PhD opportunities
One Basin CRC’s PhD program provides unprecedented leadership development and extensive industry networking opportunities, and the chance to establish a deep understanding of your chosen field.
Develop world-leading skills in helping communities tackle climate change and accelerate rural innovation through training from internationally renowned experts, while working with our industry partners in the iconic Murray-Darling Basin on real-world problems.
Our PhD graduates will be the future leaders in basin research and application. The One Basin CRC offers attractive PhD packages in a broad range of disciplinary fields and across multiple universities in Australia including:
- Australian National University
- Charles Sturt University
- Flinders University
- The University of Adelaide
- The University of Melbourne
- The University of Sydney.
You can view current opportunities open for applications below.
Please note that where a PhD opportunity is marked ‘scholarship awarded’, an offer has already been made to a candidate. However, if you are interested in the topic, we encourage you to submit an expression of interest, in case further opportunities in the area become available.
Our PhD program will give you the professional skills and networks to accelerate your career in research or practice across the water, agriculture or environmental sectors.
Key features of the One Basin CRC PhD program include:
- A 3.5 year scholarship with the option of a 6-month funded internship with an industry partner or equivalent part-time employment.
- A flexible funding package including a stipend of as much as $56,000 pa* and generous travel and operational support. Additional income from working part-time with industry partners and further scholarships may be available.
- The PhD program seeks to achieve gender balance and attract candidates from all walks of life, with Australians of Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander heritage particularly encouraged to apply.
- Opportunities for travel (including the possibility of international conferences), development and engagement with a strong research network that is being developed through the 10-year CRC.
- Each candidate will be based for the majority of their time in one of the following research hubs: Loxton (South Australia), Mildura (Victoria), Griffith (NSW) and Goondiwindi (Queensland) with associated node in Narrabri (NSW) in order to facilitate place-based research and interactions with industry partners.
*This is dependent on the host university policies, other available co-funding, and candidature experience and background. Candidates will receive a minimum stipend of $35,000 pa and a further minimum $20,500 (total) in operational funding. The exact allocation of the funding package between the stipend and support activities (such as conferences, travel to and from regional hubs) will be agreed to by the host university, PhD student and the 1BCRC. Applicants must be intending to apply for, and be highly competitive for, a Research Training Program (RTP) Stipend (or an equivalent scholarship). The student will enter the PhD program in 2024 and enrol on a full-time basis.
Current PhD opportunities
One Basin CRC
PhD general expression of interest
Submit a general expression of interest to undertake a PhD through the One Basin CRC by sending your CV and cover letter.
Charles Sturt University
Burning Bright: Unlocking Biochar for Water-Wise, Waste-Smart Agriculture
This project aims to explore how biochar can transform agricultural waste into valuable, climate-smart products that enhance irrigation efficiency and support regional economic growth.
Cotton RDC
Building community trust to drive collective action on enhancing water quality in regional communities
Explore how to bring diverse communities together for meaningful discussions around water quality, using a trust-building, proactive, and non-punitive approaches that can be adapted to other sensitive landscape issues.
Southern Queensland Landscapes
Valuing the Currawinya wetlands
Quantify the impacts and return on investment from current conservation efforts which are leading to restored wetland function within and beyond the Ramsar site.
Southern Queensland Landscapes
Northern Basin Native fish research
Quantify the impacts on native fish and return on investment from a range of current projects in the Northern Basin in order to inform future investment and prioritisation.
Southern Queensland Landscapes
First Nations and community led development of best practice management of billabongs and water hole chains in the Northern Murray-Darling Basin
Undertake action research in collaboration with First Nations and other local communities to investigate using practices such as riparian fencing & in-river infrastructure to recreate or create wetlands and establish nature refuges for extreme dry and drought periods.
Southern Queensland Landscapes
Evaluating regenerative land management practices in the Northern Murray-Darling Basin
Investigate how land management methods employed by farmers and land managers work to slow overland water flow resulting in improved soil health and other beneficial outcomes.
Flinders University
Understanding chill and mitigation of insufficient chill accumulation in pistachio trees
This project will enhance the sustainability and economic growth of the Australian pistachio industry, and has the potential to contribute to improved chill management across other nut crops, temperate deciduous fruits, and forest trees.
Charles Sturt University
Determining varietal water and nutrient requirements in almond trees in the Murray-Darling Basin to optimise plant functioning and subsequently mitigate stress responses such as leafing failure.
The project will work with growers to establish best management practices in the management of individual almond varieties, which in turn will encourage sustainable farming systems and contribute to a healthy, resilient and sustainable river system and communities.
University of Adelaide
Opportunities and challenges for using brackish groundwater to increase agricultural productivity and resilience in the Murray-Darling Basin
This project will develop novel, decision-centric approaches to support end users with the identification of opportunities in the Murray-Darling Basin with the highest potential for utilising brackish groundwater, as well as any associated challenges.
Australian National University
Understanding the potential for achieving multiple benefits through water system operations
This project will develop case studies to explore how multiple benefits can be identified, valued and achieved through rethinking the outcomes of water management and its processes, considering aspects of space, time and delivery to diverse values.
Australian National University
How can water assessment tools be inclusive of First Nations’ values and knowledge?
This research will explore ways that water assessment tools can be more inclusive of First Nations’ values and knowledge. This will involve an examination of how water-related problems are framed differently by the different cultures, and how water assessment tools can be transformed to capture different ways of seeing and knowing.
The University of Adelaide
Harvest foresighting: Unifying on- and off-farm insights to improve harvest decisions under a changing climate
This project will apply innovative numerical techniques (e.g. robust optimisation, bottom-
up stress-testing) to support harvest planning and scheduling decisions, considering the interaction between on- and off-farm factors and how these interactions might change into the future.
The University of Sydney
Multilevel network approaches to incentivise sustainable adaptation in the Murray-Darling Basin
The aim of the PhD project is the explore ways to leverage landholder and institutional networks to better target intervention programs and policies towards farmers’ adaptation to future in the Basin with less water.
Australian National University
Optimal cross-scale irrigation operation in the era of sensor networks, data science, and automation (scholarship awarded)
This project aims to forge an advanced framework uniting data science, machine learning, simulation, multi-objective optimization, and uncertainty-based decision making.
Flinders University
Characterisation of the inorganic and microbial water quality envelope for successful water banking in the Murray-Darling Basin for agriculture, town water supply and environmental benefit
After more than a decade since the end of the millennium drought, within the MDB water security remains an unresolved challenge for rural communities, irrigators, and the sustainability of water-sensitive ecosystems. One option to enhance water supply security is through water banking, where basin aquifers are recharged during periods of surface water surplus for later use via managed aquifer recharge (MAR).