Join a community-engaged scholarship project

Academic and professional staff with relevant research experience are invited to apply to join one of three community-engaged scholarship projects via the Stakeholder Engaged Scholarship Unit (SESU).

The SESU’s profile continues to grow ever stronger following a significant number of applications received from community organisations looking to collaborate with ACU on research for social and economic impact.

Community applications were recently shortlisted by the Advisory Group to the SESU, and the SESU is now seeking Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from academic and professional staff with relevant research experience to participate in the design and delivery of the approved mission-focused scholarship and research projects.

EOIs will close at 5pm AEST, Monday 15 May.

About the SESU

The SESU activates community-engaged scholarship and research projects proposed by external agencies, particularly non-profit organisations (Catholic and secular) to meet their research priorities. Our projects support communities facing disadvantage and aim to produce social, economic and/or cultural benefits.

Who can apply?

Academic staff across all faculties, research institutes and institutes, as well as professional staff with relevant research experience, are invited to apply. You will need to have a continuing or fixed-term contract of more than six months.

Why should I apply?

You will have the opportunity to work closely with a partner organisation on a project for 12–18 months. It’s a unique chance to share expertise, co-design the research together and work collaboratively to deliver a project that will have a direct impact for the community it serves.

Don’t just take our word for it! Hear from two of the academics who have worked with us about their experience with the SESU.

If you experience issues with the above embedded link, please click here to watch the video.

You will be compensated for your work through an adequate workload allocation on the project (for academic staff).

Which projects can I apply for?

This year there are three projects you can nominate yourself for:

Life’s Little Treasures Foundation has supported 20,000 families with premature and sick babies in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) and Special Care Units (SCU) across 150 Australian hospitals. Their project aims to develop an evaluation framework for the review of outcomes within four of their products and services: Guidebooks for Families; NICU Connections which offers support groups in hospital and home; Precious Prem Packs with practical information and baby items; and Little Bag of Calm with tips and tools to encourage parents to adopt self-care practices.

St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne’s project is seeking to evaluate their mobile health and outreach service for people experiencing homelessness. Many in this cohort have significant health issues, higher rates of morbidity and premature mortality, yet access to traditional healthcare services is an ongoing challenge for both structural and individual reasons. It is acknowledged that many of the clients accessing this service are First Nations peoples. This is a relatively recent program and the hospital wants to understand, in particular, the enablers and challenges of adopting this model of care as well as the outcomes and satisfaction rates for clients who have accessed the service, with a view to making improvements in future years of the service offering.

The Black Pearl Network’s project seeks to reduce malnourishment amongst indigenous populations of West Papua, Indonesia. They would like to understand awareness amongst the community of healthy nutritional practices and the most appropriate modes of delivering nutritional information to the community. The Black Pearl Network undertakes work related to food insecurity and poor nutrition in the region and would like to expand their work in the region with the data collected from this project.

Find out more about this year’s projects

How do I apply?

Read about the application process and download the EOI form

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