US academics will undertake regionally-relevant research at institutions as part of the Regional Universities Network (RUN) in Australia, after the network announced a partnership with the Australian-American Fulbright Commission.
“Each year for four years, RUN will fund two academics from the US to come to Australia, and undertake research relevant to rural and regional Australia,” chair of RUN Helen Bartlett said in a statement.
“This is the first opportunity of its kind in our 70-year history”
“The RUN Fulbright Scholar Award recipients will focus their work on one of RUN’s three collaborative research themes, which includes Crops and Food for the Future, Health and Wellbeing in the Regions, and New Industries.”
Scholars will be based at one of RUN’s seven universities in Australia, and will spend time at other RUN institutions to “deepen the collaboration and inspire RUN academics to become Fulbright Scholars”, Bartlett added.
“This is the first opportunity of its kind in our 70-year history, enabling US experts to work with a diverse range of institutions, from Far North Queensland to inland Victoria,” Fulbright Australia executive director Thomas Dougherty explained.
“The RUN Fulbright Scholar Award’s focus on regional issues has clear potential to improve the lives and livelihoods of Australians and Americans alike,” Dougherty noted.
The first two RUN Fulbright Scholar Award recipients have been named as Levon T. Esters from Purdue University and Courtney Meyers from Texas Tech University.
Esters will undertake a project examining Agricultural Career Education as a strategy to enhance tertiary and career prospects of youth and adults in regional, rural and remote areas at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba.
At Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, Meyers will build capacity to offer an agricultural communications academic program.
