Foster innovation with candidate collaboration
Griffith University offers a range of outcomes for organisations looking to collaborate with our dynamic PhD research community. If your organisation is seeking solutions to a specific business challenge or needs answers to complex questions, consider a PhD-industry partnership.
A Griffith PhD-industry partnership can provide your organisation with access to the latest analysis, expertise and data from our world-leading research community.
PhD-industry partnerships can represent short, six month standalone research projects, or more in-depth and comprehensive research projects that inform a PhD candidate's thesis, spanning three to four years.
By engaging in a PhD-industry partnership, you'll gain access to:
- highly skilled and motivated individuals eager to collaborate on solving complex, research-related problems with your team
- Griffith's research infrastructure and state of the art facilities
- experienced and knowledgeable academic staff able to provide guidance and input
- opportunities to develop the skills and knowledge of your staff
- the first-hand opportunity to recruit our best and brightest minds and future innovators.
How your business can engage in a PhD-industry partnership
Griffith Industry PhD Scholarships
A Griffith Industry PhD Scholarship represents industry-university collaborative support for a three-year doctoral project.
The doctoral project can be undertaken by a high-achieving staff member in your workplace, or Griffith can assist in recruiting a candidate through our scholarship advertisement process.
This scholarship is designed to support the alignment of projects co-designed by aspiring researchers, academic supervisors and industry. During their studies, our PhD candidates have the chance to develop professional networks and highly desirable skills in communication, resource management and teamwork. Industry partners benefit from a dedicated researcher, as well as their supervisory team, focusing on a bespoke research problem.
Types of scholarships
Scholarships support PhD candidates to undertake research projects as a living stipend. Costs are indexed annually based on Griffith's set tuition fees for a living allowance. Scholarships are made up of:
Living stipends
Support a candidate's day-to-day costs of living as undertaking a PhD can be a full-time role. The minimum rate for a HDR living stipend scholarship is $33,480 (2024) per year, however, industry PhD scholarships are set at a higher rate of $50,000 (2024) per year for up to 3.5 years. This higher rate recognises the co-investment from industry and Griffith as part of the co-collaboration.
Co-fund a base living stipend in collaboration with Griffith with a minimum investment of $25,000 per annum for 3.5 years. Depending on your investment, Griffith will match your investment to either supplement the living stipend to make the $50,000 per year living stipend, or where the living stipend is fully paid by you Griffith will provide a tuition fee scholarship to international candidates to cover the cost of tuition fees and Overseas Student Health Cover for up to 3.5 years.
Provisions must be made in base living stipends to accommodate parental leave and sick leave. It is also encouraged to consider these leave provisions when establishing a top-up scholarship, though not mandatory.
Support your employees
Support your employee in undertaking their doctoral studies as part of their employment package. Griffith will provide a Research Training Program Domestic Fee Offset to domestic candidates to offset the cost of tuition for the duration of the program. Griffith may also provide a tuition fee scholarship to international candidates to cover the cost of tuition fees and Overseas Student Health Cover for up to 3.5 years, where this is not funded by you as their employer.
Alternative Arrangements
Add to a base living stipend to support an additional amount for a candidate's day-to-day costs of living. These scholarships are capped at 75% of the base living stipend.
Provide project funding support for the candidate. Examples include materials or equipment costs, travel or publication costs. These scholarships are generally offered as a one-off award and can be paid per annum. The amount offered can vary and often depends on the project.
How does it work?
- Discuss the potential research project with a Griffith academic or your existing Griffith contact (search Griffith Experts to identify an academic expert in your field of interest).
- If the research project is feasible, confirm the details of the project, including the scholarship funding that will be committed by you, the industry partner. (Where applicable, Griffith has funding available to support industry-funded scholarships, speak to your academic contact to find out more.)
- For projects to be undertaken by your employee(s), check their equivalent qualifications for HDR program admission.
- For projects not being undertaken by an employee of your company, Griffith will advertise the project and recruit a doctoral candidate.
- Once admitted, a PhD candidate commences research project.
Interested in a collaboration?
Find an academic in your research field of interest to collaborate with to get started:
Connect with an academic to get started
Additional scholarship programs
Griffith has been highly successful in the National Industry PhD program and CSIRO’s Industry PhD Scholarship program, securing seven grants across both programs in 2023. If you are interested in capitalising on these prestigious and competitive programs, ask your Griffith academic contact to liaise with PhDPartnerships@griffith.edu.au.
The partnership with Griffith has been really valuable for us at Swimming Australia. Shoulder injuries can derail a swimmer’s career and it’s hard to dedicate time to researching prevention ourselves. Having Griffith researchers working alongside us to find ways to avoid these injuries means that we can focus on looking after the athletes while they find a solution.
Ivan Hooper
National Lead Physiotherapist, Swimming Australia
Research block internship
For our PhD candidates, a research block internship is an opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge developed during their studies to real-world problems. For industry, these projects are an opportunity to have a high-achieving expert provide your business with innovative and practical solutions. These projects open the door for both candidates and industry to network development and recruitment opportunities.
How does it work?
A research block internship is a bespoke three-six month research project completed during the candidate's candidature or during examination with your business.
Typically, these projects take place onsite within your business but can also be designed to accommodate a hybrid model between the organisation, Griffith's cutting-edge facilities and remote delivery.
Interested in a collaboration?
Work with our academic groups in your research field of interest to find a candidate to collaborate with to get started:
External supervision
Supervisors from an organisation external to Griffith provide industry, practice-based or academic expertise related to the candidate's research.
External supervisors are appointed:
- to provide industry or specialist research expertise required for a PhD candidate's project
- where a candidate's program is pursued at, or in partnership with, another organisation
- where the candidate's program is pursued remotely.
There is no qualification requirement for an external supervisor to be registered, and external supervisors may be appointed to provide specific industry or practice-based (rather than academic) expertise.
Upon appointment to a supervisory team, external supervisors will be provided with information regarding Griffith policies and procedures for PhD candidature and supervision.
To learn more about the external supervisor role and to find relevant supervisor resources, please visit our Supervision guidelines.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to recruit a candidate for an industry PhD scholarship?
We recommend allowing at least three months for recruitment and selection of 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 (4+ weeks – this includes referee reports, supervisor and school/institute review)
- assessment and offer (8 weeks), and
- visa processing (timing depends on country and may take 4-6 months).
What makes an internship successful?
Internships are successful when candidates feel safe in the workplace and the expectations are outlined clearly from the outset. Expectations should be made clear during the development of the project plan, including research and learning objectives, dress standards, attendance, clear project outlines. If attending onsite an orientation to the workplace – toilets, refreshments and introduction to other staff is important. It is also helpful that other staff are aware of the candidate and the role they are to play. If possible, inclusion of candidate in all aspects of the workplace environment including meetings is highly valued. A health and safety induction must be provided to the candidate upon commencement.
Who pays for health insurance for international candidates?
For international candidates who are awarded a Griffith University tuition scholarship, Griffith will pay 42 months, leaving a gap of 15 months to pay. The gap amount then depends on the type of health insurance the candidate requires. Full fee-paying candidates are required to pay for their health insurance.