CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, is developing partnerships with more than 100 businesses and universities to fund up to 195 university student scholarships for the Next Generation Graduates programs.
Students will be tackling 14 artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging technology challenges from a wide range of industries including health and aged care, critical infrastructure, clean energy, quantum technology, finance and sports science.
CSIRO’s Data61 Director, Prof Jon Whittle, said not only is there a broad range of industries represented, but he’s also thrilled to see universities from all over Australia involved in the program.
“We want to ensure Australia’s next wave of technology experts are drawn from rich and diverse communities across the country,” Prof Whittle said.
$14m from CSIRO’s Next Generation programs, with additional contribution from participating businesses, will fund the Honours, Masters and PhD scholarships.
The 14 new challenges are in addition to the 12 challenges announced by the program earlier this year, bringing the total number of scholarships on offer up to 360.
The multi-disciplinary nature of the Next Generation Graduates programs sets students up to have real-world impact.
“This unique program is important because multi-disciplinary teams will drive innovation into future,” Prof Whittle said.
CSIRO has estimated that Australian industry will need up to 161,000 new AI specialist and AI savvy workers by 2030.
The program will build a pipeline of home-grown, job-ready graduates to unlock the immense economic opportunity offered by artificial intelligence and emerging technologies.
A full list of awarded programs is available on the CSIRO website.