Research-focus outlines for research degrees

Explore our diverse range of research-focus outlines, designed to showcase VU’s areas of research expertise. 

To be considered for admission to a research program and to be eligible for a scholarship, your application must align with one of our research-focus outlines. 

Select one or more outlines that closely match your research interests and experience and contact the Principal Supervisor/s to discuss your suitability. 

Explore our research outlines

Research theme

Showing 1 to 17 of 233 results

Innovating education & future proofing Australia's workforce
Actual and Perceived Challenges of Women in STEM
This PhD project investigates the persistent underrepresentation of women in STEM professions, despite significant policy efforts and investment aimed at improving gender equity. Using role theory as the guiding framework, the study will explore both perceived and actual challenges faced by women in STEM industries, including cultural, organisational, and structural barriers to entry, retention, and advancement.
Institute: Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable CitiesField of research: 3507 Strategy, management and organisational behaviour
Innovating education & future proofing Australia's workforce
Climate change curriculum development: Identifying Themes and Key Concepts constituting the non-scientific aspects of climate change and their application to the curriculum, including social, governance, economic, ethical, and philosophical aspects.
The research is situated in the field of climate change (CC) education. It aims to support CC curriculum development. Over the past 20 years, much progress has been made in developing the scientific aspects of the CC curriculum. Key concepts such as the carbon cycle, climate modelling, and climate scenarios have been introduced into the curricula of many countries.
Institute: Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable CitiesField of research: 3901 Curriculum and pedagogy
Innovating education & future proofing Australia's workforce
Developing capacity to deliver inclusive education with PRIDE- promoting respectful, inclusive diversity equality.
This project explores the capabilities of in-service and pre-service teachers to provide LGBTQI+ inclusive education amidst rising governmental oversight and societal intolerance. In an era marked by a resurgence of conservative policies and an increasingly polarised social climate, educators face significant challenges in fostering inclusive environments for all students.
Institute: Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable CitiesField of research: 3904 Specialist studies in education
Innovating education & future proofing Australia's workforce
Early Childhood Education - risky play
Through VU Play (pop up play in public places), loose parts play, and post humanist understandings of place, VU is building strength in examining and understanding the role of risky play. Our research focuses on play, the ethics of play, and play in urban places. This project on risk and safety identifies and analyses how risk is perceived and understood in different contexts.
Institute: Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable CitiesField of research: 3903 Education systems
Innovating education & future proofing Australia's workforce
Governance at the Edge: Preparing Education for GenAI-Powered Smart Glasses and Wearable Technologies
This project explores how GenAI-powered smart glasses and wearable technologies will reshape education, focusing on governance, policy, risk, and institutional readiness. Embedded within the Smart Glasses Lab, the research critically examines ethical, privacy, and equity challenges, supporting responsible technology integration aligned with evolving voluntary guardrails.
Institute: Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable CitiesField of research: 3903 Education systems
Innovating education & future proofing Australia's workforce
Improving graduate capabilities and building health workforce through use of innovative educational models
Australia is facing a health workforce shortage due to the ever increasing demands for better health services across the population. Universities across Australia are faced with the challenge to train future workforce to combat this ongoing shortage. However, the capacity of programs to train sufficient graduates to meet this demand is often limited due to a lack of innovative training methods in current courses.
Institute: Institute for Health & SportField of research: 4206 Public health
Innovating education & future proofing Australia's workforce
Language and communication skills of adolescents with pathological demand avoidance
The aim of the research is to determine if secondary students with demand avoidance profiles are at greater risk of imprisonment due to low literacy and language. The research will aim to answer the question of whether unaccommodated PDA profiles at a secondary level are linked to the number of children in juvenile detention and the number of adults in prison.
Institute: Institute for Health & SportField of research: 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
Innovating education & future proofing Australia's workforce
Teaching with Responsible AI: Governance, Risk, and Readiness for Emerging Technologies in Education
This project investigates how responsible AI, including GenAI-powered tools and wearable technologies like smart glasses, is reshaping educational practice. Based within the Teaching with Responsible AI Network (TRAIN), the research critically examines the governance, ethical risks, and policy challenges associated with AI integration in teaching and learning.
Institute: Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable CitiesField of research: 3903 Education systems
Sport that inspires elite performance, community participation and healthy living
A multi-disciplinary approach to understanding talent development in youth female athletes
Maribyrnong Sports Academy (MSA), a State Government Funded Specialist Sports School Program, provides a unique training and education environment for aspiring athletes in Melbourne’s inner west. Of the 575 enrolled students, 45% are female. Research into female talent identification and development is sparse hence practitioners working in talent development environments have limited knowledge of the physical, psychological, technical and tactical markers that progress into high performance for female athletes.
Institute: Institute for Health & SportField of research: 4207 Sports science and exercise
Sport that inspires elite performance, community participation and healthy living
Advancing the accuracy of movement analysis technology application for skilful performance
Motion capture technology is increasingly used across sport, healthcare, and corporate settings to better understand human movement. Elite sports organisations, like Major League Baseball and Grand Slam Tennis, use advanced non-invasive systems to improve performance, monitor injury risk, and support officiating. In community health and fitness, wearable devices and portable tools now offer individuals and practitioners access to basic movement data.
Institute: Institute for Health & SportField of research: 4207 Sports science and exercise
Sport that inspires elite performance, community participation and healthy living
Advancing the application of movement analysis technology for sports-skill analysis in youth talent identification
Identifying athletic potential early remains a major challenge in youth sport with traditional methods relying on basic testing or subjective observation. This project explores how uniaxial force plates can provide objective, sport-specific insights by analysing key movements like jumping and landing and understanding their relationship with sport specific skills.
Institute: Institute for Health & SportField of research: 4207 Sports science and exercise
Sport that inspires elite performance, community participation and healthy living
Child Safety in Sport: Advancing Evidence, Rights, and Prevention of Abuse
We are seeking a PhD candidate committed to advancing knowledge and practice in child safeguarding within sport. The project can be shaped around the applicant’s background and interests, with potential areas of focus including the lived experiences of individuals impacted by abuse/violence in sport, critical analyses of governance structures, policies, and organisational cultures that enable or prevent harm, or the exploration of prevention/intervention initiatives related to child safeguarding.
Institute: Institute for Health & SportField of research: 4207 Sports science and exercise
Sport that inspires elite performance, community participation and healthy living
Enhancing health and exercise performance through body heating or cooling
The enhancement of physical performance and muscle function is important for athletic success and for maintaining or restoring good health. Growing evidence indicates that heating or cooling, either alone or combined with exercise, can induce multiple beneficial physical adaptations, leading to enhanced physical performance, muscle function and health. Opportunities exist within this research program to conduct a range of research projects which explore these benefits.
Institute: Institute for Health & SportField of research: 4207 Sport science and exercise
Sport that inspires elite performance, community participation and healthy living
Integration of Skill Acquisition Principles for the Development of Skill in Applied Sport Settings
This research project aims to explore how different practice conditions can be integrated to influence the development of skill in applied sport contexts. Traditional and contemporary skill acquisition approaches provide what seems like divergent theoretical accounts of skill development, however, the practical recommendation of these seemingly contrasting accounts of skill acquisition may not be as divergent as is sometimes portrayed.
Institute: Institute for Health & SportField of research: 4207 Sports science and exercise

