ARC Future Fellowship PhD Scholarship

Status

Open Now

Opens

Closes

Scholarship Value

Stipend total $AU114,000 ($AU38,000 per annum)

Length of Scholarship

3 years / 3 EFTSL

Number Available

1

Funding Type

Research

Do you want to help rethink how organisations investigate incidents - and make those processes safer and more effective? 

This fully funded PhD at CQUniversity’s Appleton Institute in Adelaide will explore how investigation systems shape psychosocial risk, fairness and organisational learning in safety-critical work. 

The project aligns with THRIVE, an ARC Future Fellowship program examining incident investigation in safety-critical industries, while giving you scope to develop a distinct project shaped by your disciplinary background and interests. Investigations are fundamental to accountability, learning and risk control, yet can also create psychosocial demands for investigators and those under scrutiny. 

Working with Professor Anjum Naweed and a multidisciplinary supervisory team, you will draw on areas such as organisational behaviour, criminology, human factors, psychosocial risk, safety, regulation and justice, while engaging with industry, government and regulatory stakeholders. Using mixed methods and systems approaches, the research may explore procedural fairness, misconduct and safety investigations, reporting and non-disclosure, organisational learning, or investigation system design across sectors including transport, healthcare, emergency services, mining, energy and regulation, generating evidence to support safer and more effective investigation systems.

Applicants must:

  1. Be eligible for admission to a CQUniversity Higher Degree by Research program, including meeting CQUniversity English language requirements.
  2. Hold a Bachelor’s Degree with Honours I or IIA, a Master’s Degree, or an equivalent qualification with a substantial research component, in a relevant discipline
    1. Relevant backgrounds may include psychology, human factors/ergonomics, criminology, organisational behaviour, occupational health and safety, public health, sociology, law, safety science.
  3. Be willing to enrol full-time and be based at CQUniversity’s Adelaide (SA) campus.
  4. Have Australian or New Zealand citizenship, or Australian permanent residency.

Applicants who have received any prior Commonwealth or CQUniversity-funded research scholarship, unless terminated within six months, are not eligible to apply.
 

Essential

  • Demonstrated academic achievement and research potential in a relevant discipline.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate with academic and non-academic audiences.
  • A strong interest in investigations, psychosocial risk, organisational behaviour, safety, regulation, or organisational learning.
  • Capacity and willingness to undertake qualitative, quantitative or mixed-method research and to engage with systems approaches where appropriate.
  • Ability to work sensitively and ethically with potentially sensitive subject matter and with participants and organisational stakeholders.
  • Ability to work independently and collaboratively, manage competing priorities, and meet project milestones.

Desirable

  • A background or demonstrated interest in criminology, organisational behaviour, workplace or safety investigations, procedural justice, psychosocial risk, or regulatory systems.
  • Experience with interviews, focus groups, surveys, mixed methods, systems analysis, or research involving industry or government partners.
  • Willingness to travel for data collection, stakeholder engagement and conferences where required.
     

Submit your Expression of Interest by emailing the Supporting Documentation to Prof Anjum Naweed at [email protected] as soon as possible. Please use “THRIVE PhD Scholarship EOI” in the subject line.  

Please feel free to reach out to Prof Naweed if you would like more information. Informal enquiries about the project and potential research directions are welcome.

Applicants will be notified of the outcome via their nominated email address.

Send a brief CV and a 250-word statement about your interest in the scholarship, relevant background, and the themes that particularly interest you.

Shortlisted applicants may subsequently be asked to provide academic transcripts and any additional documentation required for formal admission and scholarship assessment.

Professor Anjum Naweed will be the Principal Supervisor. Additional supervisors will be appointed to complement the successful candidate’s disciplinary and methodological needs.

The PhD will be aligned with the THRIVE research program but will not be required to duplicate the Fellowship’s existing studies. The successful candidate will have scope to develop a distinct, complementary project in consultation with the supervisory team. Depending on the final research design, the project may involve cross-sector fieldwork and engagement with industry, government and regulatory organisations. All research activities and access to organisational data will be subject to the relevant ethics and organisational approvals.