US scholarship program will be a boost for regional Australia

American scholars will conduct regionally relevant research in Australia under a new $300,000 scholarship program.

Courtney Meyers from Texas Tech University is one of the first two recipients of the Regional Universities Network UN Fulbright Scholar Award.

American scholars will conduct regionally relevant research under a new $300,000 scholarship program funded by the Regional Universities Network in partnership with the Australian-American Fulbright Commission.

Network chairwoman Helen Bartlett said two US academics would come each year for four years to conduct important research with applications to rural and regional Australia.

RUN Fulbright Scholar Award recipients will work on one of the network’s three collaborative research themes: crops and food for the future; health and wellbeing in the regions; and new industries. They will be based at one of its seven universities but also visit the others, working on research for up to four months.

Levon Esters from Purdue University.

The hope is that the scholars’ presence will not only deepen international collaboration but also “inspire RUN academics to become Fulbright scholars” themselves, Professor Bartlett said.

Fulbright Australia executive director Thomas Dougherty said the aim was to create links between institutions and scholars from regional Australia and “the American heartland” with the ­potential to “improve the lives and livelihoods of Australians and Americans alike”.

READ MORE: La Trobe offers pay cut to save jobs | The worst is over, now comes the hard part | Indonesia study programs face closure | Reinvest in the nation’s research

“This is the first opportunity of its kind in our 70-year history, enabling US experts to work with a diverse range of institutions, from far north Queensland to inland Victoria,” he said.

The first recipients are Levon Esters from Purdue University, who will be based at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba to undertake a project aimed at enhancing tertiary and career prospects for people in regional, rural and remote areas; and Courtney Meyers from Texas Tech University, who will be based at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga working on creating an agricultural communications qualification program.