Research themes

Learn about our research themes and related areas of study.

Innovating education & future-proofing Australia's workforce

Curriculum and pedagogy; education systems; information systems; psychology; public health; specialist studies in education; and strategy, management and organisational behaviour.

Sport for performance, community participation & healthy living

Sports science and exercise; sport history, culture and sociology; and medical physiology.

Health & wellbeing solutions

AI developments in health; biochemistry and cell biology; biomedical engineering; clinical sciences; health services and systems; medical physiology; neurosciences; nutrition and dietetics; nursing; public health; psychology; sports science and exercise; and strategy, management and organisational behaviour.

Transforming communities through policy, practice & governance

Accounting; artificial intelligence; criminology; economics; education policy; history; information systems; psychology; sociology; and strategy, management and organisational behaviour.

Smart, sustainable & liveable cities

Accounting; Artificial Intelligence; building; built environment and design; engineering; food sciences; and transportation, logistics and supply chain

'By community, for community’ First Nations Knowledge

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, language and history; and social and personality psychology.

Apply for a research stipend scholarship

Indigenous student Stella Rose Lay in laboratory
Domestic research scholarships
Grace Tay, international MBA student
International research scholarships
Two students wearing t-shirts with Australian Aboriginal flag, engaged in discussion and looking at laptop.
Moondani Balluk research scholarships

Contact us

Let us know if you have any questions about scholarship opportunities and how to apply.

+61 3 9199 6100
researchscholarships@vu.edu.au