ACPIR SRS | UniSC | University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

ACPIR Summer Research Scholarships

ACPIR Summer Research Scholarships (ACPIR SRS) provide an opportunity for UniSC undergraduate, including honours, students to be part of a research team and participate in research. They extend ACPIR’s culture of mentoring to undergraduate students, through a tiered mentoring approach from ACPIR academic project leaders and postgraduates (HDR students and post docs).

Benefits

Successful students have increased exposure to research as a career pathway and an opportunity to learn about the research process. They will be involved in a project, have opportunity to network with other researchers, postgraduate peers and professionals, and start to develop a research profile.
Research skills are transferable, making this experience useful, even for those who may not decide to pursue research as a career option.

What's involved

The program is run over the summer starting in December and recommencing after the Christmas holiday break. There is flexibility in the days/times that the student can work, negotiated at the start of the program.

Undergraduate students in the program are paid a stipend of $3,000 in instalments over the 8-week program. Mentored by an academic supervisor from ACPIR, and also a postgraduate peer throughout the ACPIR-SRS program, participants can develop their research skills, personal skills, and career planning, and are encouraged to work with the project team in contributing to a publication/other output as a named author.
ACPIR postgraduate mentors will receive a stipend of $2,000.

2022-2023 topics and ACPIR researchers 

Congratulations to our 2022-2023 recipients. ACPIR offered ten research scholarships to work on one of the following six projects:

1. Declan Macleod contributed to Fish assemblages at giant clam farms with ACPIR supervisor Prof. Paul Southgate. See Declan's presentation of his project experience here.
   
2. Inali Lutschini contributed to Variability in shellcraft products with ACPIR supervisor Prof. Paul Southgate. See Inali's presentation of her project experience here.
3. Mairead Rodgers and Noemie Legendre contributed to Development of consumer-facing resources to support village engagement in the seaweed value chain in Samoa with ACPIR supervisor Dr Libby Swanepoel. See Mairead and Noemie's presentation on their project experience here.
4. Kyle MacKenzie, Juliette Sauvage and Taryn Whiley contributed to Women’s Soccer in Oceania: Community Resource Development Project with ACPIR supervisor Dr Lee McGowan. See the trio's presentation on their project experience here.
5. Crowther Bedow contributed to Dietary intake methodology in the Pacific Islands with ACPIR supervisor Dr Sarah Burkhart. See Crowther and the Nova team's presentation of their project experience here.
6. Belinda Christensen and Dallas Thom contributed to NOVA: Developing a tool to measure consumption of ultra-processed foods in the Pacific Islands with ACPIR supervisor Dr Sarah Burkhart. See Nova team's presentation of their project experience here.

Watch presentations from past ACPIR SRS recipients sharing insight to their involvement in the projects and what they gained from these research opportunities.