Ongoing project
National PhD scholarship scheme – driving research innovation (LP15007)
Key research provider: Various
What’s it all about?
By awarding scholarships to PhD students from a range of disciplines, this initiative is about encouraging blue-sky, cross-sector research that will benefit the Australian horticulture industry for years to come.
To date, PhD research being supported by the scholarships includes:
- Precision agriculture. Using crop-based sensor and precision agriculture technologies to directly and accurately assess irrigation/fertigation needs in specific areas of a crop, and then meet those needs in a precisely timed and targetted way. Crops anticipated to be involved in the work include avocado, macadamia and vegetables including capsicum and chilli.
- Protected cropping. Looking at the potential to expand protective cropping in Australia's warmer tropical regions, and improve protected cropping in subtropical regions, with a focus on systems to improve crop quality and crop longevity under protected cropping.