The intention is that each round of the Fellowship Program will appoint one or more packages of a Premier's Science Fellow and a supporting Premier's Early to Mid-Career (EMC) Fellow per package, subject to the availability of funding.
Each package must address a specific area of need/opportunity (Specific Area of Research) of strategic importance to WA that falls within one or more of the following WA Government science and innovation priority areas:
- energy
- environment
- food
- health
- mining
- space
- technology.
Each round will provide a number of options for the Specific Area of Research to be targeted by each application for a package.
Appointed Fellows will be expected to:
- deliver a range of benefits for WA
- build on existing capacities and opportunities within WA
- strengthen WA's national and international research standing
- increase research capability and capacity (people and facilities)
- improve collaboration
- enhance engagement with industry and other end-users
- attract research funding
- be ambassadors for science in WA, including for the general public.
2023 Round
We are now accepting applications to the 2023 Round for a package of a Premier's Science Fellow and a Premier's Early to Mid-Career Fellow to address a nominated Specific Area of Research in WA, which must be one of the following five specific options (1, 2, 3, 4 or 5) or a Specific Area of Research under the 'Other' option as stipulated:
- Future fuels, and/or next generation energy storage, for decarbonisation.
- Quantum computing; quantum communications; or quantum sensing and measurement.
- Sustainable exploration and discovery, or processing, of critical minerals.
- Advanced mechatronics, for example robotic, autonomous systems, intelligent systems or biomechatronics.
- BIoinformatics and/or computational biology for life sciences challenges.
- Other (in which case the Specific Area of Research nominated for the package must fall under one or more of the following priority areas: energy, environment, food, health, mining, space and technology).
Applications must be submitted by one or more eligible host organisations based in WA. Two or more host organisations for each application is optional. However, if there are two or more host organisations for a successful application, collaboration between the host organisations and each of the Fellows will be mandatory.
The WA Government funding available through the 2023 Round to support an appointed package is $1 million over four years for the Premier's Science Fellowship and $0.5 million over four years for the Premier's EMC Fellowship, which must be matched by external committed cash co-investment for the package at a minimum 1:1 ratio.
Applications
- Read the Applicant Information, which includes the objectives, the role requirements for the Fellows, the eligibility criteria and the selection criteria for this round.
- Complete parts A and B of the Application Form.
- Submission instructions and guidance notes for completion of the application forms are contained within the form.
- The electronic copy of the completed Application Form (Parts A and B) and all supporting documentation requested in this form, signed as required in the form, must be received at the department by email by 3:00 pm (AWST) on Tuesday 29 August 2023.
- Late or incomplete applications will not be accepted. No other supporting or additional documentation beyond what is required by the application form should be submitted as it will not be used in the evaluation stage.
Contact us
Show moreDr Ros Dilworth
Senior Policy Officer
Email: science@jtsi.wa.gov.au
2022 Round
Show moreThe 2022 Round of the Fellowship Program sought applications to address a Specific Area of Research in WA, for which the options were one of the following four specific options (1, 2, 3 or 4) or the ‘Other’ option as stipulated:
1. New energy technologies.
2. Data analytics and tools, such as AI, deep learning, modelling, quantum computing.
3. Coastal science.
4. Remote sensing.
5. Other (in which case the Specific Area of Research nominated for the package must fall under one or more of the following priority areas: energy, environment, food, health, mining, space and technology).
This round has been finalised, and the outcomes will be announced in due course.
2019-20 Round
Show moreThe 2019-20 Round of the Fellowship Program sought applications to address a Specific Area of Research in WA, for which the options were one of the following three specific options (1,2 or 3) or the 'Other' option as stipulated:
- Remote asset management.
- New energy technologies.
- Mine rehabilitation and closure.
- Other (in which case the Specific Area of Research must fall under one or more of the following priority areas: energy, environment, food, health, mining, space and technology).
Unfortunately, no appointments eventuated under this round as the recommended candidate and host organisation for the Premier's Science Fellow were unable to take up the offer of the Fellowship from the Minister for Science.
2018-19 Round
Show moreThe 2018-19 Round of the Fellowship Program sought applications to address the following Area of Research in WA:
- automation;
- robotics;
- artificial intelligence; and/or
- machine learning.
The Premier's Early to Mid-Career (EMC) Fellow appointed under this round is Dr Mengbin (Ben) Ye.
Dr Ye's research is assisting to advance artificial intelligence (AI) research in WA by growing a new interdisciplinary area of AI research which sits at the intersection of engineering, mathematics and social science.
His work focuses on the mathematical modelling of opinion formation and collective decision-making in complex social networks.
These models will be used to explore how interactions in social networks cause opinions to change over time and how new ideas and behaviours spread.
Dr Ye is undertaking his research at Curtin University. He was attracted to WA from the Netherlands where he moved after completing a PhD at The Australian National University in Canberra.
