Higher Degree by Research Application Portal

The ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Healing Country (‘Healing Country’) is seeking applicants to undertake a PhD (supported by a stipend scholarship) as part of their project.

ARC ITTC Healing Country aims to:

1. Heal country through business-centered ecological restoration that is led and delivered by Indigenous Australians with support from restoration scientists and business practitioners in a culturally appropriate way.

2. Improve ‘Closing the Gap’ outcomes of social and community wellbeing through culture-centric training and employment of Indigenous Australians that links to land, culture, and well-being.

3. Provide the foundation of research and training required for the restoration industry to transform the business opportunities of Indigenous Australians to deliver cost-effective restoration solutions that buttress customary activities, traditional practices, and Indigenous commercial enterprises.

4. Generate restoration-industry-ready professionals to grow and sustain an Indigenous-led Restoration Economy.

5. Implement training pathways and opportunities for Indigenous Australians through a layered, culturally safe training network (on-Country, vocational, tertiary) to pursue careers in restoration industries and businesses.

6.  Conduct innovative research on the immediate needs of markets to foster a diversified Indigenous-led Restoration Economy including seed and honey production areas, carbon sequestration, and industries centered around culturally significant species.

7.  Innovate the business framework to activate an Indigenous-led Restoration Economy, to elevate the health and socioeconomic standing of Indigenous Australians.

ARC Training Centre for Healing Country

Professor Fiona M Haslam McKenzie

fiona.haslam-mckenzie@uwa.edu.au 

This scholarship is particularly targeting Indigenous Australian candidates.

The successful candidate will be responsible for research that addresses the needs of Indigenous people and communities through quantification of the cumulative economic and commercial benefits derived from an Indigenous restoration economy. Specifically, they will document the productive capacity of Indigenous enterprise and its influence on skills pathways, Indigenous household income, welfare payments, individual and community health and wellbeing.

In addition, they will undertake calculations of economic multipliers associated with applied skills training, individual employment and enterprise opportunities to assist in the assessment of direct and indirect impacts on government support payments and linkages between social and civic infrastructure and social and economic resilience.

The position is based in Perth and will involve collaboration with the Curtin and UWA Healing Country Chief Investigators. The successful candidate will make a substantial contribution to the research of Healing Country, the host School, and the University of Western Australia. They will collaborate, and partner with Indigenous research users, and liaise with industry partners in the Healing Country network. The candidate will develop and maintain a research profile at national and international levels and be involved in post-graduate student supervision.

The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) is a program of independent, supervised research that is assessed solely on the basis of a thesis, sometimes including a creative work component, that is examined externally. The work presented for a PhD must be a substantial and original contribution to scholarship, demonstrating mastery of the subject of interest as well as an advance in that field of knowledge. 

Visit the course webpage for full details of this course including admission requirements, course rules and the relevant CRICOS code/s.