Right now Australia’s grains industry is in the market for bright young scientists and it is out to attract them with a combination of study support, international travel and the opportunity to work in cutting-edge science.

The Value Added Wheat Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) – in which the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC)  has considerable investments – is looking for eight bright students to take up PhD Scholarships next year.

One scholarship is for PhD study in industrial biochemistry – interaction between wheat glutens and proteins – and another is to study non-GMO, targeted mutagenesis technology for wheat.

The main emphasis, though, in six projects which start in March 2004, is on training in modern plant breeding techniques, using classical and modern molecular techniques to address Australian wheat industry issues; these scholarships include an international study trip.

Value Added Wheat CRC education and technology transfer manager, Clare Johnson, says the centre wants to integrate training in new technologies into the study programs of successful PhD applicants.

“The Wheat CRC and GRDC carried out a joint economic study and found that, to get maximum benefit from every research dollar spent, we must make sure Australia rapidly incorporates desirable traits into new breeding lines,” Ms Johnson said.

“ With its partners, the Wheat CRC has co-developed revolutionary, high-throughput genotyping technology for wheat and barley, which will dramatically speed-up non-GMO wheat breeding,” Ms Johnson said.

“ The technology is capable of achieving in a matter of days what formerly took a year, at a  cost dramatically less than for current services.

“These new technologies could allow Australia’s grain industry  to move away from the commodity mentality associated with its declining terms of trade and make possible a higher value crop delivering specific, identifiable benefits to the nation’s grain customers.

“Wheat accounts for 25% of all Australian farm production, about 16% of our total farm exports and 18% of the global wheat trade. A single 1% improvement in the quality of Australia’s wheat crop would be  worth $50 million a year to growers, processors and consumers.” 

Ms Johnson says the PhD scholarships offered by the Value Added Wheat CRC involve a tax-free stipend of $22,771 indexed annually, plus operating and training allowances of $10,000 and $1500 respectively.