HDR Scholarship - Better healthcare closer to home

Australians living in rural, regional, and remote communities face unique challenges due to their geographic location. They frequently experience higher rates of hospitalisation and death, with poorer access to healthcare services. Older people often have more complex health needs including frailty, multi-morbidity, and cognitive impairment, resulting in a higher need for care, and reduced capacity to access care, compounded in rural settings by large travel distances, variable infrastructure, and reduced availability of specialist care.

DELIVER is a Commonwealth funded (Medical Research Future Fund) research program under the Rapid Applied Research Translation grant scheme led by the Western Alliance Academic Health Science Centre.

The Program will be conducted in partnership with healthcare consumers (older people and their carers), regional and rural health services in the Barwon South West region and Grampians region, universities (Deakin, Federation, Monash and University of Melbourne) and primary healthcare providers across western Victoria.

Potential PhD topics may include:

• Mentoring for research translation capability building in rural and regional health practitioners
• Building research translation capacity and capability in rural health practitioner-researchers: A realist evaluation
• Assessing the scalability of healthcare Interventions: A framework for prioritisation and implementation
• Understanding the dynamics of change in health services: A multilevel analysis of engagement strategies and factors influencing implementation
• Understanding the consumer perspective of home-based healthcare, including satisfaction with services, perceived benefits, barriers to access, and preferences for care delivery
• Investigating the preferences, attitudes, and experiences of consumers regarding the use of digital tools in the context of home-based healthcare

Applications close 5pm, Friday 28 February 2025.

This scholarship is available over 3 years.

• Stipend of $35,550 per annum tax exempt (2025 rate)

To be eligible you must:

• be a domestic candidate. Domestic includes candidates with Australian Citizenship, Australian Permanent Residency or New Zealand Citizenship.
• meet Deakin's PhD entry requirements
• be enrolling full time and hold an honours degree (first class) or an equivalent standard master's degree with a substantial research component.
• hold a Bachelor degree with Honours or Master’s degree with a substantial interdisciplinary research component in fields of social and /or health sciences.

Please refer to the research degree entry pathways page for further information.

Additional desirable criteria include:

• demonstrated experience conducting quantitative and/or qualitative methodologies, ideally experimenting with innovative research methods that are engaging for participants
• evidence of publication or reports in written form
• ability to work in a multicultural, inclusive and equitable environment
• strong background in healthcare (either within a health service or health related area)
• high level of organisation and accurate record keeping
• experience in consumer engagement
• experience in preparing written research documents and oral presentations on research activities and outcomes
• preparing and submitting publications from research activities to peer-reviewed journals and conferences
• analytical and numerical analyses
• team attitude through participation in group development and research activities and contribute to other projects within the DELIVER program