PhD Scholarship – Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence (DFSV)

The University of Notre Dame Australia is a Catholic university with campuses in Fremantle, Broome and Sydney. The Objects of the University are the provision of university education within a context of Catholic faith and values and the provision of an excellent standard of teaching, scholarship and research, training for the professions and the pastoral care of its students.

PhD Scholarship: Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence (DFSV). Full-Time, $42,000 p.a

About the Scholarship

The scholarship supports the strategic priorities of the NSW ACT Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Research Network (DFSVRN), a collaboration of 12 universities and key NSW government agencies. The Network delivers a coordinated research agenda to inform policy and practice in priority areas for departments such as the NSW Department of Communities and Justice. This project is supported by the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer through the Doctoral Training Centre in Violence Prevention initiative.

• Stipend valued at $42,000 per annum (tax-free, indexed).

• Tuition Fee Offset scholarship for domestic students valued at approximately $20,000 per annum.

• Find out more: notredame.edu.au/scholarships.

Degree options

Students may enrol in Notre Dame's research degrees: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Duration of the candidature: 3 years full-time. Please note that the standard duration of candidature is 3 years full-time. If the extension of candidature is approved, the stipend will be paid for a maximum of 3.5 years full-time.

Eligibility

Applicants are required to have completed an Honours or Masters degree, usually including a previous short dissertation (such as an Honours thesis) and based in Sydney. Specific eligibility criteria for the PhD can be found here: notredame.edu.au/hdr

2027 applications

Semester 1 start

Please complete the Expression of Interest (EoI) form and enter "DFSV Doctoral Training Centre’" under the Area of Research. The EoI is due by Tuesday, 11th August, 2026.

https://www.notredame.edu.au/forms/hdr/research-eoi

Once you have been invited to apply following the EoI, you must submit your official admission application by Friday, 28th August, 2026.

The successful applicant will join the Network’s community of practice through the Doctoral Training Centre – a strategic initiative established to foster cross-sector collaboration, strengthen evidence-based practice, and advance applied research. Students from all 12 university partners will benefit from a collaborative environment, with access to events, professional development and opportunities for industry engagement with government.

We seek proactive, multi-disciplinary PhD students from academia, government and/or frontline services who are committed to building safer communities across NSW.

Successful PhD projects will:

• Align with government priorities by directly addressing defined government needs and policy agendas, embedding end‐users in problem definition and decision-making.

Projects may also address some of the following objectives:

• Promote multidisciplinary collaboration by leveraging diverse disciplines, such as social work, public health, data science and the broader human services sector – spanning multicultural health, disability, housing, justice, child protection, out of home care and youth work —to generate richer insights and slice datasets in novel ways.
• Develop an embedded, applied research model by structuring PhDs as “Industry PhDs”, Professional PhDs or end-user scholarships, embedding students within government or community organisations for site visits, co-supervision and hands-on problem solving, or alternatively, embedding students in industry and providing them with an opportunity to engage in academia through the DTC model. 
• Integrate knowledge translation by making translation — whether it be from evidence to policy and practice; or evidence from practice to policy — as a core requirement for the student, supported by frameworks for co-design, stakeholder engagement and policy-relevant outputs.
• Include flexible PhD outcomes by enabling alternative/integrated submission models (e.g., peer-reviewed articles, policy papers, implementation toolkits, professional doctorates etc) alongside traditional theses to maximise practical uptake.
• Support practitioner–researcher partnerships through a model which pairs non-practitioner researchers with frontline practitioners, and frontline practitioner researchers with academic counterparts, in counter-violent extremism, domestic violence or other fields to ensure findings reflect real-world contexts and support iterative learning. The DTC will support students embedded in practice (including non-scholarship students) to join and contribute to the DTC.
• Integrate lived-experience by encouraging and supporting people with lived (or living) experience to be involved in research – as researchers, advisors, designers, participants and evaluators - to ground research and practice in authentic perspectives and promote culturally safe practice.

The initiative is funded by 12 NSW universities and the NSW Office of the Chief Scientist and Engineer (OCSE) under the NSW Government’s Research Attraction and Acceleration Program (RAAP).

Potential UNDA supervisors and areas:

• Prof. Lisa Wood – for projects related to DFSV in contexts of homelessness and health impacts.
• Dr Denise Buiten – for projects related to gender in DFSV, media representations and impacts, filicide in the context of DFV, and boys and masculinities.
• Prof. Camilla Nelson - for projects related to children and young people, boys and masculinities, media representations, and family court and justice systems in the context of DFSV.
• A/Prof Melissa Marshall (Director, Nulungu Research Institute) for projects related to Priority Area 5 (Family Violence in Aboriginal Communities).

Enquiries: [email protected] or [email protected]