does not meet the cost of the stipend over the duration of the scholarship, ACU will cover the difference.

Example payment schedule:

Industry PhD scholarships provide a stipend for an individual research candidate to help them complete their PhD program at ACU.

A stipend is a payment to the candidate to support their day-to-day living costs while undertaking their PhD program at ACU. The stipend is used at the candidate’s discretion on items such as:

• rent
• groceries
• utility bills.

Any unspent funds will be used to offset, either partially or fully, any project costs awarded to the candidate.

Project costs are any costs directly associated with the candidate undertaking their PhD program at ACU. Examples of project costs include:

• materials or equipment expenses
• conference attendance
• publication costs.

Industry partners can be involved in the PhD project in various ways, for example:

• as a member of the selection panel for the PhD scholarship
• as an Associate Supervisor (End-user) on the PhD candidate’s supervisory panel
• as a host and mentor for project activities, for example, project design, data collection, data analysis, knowledge transfer and commercialisation.

Scholarships can be awarded to domestic or international candidates, studying either full-time or part-time. International candidates can usually only be enrolled full-time for visa purposes.

To satisfy the requirements for competitive process, all graduate research scholarships are advertised on the ACU graduate research scholarships webpage.

We recommend allowing at least three months to recruit and select a domestic candidate and up to seven months to recruit an international candidate for commencement.

The recruitment process will include:

• advertisement (2–4 weeks)
• application collation, assessment, and offer (8–10 weeks)
• visa processing and travel to Australia to commence studies (for international candidates).

While ACU reserves the final decision on candidate admission and scholarship awarding, when sponsoring an ACU Industry PhD Scholarship, the industry partner may nominate a representative to participate in the assessment process.