This scholarship is for an exceptional student to complete a transdisciplinary PhD on the topic of creative industries and innovation.. The candidate will build on the ground-breaking work developed at QUT that investigates the role creative workers in general, creative services, and ‘embedded’ creatives, play in contributing to innovation at the level of the firm, the sector and the general economy.
The scholarship and candidacy is part of a funded ARC Linkage Project led by Distinguished Professor Stuart Cunningham from the Digital Media Research Centre.
Available for
You have to be applying for a QUT course to apply for this scholarship.
Student type:
- Future domestic research students
- Future international research students
Study type:
- Postgraduate research
Faculty/area:
- Creative Industries
- Digital Media Research Centre
Application dates
Open date: 1 August 2017
Expressions of interest closing date: 31 August
Full application closing date (for short-listed applicants): 30 September
Eligibility details
You must meet the entry requirements for a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at QUT, including any English language requirements for international students.
You must also:
- meet QUT’s criteria for Honours 1 equivalence
- plan to research a topic that aligns with the research project
- be able to enrol as a full-time student
- Applicants from the following fields are invited to apply: cultural policy, innovation studies, cultural geography, cultural economics, sociology, media and communication, future of work.
It would be advantageous to have:
- familiarity with debates, both in Australia and internationally, around innovation and the role of creative industries in innovation
- familiarity with both social sciences and humanities methods and approaches, data sources, and key publications in the field.
You can’t apply if you:
- hold a research doctorate degree or equivalent research qualification
- are receiving an equivalent award, scholarship or salary to complete a research degree that provides a benefit greater than 75% of this scholarship’s stipend rate.
What you receive
You’ll receive:
- an annual living allowance paid fortnightly for up to 3 years, tax exempt and indexed annually ($26,682 in 2017)
How to apply
To apply for this scholarship, email your expression of interest to Professor Stuart Cunningham (s.cunningham@qut.edu.au), including:
- your CV
- a broad description of your approach to the research agenda of this project (maximum 500 words)
What happens next
We’ll assess your expression of interest and advise you on whether to go ahead with a full application, which would be due by 30 September. We will then advise you of the outcome of your application by the end of October. If your application is successful, you’ll need to accept the offer within 3 weeks. We expect you to begin your research degree at the start of 2018.
Conditions
The scholarship duration is up to 3 years. You are expected to complete your work and submit your thesis for external examination within this timeframe.
Background
The project undertaken by the successful PhD candidate will be closely aligned with a national ARC-funded Linkage project Australian cultural and creative activity: A population and hotspot analysis. The research team is Distinguished Prof. Stuart Cunningham, Prof. Greg Hearn, Prof. Patrik Wikström (QUT), Assoc. Prof.Phillip McIntyre and Dr Susan Kerrigan (Newcastle).
The project is based in QUT’s Digital Media Research Centre, under the Digital Media Industries, Economies and Regulation program. This project will examine the contemporary dynamics of cultural and creative activity in Australia.
It will: (1) significantly advance methodologically-innovative and policy-relevant research into Australian cultural and creative activity by closely integrating population-level and ‘hotspot’ analysis; (2) develop a comprehensive, contemporary national analysis of Australian cultural and creative activity, comparing Census 2016 data with Census 2011 and 2006, and complement this analysis with other relevant datasets; (3) conduct case studies of the role creatives in general, creative services, and embedded creatives play in contributing to innovation at the firm and the sector level in sectors which have well above average creative inputs; (4) create an empirically-derived taxonomy of creative hotspots based on concentrations of creative occupations, co-occurrence of creative occupations, size and growth of the creative sectors and correlations with other innovation and employment indicators; and (5) conduct focused qualitative studies of sample hotspots to understand and report on the underlying causes for their well above-average creative activity status, their potential for sustainable growth, and dynamics of the creative systems at work in the identified hotspots.