Vice-Chancellor's Indigenous Research Fellowships

RMIT Vice-Chancellor's Indigenous Research Fellowships

Great minds. Real world impact.

Staff working together at desk

Each year, RMIT brings on the world’s best and brightest researchers and teams to undertake transdisciplinary applied research that creates positive impact for society, the economy and the environment.

For this round, our focus is on building a supportive, embracing, and safe environment for researchers, and transdisciplinary capability in Regenerative Futures, MedTech Innovation, and Digital Innovation. Positions are available for Indigenous Senior Research Fellows, Indigenous Research Fellows, and Indigenous Postdoctoral Research Fellows.

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Great minds. Real-world impact.

Applications for RMIT’s Vice-Chancellor's Indigenous Research Fellowships Program are now OPEN.

Global challenges

The RMIT Vice-Chancellor’s Indigenous Research Fellowships program enables Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers to flourish and make a difference in areas that matter for our communities and our future. If you are ambitious and enjoy working in team environments to achieve impact from your excellent research, we invite you to apply to become an RMIT Vice Chancellor’s Indigenous Research Fellow.

Acknowledging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s care for Country over millennia, we live in a world that is undergoing great change and uncertainty. Over the coming decades, we will live and work through complex challenges in climate, security, inequality, health and wellbeing, technological evolutions, and emerging social movements. RMIT University is committed to work with our partners and communities to find new solutions and apply transdisciplinary approaches to help society navigate through these complex challenges.

Applications are now open at Academic levels A-C in three Strategic Research Priority Areas as follows:

Regenerative futures

Going beyond ‘sustainable’ practices to restore, renew and revitalise social, economic, and environmental systems.

MedTech innovation

Revolutionising health outcomes and health expectations through innovation in medical technologies.

Digital innovation

Advancing world-leading and multidisciplinary digital innovation research for a prosperous and secure digital future.

Fellowships and benefits

  • A four-year, prestigious RMIT Vice-Chancellor's Indigenous Research Fellowship available in one of three categories covering academic levels A to C with generous research support funding annually
  • Access to research support funding of $10,000-$30,000 per annum dependent on Fellowship category
  • Access to RMIT’s research facilities and interdisciplinary networks
  • Mentoring
  • Access to researcher development programs to discover new pathways to impact

Who is RMIT?

photograph of Indigenous artwork drawn on cream paper

University Values

Our values are the heart of RMIT. They guide what we do, how we make decisions, and how we treat each other.
RMIT Indigenous Research Plan 2023-2025

RMIT Indigenous Research Plan 2023-2025

Our Knowledge with Action strategy commits RMIT to developing a research and innovation ecosystem that recognises and integrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ perspectives, world views and lifeways as important knowledge systems for driving impact.
RMIT Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Employment Plan

RMIT Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Employment Plan

The plan strengthens our commitment to providing a safe work environment that is equitable and inclusive of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander employees and prospective employees.

Who can apply?

RMIT’s Vice-Chancellor’s Indigenous Research Fellowships are open to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers who are outstanding in their field and who meet the eligibility and selection criteria.  

Vice-Chancellor’s Indigenous Research Fellowships are not available to RMIT employees with current ongoing academic appointments. 

Eligibility

Applicants must: 

  • Hold a PhD/Doctorate qualification
  • Must identify as an Australian Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person. 

Additional eligibility criteria may apply. Please refer to the specific eligibility criteria under each of the Fellowship categories.

2024 Applications close

Lodgement of Application closes 11:59pm (AEST) on 15 September 2024

Apply now

Applications for the RMIT Vice-Chancellor's Indigenous Research Fellows are now OPEN.

Meet some of our existing fellows

Dr Eugenia Flynn

Vice-Chancellor's Indigenous Postdoctoral Research Fellow

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Dr Erica Kuligowski

Vice-Chancellor's Senior Research Fellow in the School of Engineering.

Nasir Mahmood wearing a dark jacket and sitting on a blue couch with a white brick wall behind them

Dr Nasir Mahmood

Vice-Chancellor's Fellow in the School of Engineering.

close up image of a hand operating a microscope in a laboratory

Dr Simone De Luca

Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences.

Contact us

If you have any questions about the fellowship or application process, please contact the VCIRF Coordinator using the email below.

Email: researchfellowships@rmit.edu.au.

Please do not submit applications via this email as they will not be processed. All applications and uploads must be made through our application system, Workday.

About RMIT University

RMIT is a multi-sector university of technology, design and enterprise. The University’s mission is to help shape the world through research, innovation and engagement, and to create transformative experiences for students to prepare them for life and work. For more information on RMIT University explore the links below.

Our three main campuses in Melbourne are located in the heart of the City, Brunswick and Bundoora. Other locations include Point Cook, Hamilton and Bendigo, two campuses in Vietnam (Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City) and a centre in Barcelona, Spain. RMIT is a truly global university. 

We are also committed to redefining our relationship in working with, and supporting, Indigenous self-determination. Our goal is to achieve lasting transformation by maturing our values, culture, policy and structures in a way that embeds reconciliation in everything we do. We are changing our ways of knowing, working and being to support sustainable reconciliation and activate a relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff, students and community. Our three campuses in Melbourne (City, Brunswick and Bundoora campuses) are located on the unceded lands of the people of the Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation.

hr excellence logo

This initiative supports the HR Excellence in Research Award, which is recognised by the European Commission for institutions that make progress in aligning their human resources policies to the European Charter for Researchers and The Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. The standards support researchers and includes general principles on the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers, employers and funders, and a commitment to the advancement of research.

To learn more about RMIT, our programs, and the inspiring people we're investing in, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Luwaytini' by Mark Cleaver, Palawa.

aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.