UA looks forward to working with the Department of Education in promulgating information to universities about this important program when it is established.
Overall comments
The discovery process between industry and universities will be a potential risk. Section 9.6 notes that the Service Provider will be responsible for promotion and administration of the program. UA would welcome further detail in relation to how this might work.
- As noted in section 4.7 in our comments, UA welcomes the financial support for industry but is concerned that SMEs in particular will not have project lengths that span the full length of a PhD.
- During the consultation sessions with the ARC on Industry Fellowships earlier this year, the idea was raised that the candidate (for the Industry Linked PhD stream) could work with multiple industry partners. This does not appear to be possible under the proposed rules. This could be explored, perhaps through a small pilot with industry partners drawn together through an industry representative body.
