The Statistical Society of Australia will award up to four top-up scholarships to PhD or Masters students in Australia who are current members of the society. Scholarships will be offered as a one year $5,000 award (part-time students can spread their award over two years). Awards will be per calendar year with the first awards in 2021.

Eligibility

To be eligible students must:

• Be a current student member of the society who joined before 1 January 2021.
• Be currently enrolled in a recognised masters or PhD course in Australia, whether full-time or part-time.
• Have at least one year left before the completion of their degree.
• Be working in paid employment for 40 hours per fortnight or less.

Students can be domestic or international. Successful applicants will be allowed to apply in future rounds. Students will be awarded a maximum of three scholarships (total maximum funding of $15,000 per student).

The application

To apply please complete this short application form and detail:

1. Your undergraduate and postgraduate degrees (if any).
2. Proof of current enrolment.
3. Your gender for stratification purposes (see below).
4. Up to 1000 words outlining:
   • A brief summary of your PhD/Masters, including the supervisory team, main aims and how it will contribute knowledge to statistical theory and/or improve practice.
   • Your progress to date on your PhD/Masters.
   • A brief summary of your career to date.
   • Your plans for a career in statistics.

The deadline is Friday 23 April 2021 for the 2021 round. The scheme is limited to one application per member per year. The awards will be announced in mid-May.

Applications must be two pages or less. Any applications longer than two pages will have their additional pages deleted before being sent to the reviewers.

The selection process

Applications will be reviewed by two or three senior statisticians and judged as either suitable or not. Suitable applications are those that meet the key criteria of supporting a student working on a statistical project who aims to build their career in statistics. Projects can be applied, theoretical or computational. All applicants judged as eligible will be entered into a draw with the four winners chosen at random with at least two from non-male applicants.

Expectations on the winning students

The winners must agree to being named on the stats society website together with their supervisory team, their project title and a summary paragraph. Students would be expected to write a brief article (preferably with a photo) towards the end of their scholarship to be included in the Society’s newsletter. Students would be expected to present at the national conference if their scholarship covers a conference year. Students should acknowledge the scholarship funding in any related publications or presentations.

Top-up scholarship recipients

A list with the names of previous top-up scholarship recipients can be found here.