The Indigenous Futures Centre is excited to offer attractive PhD and MPhil scholarships designed to support Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander students by providing support, training, mentoring and career opportunities.

Research within the Indigenous Futures Centre is framed around 3 themes: Health & Wellbeing, Law & Justice and Education & Economies. 

Proposed projects must align with the strategic objectives of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous Futures and its core projects.

Student proposals will be assessed against their alignment to our strategic objectives.

Our Strategic Objectives include:

• Design and deliver an exceptional and internationally renowned program of Indigenous relational transdisciplinary research to reveal the complex mechanisms, processes, and conditions that perpetuate Indigenous intergenerational inequity.
• Work collaboratively with community organisations, government, relevant industry stakeholders, community end-users and researchers in other sectors to deliver ground-breaking cross-sectoral policy reform and models of best-practice directly related to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap 2020 four Priority Reform areas.
• Provide unprecedented relational transdisciplinary cross-sectoral research focusing on the interconnections between legal, education and health contexts and build new networks with relevant international research programs.
• Establish a national (and international) Indigenous Knowledge Infrastructure (NIKI) for Indigenous futures, including cross-sectoral measures, models, data systems and adaptive structures.
• Support Indigenous researchers at all career stages by providing training, mentoring and career opportunities.
• Foster the future generation of the most promising Indigenous Australian researchers trained through the Centre’s comprehensive Indigenous leadership, mentoring and capacity building program.

The PhD program will foster the future generation of promising Indigenous researchers trained through the Centre’s comprehensive Indigenous leadership, mentorship and capacity building program.

The Indigenous Futures Centre provides the ideal opportunity to build strength and research capacity by supporting next generation of Indigenous scholars with the support of the current Indigenous thought leaders. The Scholarship is structured as follows;

University of Queensland Living Stipend

$47,500 Living Stipend

UQ Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Research Scholarship (2026 rate, indexed annually, tuition fees)

Indigenous Futures Centre Top-Up and Research Support

$20,000 top-up
$5,000 research support (travel, conference attendance etc)

Students must secure a UQ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research Scholarship in order to be eligible for the Indigenous Futures Centre Top-Up. Your primary supervisor must be a University of Queensland based Chief Investigator or Post Doctoral Research Fellow within the centre. Supervisors endorsement must be confirmed prior to application.

A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) is an internationally recognised graduate research program that will enable you to become an independent researcher, propelling you into the world of Higher Degree Research and academia.

Traditionally, the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) program is undertaken for 3-4 years in a full-time capacity and will allow you to undertake a research project, with an advisory team's guidance, to produce an 80,000-word thesis and complete an oral examination.

Along the way, there will be 3 milestone reviews to help guide your research project and allow key advisors to assist in your progress.

You'll need a strong academic background, and you may need to submit a research proposal and other documents to support your application.

Read more about a Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Queensland.

A Master of Philosophy (MPhil) is an internationally recognised graduate research degree that will enable you to develop advanced knowledge and methodologies.

The MPhil will take you 1.5 to 2 years to complete full time and will allow you to undertake a significant research project and complete a 40,000-word thesis and an oral examination.

You will need a strong academic background to apply and may need to submit a research proposal and other documents to support your application.

The MPhil is useful to those who are interested in a PhD however may lack previous research experience, many MPhil candidates choose to continue with their research, using it as a pathway to a PhD.

Read more about a Master of Philosophy at The University of Queensland.

We are here to support you.

Express your interest in the Indigenous Futures Centre Scholarship below or get in touch to learn more.