Scholarship details
Study levels
Research and PhD
Student type
Future students and Current students
Study area
Engineering, Science, Science, technology and engineering and mathematics
Eligibility criteria
Academic performance
Citizenship
Australian, Australian or New Zealand and International
Application dates
- Applications close
- 26 June 2026
What you'll receive
- You'll receive a stipend of $37,010 per annum for a maximum duration of 3.5 years while undertaking a QUT PhD. The duration includes an extension of up to six months (PhD) if approved for your candidature. This is the full-time, tax-exempt rate which will index annually.
- You will receive a tuition fee offset/sponsorship, covering the cost of your tuition fees for the first four full-time equivalent years of your doctoral studies.
- As the scholarship recipient, you will have the opportunity to work with a team of leading researchers, to undertake your own innovative research in and across the field.
Eligibility
- You need to meet the entry requirements for a QUT Doctor of Philosophy, including any English language requirements.
- Enrol as a full-time, internal student (unless approval for part-time and/or external study is obtained).
- You must commence your degree by September 2026.
Within the program of research on Climate-Driven Biofilm Destabilisation and Contaminant Release in Drinking Water Systems, two PhD scholarships are available for wet-lab work (PhD-1 Microbial Mechanisms of Piped Water Biofilm Destabilisation; PhD-2 Omics Indicators and Risk-Relevant Biomarkers of Release Events) and one each for risk assessment (PhD-3 Quantitative Risk Assessment of Biofilm-Derived Hazards) and management (PhD-4 Predictive Modelling and Mitigation of Contaminant Release).
Each requires an applicant with an honours (first class or equivalent) or MSc in environmental microbiology, microbial ecology, environmental engineering, or closely related field.
- Demonstrated experience in microbial laboratory techniques (e.g. cultivation, DNA/RNA extraction, qPCR, sequencing workflows), and capacity to work in PC2/BSL-2 laboratory environments and follow biosafety protocols.
- Also highly desirable is to have strong grounding in biofilm science or aquatic microbiology; experience with pipe reactors, flow systems, or biofilm reactors (lab or field); prior work with extracellular vesicles or host–pathogen systems (e.g. amoebae–bacteria interactions, including Legionella); and familiarity with metal/metalloid assays (e.g. As, Cu, Fe, Sb, Zn), disinfection by-products, multi-omics approaches, and/or opportunistic pathogens and AMR indicators.
- Strong quantitative/statistical data skills, understanding of water quality processes and experience/aptitude for Bayesian/statistical modelling with uncertainty analysis or programming skills in Python, MATLAB or equivalent and a background in hydraulic, kinetic or systems models.
- Also highly desirable to have experience with QMRA frameworks and health-based targets, familiarity with metals, DBPs and opportunistic pathogens or experience with network modelling tools (e.g. EPANET), familiarity with water distribution systems and interest in contaminant transport.
Candidate attributes include:
- for PhD-1 and 2: the ability to link microbial function to physicochemical drivers (e.g. metals, DBPs, redox shifts), experimental design capability across controlled stressor dosing and event-based water exposures, and strong quantitative reasoning and reproducible research practices
- for PhD-3 and 4: being a systems thinker linking microbial processes to health-related thresholds, interest in decision-support tools and real-world deployment and guideline development.
How to apply
- Apply for this scholarship at the same time you apply for admission to a QUT Doctor of Philosophy.
- The first step is to email Professor Nicholas Ashbolt detailing your academic and research background, your motivation to research in this field and interest in this scholarship, and include your CV.
- If supported to apply, you will then submit an expression of interest (EOI) following the advice at how to apply for a research degree.
- In your EOI, nominate Professor Nicholas Ashbolt as your proposed principal supervisor, and copy the link to this scholarship website into question two of the financial details section.
About the scholarship
Drinking water distribution systems are increasingly subject to climate-driven perturbations - including extreme rainfall, bushfires, drought-to-flood transitions, and shifting source-water blends - that introduce rapid changes in redox conditions, metals, organic matter, nutrients, and disinfectant demand. These chemical shocks propagate through networks and interact with pipe biofilms, which function as dynamic biogeochemical reactors rather than passive deposits. As a result, many critical water quality incidents arise within the distribution system itself, where biofilm destabilisation and sloughing events can mobilise accumulated contaminants such as metals, carcinogenic disinfection by-products, and opportunistic pathogens. These processes are fundamentally microbially mediated, involving stress-response pathways, redox-driven transformations, interactions with protozoan hosts (including amplification of pathogens such as Legionella), and the exchange of regulatory and genetic material via extracellular vesicles.
Despite advances in monitoring, current practice relies on bulk indicators that lag behind the underlying processes driving rapid release events, leaving a critical gap in early-warning capability and predictive control. This program addresses that gap through an integrated approach spanning mechanistic microbiology, multi-omics (leveraging platforms such as KEGG), Raman-based metabolite profiling, and risk translation via Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment. These insights are coupled with advanced modelling frameworks that integrate microbial processes with hydraulics and water chemistry (e.g. EPANET and TEVA-SPOT), enabling probabilistic prediction of contaminant release and evaluation of mitigation strategies. Collectively, the four PhD projects shift drinking water management from reactive monitoring toward mechanism-informed, predictive control of biofilm-mediated risks under a changing climate.