A special PhD scholarship scheme for domestic applicants with global ambitions
UNSW is looking for high-quality domestic applicants to work on a supervisor-defined PhD project with embedded global mobility opportunities. The UNSW Scientia PhD Scholarship Scheme underpins our mission to advance Progress for All by developing graduates who are globally focused and socially engaged.
These projects are fully funded, and successful candidates will receive a living allowance scholarship and a one-off Global Mobility Grant to carry out international engagement activities. A total of 20 scholarships will be available for commencement in 2027.
Browse projects by faculty
Arts, Design & Architecture
Digital Twin Construction Electrification Framework
Digital-Twin-Enabled Framework for Cost-Effective, Low-Carbon Electrification of Construction Machinery in Infrastructure Projects
Primary supervisor: Chethana Illankoon
Disability Health Transition Navigator Program
Health transition navigators: Supporting young people with intellectual disability from paediatric to adult care
Primary supervisor: Iva Strnadova
Multimodal AI for Political Communication
Multimodal AI for Political Communication: Computational Methods to Study Polarisation in Australia and Chile
Primary supervisor: Mathias Felipe de Lima Santos
Indigenous Atrial Fibrillation Equity Initiative
Closing the Indigenous Atrial Fibrillation Gap: A Global Study of Earlier Detection, Equitable Treatment and Stroke Prevention
Primary supervisor: Kylie Gwynne
Circular Timber Building Systems Australia
Applying resource-efficient and circular timber building systems for new construction and existing building stock extension in Australia
Primary supervisor: Matthias Hank Haeusler
AI Training to Empower Educators
Empowering Educators: Bridging the AI Divide in Rural and Remote Communities
Primary supervisor: Jihyun Lee
Remote Community Cardiovascular Prevention Strategies
Heart Health at the Edge: Building Better Cardiovascular Prevention for Remote Communities in Australia and the Arctic
Business
Sustainable Shared Mental Health Coverage
Building a Sustainable Framework for Shared Mental Health Coverage
Primary supervisor: Jonathan Ziveyi
First Nations Energy Literacy Support
Keeping Country Connected: First Nations Energy Marketplace Literacy and Trusted Human-Agent Support
Primary supervisor: Rahul Govind
Engineering
Wearable Placental Monitoring During Childbirth
Wearable sensor development for monitoring of placenta perfusion during childbirth
Primary supervisor: Tracie Barber
Wearable AI for Intelligent Listening
Wearable AI for Intelligent Listening
Primary supervisor: Mahbub Hassan
Secure Provenance for AI Agents
Securing Provenance in Distributed AI Agent Systems
Primary supervisor: Jiaojiao Jiang
Multimodal Data Fusion for Mobility
Data fusion for the era of multi-modal data sources, fusing travel diary using passively collected data from IoT technologies
Primary supervisor: Taha Hossein Rashidi
Next-Generation Quantum Spectroscopy Innovation
Inventing the Next Generation of Quantum Spectroscopy
Primary supervisor: Murad Tayebjee
Fair Democratic Artificial Intelligence Systems
Designing Fair and Democratic AI Systems
Primary supervisor: Haris Aziz
Biomimetic Materials for Heart Valves
Engineering Biomimetic Materials for Long-Lasting Heart Valve Replacement
Primary supervisor: Jelena Rnjak-Kovacina
Next-Generation Marine Propulsion Technologies Development
Developing Next-Generation Marine Propulsion Technologies
Primary supervisor: Shaun Chan
Nanoparticles for Pancreatic Cancer Therapy
Engineering Biodegradable Polymeric Nanoparticles for Targeted Co-Delivery of siRNA and Chemotherapeutics in Pancreatic Cancer Therapy
Primary supervisor: Cyrille Boyer
AI Atlas for Biomaterial Responses
Predicting how the body responds to biomaterials: an AI-powered implant-body atlas
Primary supervisor: Nona Farbehi
Terahertz Fibre Communications for 6G
Integrated Multicore Terahertz Fibre Communications for AI-Native 6G Netwroks
Primary supervisor: Shaghik Atakaramians
Precision Oncology through AI
Spatial Multi-Omics and AI for Inferring the Tumour Immune Microenvironment from Pathology Images
Primary supervisor: Raymond Louie
Underwater Technologies for Ocean Sustainability
Advancing Ocean Sustainability Through Underwater Communication and Sensing Technologies
Primary supervisor: Jinhong Yuan
Building Digital Resilience for Adolescents
Growing Up Online: Building Digital Resilience for Adolescents in the Age of Generative AI
Primary supervisor: Rahat Masood
Medicine & Health
Precision Mental Health for Youth
Building Precision Mental Health for Children and Adolescents with Anxiety Disorders
Primary supervisor: Jennie Hudson
Primary Healthcare Workforce Investment Case
Building the economic case for investment in the primary health care workforce
Primary supervisor: Blake Angell
Simplifying HIV and HCV Care
CREST: Combating Related Epidemics in HCV and HIV through Simplified Testing and Treatment.
Primary supervisor: Brendan Jacka
Ageing Prisoners Health Equity Improvements
Ageing in custody: improving equity in health, services and care transitions
Primary supervisor: Tony Butler
Inclusive Prison Care Model Development
A ‘whole-of-setting’ model of care for trans and gender diverse people in prison
Primary supervisor: Paul Simpson
Enhancing Blood-Borne Virus Care
Improving blood-borne virus care for women who inject drugs
Primary supervisor: Alison Marshall
Eliminating Prison Hepatitis C Transmission
Eliminating hepatitis C in prisons nationally and globally: molecular epidemiology and public health approaches.
