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Australia’s advanced technology fields including AI, data science, cybersecurity, quantum computing, and robotics will get a boost with hundreds of scholarships being offered to science nextgen graduates by CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency .
The Next Generation Graduates Program has committed funding for up to 500 positions, ranging from Honours to PhD levels, focused on applying artificial intelligence and emerging technologies across a wide range of sectors.
This includes cutting-edge research in quantum biotechnology and precision sensing, where students are helping to develop new bioscience tools and build portable quantum systems.
“The Next Generation graduates program invests in people – the next generation of thinkers, creators, and leaders – who will shape Australia’s digital and technological future,” says CSIRO’s Data61 Science Director Professor Aaron Quigley.
“Through hands-on experience, collaboration, and working alongside industry, the program prepares students to become career-ready and contribute to solving some of the biggest challenges facing the world.
“While students may come from diverse research areas – including agriculture, health, defence, energy, law, and social sciences – the common thread is the integration of advanced tech such as AI, data science, cybersecurity, quantum computing, and robotics.”
The nextgen scholarships include a formal industry placement component and can be funded from one to more than three years earning up to $43,500. They are open to Australian or New Zealand citizens and people entitled to stay in Australia, or to enter and stay in Australia, without any time limitations .
The scholarships are part of the work of the CSIRO research unit Data61, the data and digital specialist arm of CSIRO, which drives the development and adoption of AI and emerging technologies in Australia.
“By supporting students through industry-connected scholarships, the program cultivates a new generation of researchers and professionals equipped to apply cutting-edge technologies in real-world contexts,” says Quigley.
“The NextGen Graduates Program is a vital step in building a capable, connected and competitive tech workforce for Australia.”
Students benefit from guidance from their university supervisors, industry specialists, guest speakers and workshop facilitators. For instance, a leading scholar might assist students in applying AI ethical frameworks to their project, providing insights during live workshops and recorded lectures.
The nextgen scholarships are also open to applicants outside the conventional STEM scope.
Quigley says this recognises that innovation benefits from a variety of perspectives and encourages applicants from areas such as social sciences, humanities, education, business and many more.
Support is provided through a coursework program to help candidates from different backgrounds build their understanding of key topics.
Scholarship holder Hunter Johnson, a 27-year-old PhD physics student at University of Melbourne, is developing a new kind of microscope for recording neurons.
“The device is based on culturing neurons on top of a fluorescent diamond chip. The diamond fluorescence is modulated from on to off in the presence of electrical activity. So, by recording the fluorescence with a sensitive camera we will record the electrical activity of the neuronal network as the cells communicate with each other,” Hunter says.
Hunter’s research is part of the ARC Quantum Biotechnology Centre of Excellence, where research projects span across biology, chemistry, and physics: “Working at the intersection of multiple fields requires communicating results to a wide variety of people.”
“The scholarship program provides a lot of opportunities to communicate with other aspiring researchers.
“I am excited to build those skills and have more opportunities to present my research to an audience I might not be exposed to otherwise.”
Another nextgen scholarship holder, Agastya Kapur is studying at Macquarie University. The 24-year-old is researching Fast Radio Bursts, extremely energetic bursts of radio emission that last for a few milliseconds and occur outside our galaxy.
Kapur says to study the currently unknown fundamental physics that causes these violent cosmic events, “we need a bigger sample size of discovered FRBs.”
“This requires better instrumentation and more efficient data processing. With new instrumentation on radio telescopes like the Cryogenically cooled Phased Array Feed (CryoPAF) receiver on Murriyang, the CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope, data volumes are growing rapidly.
“To find FRBs in these much larger data sets we require new, and highly efficient, algorithms, and so we explore the possibility of using quantum machine learning methods.
“The highlight of the scholarship would be the industry placement I have coming up in July,” he told Cosmos.
“Working in a cleanroom facility with nanofabrication technology would be a very valuable learning experience. The hardware side of quantum technology is currently being rapidly improved so this would be helpful for future career opportunities.”
Originally published by Cosmos as Hundreds of nextgen scholarships in advanced technology being offered by CSIRO
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