2017 Round
Show moreThe 2017 Round of the Fellowship Program selected a package of a Premier's Science Fellow and a Premier's EMC Fellow to address the following Area of Research:
World-leading human phenomics research (using metabolic phenotyping) and data analytics with clinical applications targeted at precision medicine to deliver healthcare benefits and opportunities to WA, including economic and social benefits.
Metabolic phenotyping (profiling) in biological systems involves the measurement and analysis of metabolites in biological materials such as blood and urine. Metabolites can help explain what is happening at a phenotypic level (observable physical and biochemical characteristics) as a result of the interactions between our genes and environmental factors, including lifestyle, diet, drug treatment and microbiomes (the microbial communities that live in and on our bodies).
Large-scale human metabolic phenotyping in human health and disease, and correlation with clinical data, aims to increase understanding to enable faster diagnosis and more effective treatments, including precision medicine.
Precision medicine is an emerging approach to disease prevention, detection and treatment tailored to the individual patient, subpopulation or population.
The potential contribution of metabolic phenotyping to precision medicine holds considerable promise, including for the development of indicators (biomarkers) for diagnosis and prognosis to aid clinical decision-making, analysis of drug suitability (effectiveness and safety), and monitoring patient journeys in hospital environments to improve patient care and reduce time in hospital.
Appointed Fellows
The following Fellows were appointed under the 2017 Round of the Fellowship Program:
- Premier’s Science Fellow: Professor Elaine Holmes
- Premier’s EMC Fellow: Dr Ruey Leng Loo.
Professor Holmes and Dr Loo relocated from the United Kingdom in early 2019 to commence their Fellowships. They are based in the Australian National Phenome Centre (ANPC), which is led by Murdoch University and located in the Perkins South building on the Fiona Stanley Hospital Campus.
- Professor Holmes and Dr Loo are assisting WA to play a significant role in human phenomics research (using metabolic phenotyping) targeted at precision medicine by building on the State's strengths in metabolic phenotyping.
In addition to advancing precision medicine, metabolic phenotyping also offers WA opportunities to:
- build on the WA's strengths associated with clinical trials and internationally recognised population health cohorts, such as the Busselton Health Study and the WA Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study
- not only link metabolic phenotyping data with health, lifestyle and clinical data, but also with genomics and proteomics data, and potentially imaging data.
Professor Holmes
Professor Holmes has over 20 years' experience in metabolic phenotyping technology and its applications, underpinned by analysis and integration of complex data. She is one of the pioneers and leading researchers in this field. Before taking up her Premier’s Science Fellowship, Professor Holmes was Head of the Division of Computational and Systems Medicine at Imperial College London.
Her Premier's Fellowship Project has two complementary parts:
- Development of the technology platform and increasing the capability and reputation of WA in metabolic profiling.
- Application of the technology platform to address unmet needs in four exemplar clinical fields:
- the impact of early life environment (in utero and newborn) on childhood and adult health – to identify early indicators of downstream adverse health events and potential interventions
- phenomic characterisation of the liver and gastrointestinal diseases – for improved diagnosis, patient classification and new potential therapies
- host-gut microbiome interactions in metabolic disease – to increase understanding and provide opportunities for new interventions
- early metabolic predictors of dementia.
A key objective of this project is to create a framework for delivering high-quality metabolic phenotyping data to academics, clinicians and industry to serve the emerging area of precision medicine and to bridge the translational medicine gap between research and clinical implementation.
Professor Holmes resigned as a Premier’s Science Fellow on 31 January 2021 to take up a prestigious Australian Laureate Fellowship from the Australian Research Council (ARC). She remains in WA to deepen understanding through her new ARC Fellowship of age-related changes in our gut microbes (which affect health and wellbeing, including in the ageing process).
Premier's EMC Fellow Dr Loo is now leading the above project previously led by Professor Holmes through her Premier’s Science Fellowship as part of an expanded EMC Fellowship Project. However, one of the four exemplar clinical fields above (phenomic characterisation of the liver and gastrointenstinal diseases) has been replaced with phenomic characterisation of infectious disease, specifically of COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccination. This change reflects a shifted focus by the ANPC in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Loo
Dr Loo has expertise and experience in epidemiological studies and data analytics for metabolic phenotyping (particularly data modelling and visualisation), and specific phenomics research interests in nutrition and health.
Before commencing her Premier’s EMC Fellowship, she was a Senior Lecturer at the Medway School of Pharmacy, Universities of Greenwich and Kent. She and Professor Holmes have been research collaborators since Professor Holmes was one of her PhD supervisors.
From 1 February 2021, Dr Loo’s EMC Fellowship Project comprises the project previously led by Professor Holmes as well as Dr Loo’s original project related to precision nutrition. The latter project involves research aimed at delivering new knowledge of dietary influence on human metabolism and the microbiome in health/disease and providing a translational bridge to the food science industry.
Dr Loo’s work is also helping to build critical mass in phenomics data analytics in WA.