Primary supervisor: Rowena Bull
Equitable Precision Cancer Care Youth
Towards Equitable and Patient-Centred Precision Medicine for Young People with Cancer and their Families
Primary supervisor: Kate Hetherington
Disability Child Health Equity Access
Improving Health Access and Mental Health Equity for Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disability
Primary supervisor: Julian Trollor
Next-Generation Malaria Vaccine Targets
Discovering Next-Generation Malaria Vaccine and Immunotherapy Targets
Primary supervisor: Jake Baum
Long COVID Biomarker Discovery Research
Investigating biomarkers and driver mechanisms of long COVID
Primary supervisor: Chansavath Phetsouphanh
Justice System Mortality Inequality Study
Mortality inequality among people in contact with Justice system
Primary supervisor: Tony Butler
Digital Twin for Healthy Vision
Digital Eye: A Multimodal Digital Twin of the Human Eye for Lifelong Healthy Vision
Primary supervisor: Maitreyee Roy
Immunogenomics of Arthritic Joint Disease
Blood & Bone: Immunogenomics in Arthritic Synovia
Primary supervisor: Etienne Masle-Farquhar
Indigenous Drug Use Harm Trends
Characterising trends in drug use and related harms among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Primary supervisor: Amy Peacock
MYC Degraders for Brain Tumours
Developing Brain-Penetrant MYC Degraders for Childhood Brain Tumours
Primary supervisor: Belamy Cheung
Precision Immunopeptidomics Towards HIV Cure
Precision Immunopeptidomics: A Pathway to HIV Cure
Primary supervisor: Chansavath Phetsouphanh
Precision Oncology Evidence Policy Translation
Real-World Evidence for Precision Oncology Policy and Practice
Primary supervisor: Sallie Pearson
Tumour Remodelling Across Space-Time
Tumour remodelling in space and time
Primary supervisor: Thomas Cox
Improving safety of antimicrobial peptides
Improving the Safety Profiles of Novel Antimicrobial Peptides
Primary supervisor: Mark Willcox
Vaccines to Prevent Breast Cancer Recurrence
Personalised Exosome Tumour Vaccines to Prevent Breast Cancer Recurrence
Primary supervisor: Kevin Ni
Targeting Hepatitis C Elimination
Targeting Hepatitis C Elimination: Modelling Transmission and Reinfection across Australian Community and Prison Settings
Primary supervisor: Amy Kwon
Nature-based social prescribing
Nature-based social prescribing for people with intellectual disability
Primary supervisor: Maryann Barrington
Personalised Spine Surgical Care
Real-world evidence to advance personalised spine surgical care
Primary supervisor: James McAuley
Federated AI Radiotherapy Data Standardisation
Federated AI for standardising head and neck radiotherapy data and modelling contour variation across hospitals
Primary supervisor: Lois Holloway
BREATHE Better
A multicounty evaluation of point-of-care devices and AI for diagnosing breathlessness in primary care
Primary supervisor: Anthony Sunjaya
Mental Health in Hybrid Workplaces
Promoting virtual psychosocial safety: upskilling managers to support employee mental health and wellbeing in hybrid workplaces.
Primary supervisor: Aimee Gayed
Science
Mobility Gut-Brain Alzheimer's Risk Pathways
Upward Mobility, the Gut-Brain Axis, and Sex-Specific Alzheimer's Risk
Primary supervisor: Bridget Callaghan
CRISPR Brain Organoid Neurodevelopment Research
CRISPR Screens in Human Brain Organoids to Uncover Shared Mechanisms of Autism and OCD/Tic Disorders
Primary supervisor: Irina Voineagu
Global Kelp Forest Conservation Governance
Governing the World’s Kelp Forests: From Policy Commitments to Conservation Action
Primary supervisor: Aaron Eger
AI-Guided Molecular Recognition Technologies
AI-Guided Native Mass Spectrometry for Molecular Recognition
Primary supervisor: William Donald
Next-Generation CABLE Land Surface Modelling
Equation Discovery for Next-Generation CABLE Land Surface Modelling of Carbon, Water and Energy Fluxes
Primary supervisor: Gab Abramowitz
AI-Driven Design of 3D-Printable Alloys
AI-Driven Design of 3D-Printable Alloys for Extreme Environments
Primary supervisor: Vitor Vieira Rielli
Feedstocks for Green Metals and Manufacturing
Strategic Domestic Feedstocks for Green Metals and Manufacturing Resilience
Primary supervisor: Farshid Pahlevani
Nature-Based Solutions for Polluted Coastlines
Restoring Darkness: Nature-Based Solutions for Light-Polluted Coastlines
Primary supervisor: Mariana Mayer Pinto
AI Multi-Omics for Precision Medicine
AI-Driven Multi-Omics for Precision Medicine and Therapeutic Discovery
Primary supervisor: Fatemeh Vafaee
Still looking for a project?
View all projects available at UNSW and find the opportunity that aligns with your research interests.
Have questions?
The UNSW Graduate Research School manages all postgraduate research applications and scholarships. Get in touch with our team to discuss your research interests and the next steps.