Donavan Marney, Centre Manager and industry engagement at the ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre for the Chemical Industries (ATCI), is looking to explore potential associations with the food- and ag-tech sectors, including the Future Food Systems CRC.
With this in mind he’s offering a second, ARC-funded scholarship to a company in the agrifood-tech space that’s prepared to fund and mentor a UNSW Master of Science – Industrial Research (MScIR) student for a period of 18 to 24 months.
The cost – $33,400 (with an R&D Tax Incentive write-off of up to 45 per cent) – could be money well spent, especially if your chosen recruit’s project results in an industry-relevant solution and/or novel IP.
The opportunity
For partner ‘patrons’, this is an opportunity to provide a cost-effective ‘extended internship’ to one or more talented young scientists with a view to potential recruitment. And if the industry partner is funding the student stipend, they own the resulting IP.
For Bachelor and Honours students of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Material Sciences and Engineering, the degree offers ‘a pathway to the workplace’ via an industry-based, industry-led research project that will fulfil the written thesis component requirement of a MScIR degree from UNSW’s School of Chemistry.
MScIR students complete industry-led research projects undertaken with a minimum one-year placement with the relevant company; it also hosts Postdoctoral Fellows to lead advanced industry-led collaborative projects with Centre-based chief investigators.
Candidate selection
Candidates could be selected from within the company, or drawn from the UNSW student body via internal advertising through the university, or recruited via external research and industry networks. The company providing the stipend gets to participate in the candidate interview and selection process.
Each candidate chosen will be supervised by a designated person at the funding company and a UNSW academic. In consultation with both supervisors, each MScIR candidate chooses elective courses, one of which will suit both company and candidate.
The details
For the industry partner, the cost for the tax-free stipend/scholarship is is $33,400, up to 42 per cent of which can be written off against the R&D Tax Incentive. If the industry partner wishes to utilise the university laboratories’ analytical and characterisation infrastructure, there’s an additional $5,000 charge.
The funding period is for 18 months, with a maximum of 24 months, starting in late July or early August 2020.
The student is covered by UNSW insurance because they are working off campus or external.
About ATCI
The ARC Training Centre – Chemical Industries (ATCI) is based in the School of Chemistry, part of the Faculty of Science at UNSW Randwick. ATCI brings together three leading universities (University of Melbourne, The University of New South Wales and Swinburne University of Technology), Chemistry Australia, CSIRO and chemical-industry companies in a collaboration designed to ‘provide greater alignment between the chemical industry’s need for highly-skilled STEM graduates equipped with excellent academic training, relevant industry skills and experience’.
The Centre’s innovative training and engagement model helps strengthen industry research capabilities and enables ‘impactful’ industry-university collaborations, driving the development of new technology and product pipelines for sustainable growth and economic benefit to industry.
Further information and application
For more information, or to fund a Masters-degree food scientist in an exciting, industry-related ARC-centre project, contact Donavan Marney, via email in the first instance: d.marney@unsw.edu.au.
For further details about ATCI, visit the centre’s website.