HDR Scholarship - Taking part in diabetes research: Who, why, how?

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition and with management including burdensome daily self-care activities to achieve and sustain the target glucose levels needed to prevent long-term devastating complications. In 2022, the Australian Centre for Accelerating Diabetes Innovations (ACADI) was launched with the purpose of delivering novel interventions for timely diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diabetes and its complications. ACADI (established through MRFF funding from the Australian Government’s Targeted Translation Research Accelerator program, delivered by MTPConnect) is a virtual collaborative diabetes centre led by researchers at University of Melbourne, and uniting >70 partners including Deakin University. Deakin’s Dr Hendrieckx and Dr Holmes-Truscott co-lead the ACADI behavioural platform, providing expertise across the eighteen current ACADI research projects.

Vital to the successful conduct of ACADI is the voluntary participation of Australians living with diabetes in research. However, low response rates, low retention, and non-representative samples are common limitations with impacts for generalisability of research findings. To inform improved research methods we must understand the barriers and facilitators of diabetes research participation, as well as the expectations and experiences of participation, among people with type 2 diabetes across all parts of Australia.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work with a multidisciplinary team of research and clinical experts across multiple universities and partner organisations. The scholarships are provided by Deakin University and the successful candidates will be enrolled at Deakin University. The candidate will be situated within the Australian Centre for Behavioural Research in Diabetes (ACBRD) (a parentship between Diabetes Victoria and Deakin University). We invite expressions of interest from eligible applicants to complete a full-time PhD in behavioural / psychosocial diabetes research. Time will also be spent at the office of The Australian Centre for Behavioural Research in Diabetes (Melbourne CBD).

Benefits

This scholarship is available over 3 years.

• Stipend of $28,900 per annum tax exempt (2022 rate)
• Relocation allowance of $500-1500 (for single to family) for students moving from interstate

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.