Queensland researchers and educators can now apply for a once-in-a-lifetime fellowship opportunity at the prestigious Smithsonian Institution.
The Queensland Government's 2025 Smithsonian Fellowship Program is now open for applications.
Individual grants up to $32,600 are available to staff from Queensland research, education and cultural agencies to travel to a Smithsonian Institute facility to collaborate with some of the world's leading researchers.
The Smithsonian Institution is one of the world's most prominent research centres, producing ground-breaking work into specialised fields from art conservation to species' survival.
Queensland Chief Scientist Professor Kerrie Wilison said the Queensland-Smithsonian Fellowships Program enabled collaborative research and cultural exchange between scholars from Queensland institutions and a Smithsonian Institution facility.
"Since 2001, the Queensland Government has awarded more than $1,000,000 to Queensland-Smithsonian fellows – boosting their knowledge and skills in their chosen field, while enhancing Queensland's scientific capabilities," she said.
"Projects undertaken by the fellows have covered a range of disciplines in the environmental and social sciences, natural and cultural heritage, earth sciences, and education and museum management.
"This program is a key element of our Future Queensland Science Strategy designed to leverage key partnerships and share knowledge, helping to build a world-leading science ecosystem that delivers economic impact as well as social and environmental outcomes."
Queensland-Smithsonian Fellow Cecilia Villacorta-Rath, a senior research officer at James Cook University's TropWATER, said her 2024 fellowship in Panama was incredibly valuable, enabling her to build on her work at TropWATER which focuses on environmental DNA (eDNA).
"The knowledge I obtained at the Smithsonian will greatly benefit Queensland. eDNA is an important tool allowing us to identify native pests in waterways, before they become established in a location," she said.
"This opportunity has really exposed me to new things going on and enabled me to network with people from a world-recognised institution, in a renowned lab in my field of research."
2011 Queensland-Smithsonian Fellow Nicholas Murray a former PhD student at the University of Queensland and now an Associate Professor at James Cook University, said his fellowship was a career-defining experience, which still supports his professional endeavours to this day.
"I really do appreciate the initiative and the benefits it has brought to me personally, and to the research I was able to conduct through the fellowship opportunity," he said.
"This collaboration helped to advance our understanding of how to monitor, manage and conserve Queensland's migratory species."
Applications for the 2025 fellowships close 14 May 2025.
