PhD Scholarship: Advancing Paediatric Burn Care: Improving Outcomes for Children

Job Description

We are currently seeking a motivated PhD candidate to join an innovative and impactful 5-year paediatric burn care research program. This program aims to ensure that all Australian children, regardless of their geographic location, receive equitable, high-quality early burn care. We invite applicants from diverse health-related fields—nursing, medicine, psychology, pharmacy, occupational therapy, and medical sciences, who are interested in clinical trials, implementation science, pain management, health equity, and translational research.

Candidates will be supported by a multidisciplinary team to select and co-design a project aligned with one of the following key program aims:

• Improve urgent burn care: Co-develop and evaluate a burns care bundle for children in rural and remote areas through codesign with frontline clinicians and community partners.
• Improve complex burn care: Translate advanced therapies (e.g., negative pressure wound therapy) from tertiary to regional settings using an implementation science framework.
• Improve pain and distress in burns: Evaluate immersive technologies to reduce procedural pain and distress for children presenting to emergency departments.

This opportunity includes collaboration with the Queensland Children’s Hospital and access to national and international burns research networks.

Qualifications

The selection of applicants for the award of higher degree research scholarships at Griffith University involves consideration of your academic merit and research background. To be successful in this role, you will be a curious and compassionate emerging researcher with a health, science or allied health background, bringing a strong academic foundation and a passion for enhancing care for vulnerable children.  You  will have a willingness to collaborate in interdisciplinary teams and across health services.

• Expressions of interest are welcome from domestic and international applicants.
• Applicants must have completed, or expect to complete, a bachelors degree with honours equivalent to first class honours or a Masters degree (AQF Level 9) incorporating a significant research component of a standard comparable to a bachelor honours degree or be regarded by Griffith University as having an equivalent level of attainment in accordance with Schedule One of the HDR Scholarship Procedure.  For further information on the eligibility requirements for the program refer here.

Please note:

• We encourage applications from nursing, medical, psychology, pharmacy, OT, and medical science graduates.

International applicants should ensure that English Language Proficiency requirements for the program are met before formally applying. Applicants to research programs will need to show they meet:

1. A minimum overall band score of 6.5 on the IELTS (Academic) with no band score less than 6.0 OR
2. A minimum score of 575 on the paper-based TOEFL including a score of no less than 5.0 on the TWE OR
3. A score of 79 on the internet-based (iBT) TOEFL with no sub-score less than 19