Apply to work on scholarship projects

This week the Stakeholder Engaged Scholarship Unit (SESU) opened a call for Expressions of Interest to staff to participate in the design and delivery of partner-initiated, mission-focused scholarship projects.

Applications close at 5pm on Tuesday 20 April.

What does the SESU do?

The SESU provides scholarly expertise and research assistance to organisations working in areas that are central to ACU’s mission and ethos as a Catholic university. We engage with community for the common good and the celebration of human dignity.

The SESU recently invited applications for scholarship projects from ACU’s partners and other organisations for the 2021 round of funding. The Advisory Group to the SESU has shortlisted projects, and organisations will be notified of the final outcome of their application once the staff EOI process concludes.

We anticipate that planning for the successful projects will be underway in May and during this time selected staff will meet with the organisations to produce a clear project plan. Projects are likely to formally commence in the second-half of this year, with a duration of roughly one year (or less).

What kinds of projects can I be involved in?

• The Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn is seeking to support the ongoing training of ministers and priests and explore interactive learning spaces appropriate to the ministry of preaching in contemporary Australia.
• The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney looks to assess how we can improve awareness of modern slavery for frontline services, specifically teachers, health care and social workers.
• Caritas Australia, Catholic Social Services Australia and Catholic Health Australia are partnering together to understand the unique contribution of Australian and international Catholic agencies to the prevention and response to violence against women and children.
• Carringbush Adult Education aims to explore teaching practices and digital learning resources to support English language development for beginner-level adult learners experiencing complex barriers to participating in distance and online learning.
• Fitzroy Primary School and Sacred Heart School Fitzroy seek to understand the impact of their phonological awareness and language skills program for school-aged children from low socio-economic and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.
• Gunawirra is interested in evaluating the impact of their peer group program on Indigenous mothers’ mental health and their children’s emotional development
• St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne is keen to enhance the medical encounter through trauma-informed care and the incorporation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander conceptualisations of health.
• SydWest Multicultural Services is seeking to understand the impact of their Employment Interventions to refugees and immigrants in the Blacktown LGA.
• We are also seeking applications for an RA position attached to a current SESU project in partnership with Catholic Social Services Victoria and St Mary’s House of Welcome. The project is investigating the economic impacts of COVID-19 to determine how it will affect future demand for social services in Victoria.

Read more about the SESU project shortlist. 

Who can apply?

We are accepting EOIs from academic staff on continuing contracts and fixed-term contracts of more than six months across all faculties, research institutes and institutes.

Professional staff are also welcome to apply for the RA position.

Why should I apply?

You will have the opportunity to lend your expertise to help address real-world problems identified by communities and achieve deep engagement with end-users to generate tangible impacts for communities experiencing disadvantage or marginalisation.

If one of the above projects sounds like it would be a good fit with your expertise and/or experience, and you are interested in working on a collaborative project, we would like to hear from you. EOIs will be brief so the application process should be quick to complete.

How do I apply?

Read about the application process and download the EOI form from the Stakeholder Engaged Scholarship Unit webpage. 

What happens if my EOI is successful?

Once a partnership agreement is signed with the organisation, a workload allocation (for academic staff) or a time commitment (for professional staff) will be agreed by Executive Deans, Research Institute Directors or Institute Directors and the Advisory Group.

Organisational units will receive financial reimbursement to cover the cost of replacing the usual work of the staff member, which would have otherwise been completed had they not been engaged in a SESU project.

More information

Questions should be directed to sesu@acu.edu.au.