Achieve your organisation’s goals while helping shape the next generation of emerging talent.
Our Student Industry Projects give public/private industry, governmental, and not-for-profit organisations access to some of Australia’s best and brightest minds across the fields of Biotechnology, Data Science and Environmental Science/Climate Science.
Teams of final-year Master’s students work collaboratively to deliver innovative and tangible solutions to your organisation’s ‘real-world’ business challenges, supervised by the University of Melbourne’s leading academic staff.
Partner with a top 20 university driving real-world impact
1. Average of latest ARWU, QS and Times Higher Education (THE) global university rankings / 2. QS World University Rankings 2027
How it works
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The business problem
Your organisation defines a business problem and submits an industry project request.
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Project allocation
Project teams are allocated and students sign a confidentiality agreement.
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Meet your project team
Project teams organise a kick-off meeting with their host.
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Work in progress
Join fortnightly status meetings throughout project.
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Halfway point
Receive a mid-year presentation of project progress so far.
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Deliverables
Final presentation and report completed, as well as any other deliverables as defined by host.
What are the benefits to your organisation?
- Access graduate students with cutting-edge knowledge
- Expand your talent pipeline and employee brand
- Dedicated student team providing solutions to your unique challenges
- Receive a detailed report and presentation of key recommendations
- Connect with academic staff and engage with the University’s world-class technology and research
- No cost to your organisation.
It's great to see students bring their diverse skills and experiences to life through their contributions and collaboration on projects. Javier Valderrama, Arcadis
Choose from three specialised study streams
Get targeted solutions to challenges in your industry with students studying the latest in Biotech, Data Science and Environmental Science/Climate Science.
Biotechnology
Work with graduate students studying biotechnology to meet challenges in your industry.
Data Science
Work with graduate students studying Data Science to meet challenges in your industry.
Environmental Science and Climate Science
Work with graduate students studying Environmental Science and Climate Science to meet challenges in your industry.
What does an industry project look like?
It’s up to you - our partners define a project of value to their organisation and provide a project brief. Once a project is confirmed, we form a team of 3-5 students and assign a leading academic who will support the group throughout the project. Our teams receive intensive training prior to commencement and throughout the project to ensure they are equipped to deliver results.
Projects can be hosted locally and/or overseas and run across the full academic year (March to October – approximately 20 weeks). Meetings, progress reports and other interactions with the student team are all at your discretion, with students generally completing the bulk of the project offsite. A final report and presentation are delivered in October.
Frequently asked questions
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Project briefs can be accepted at any time of the year. However, projects commence for Biotechnology and Data Science in March each year. Environmental Science/Climate Science projects can commence in either March or August each year.
For a project to commence in March, your project brief needs to be submitted by 1 February to ensure there is adequate time to review and confirm the project. This will also ensure the University’s Vocational Placement Letter Agreement, which outlines the terms and conditions, managing confidentiality and assigning of intellectual property, is in place.
There is a mid-year check in at the end of May with a final report and presentation to your organisation in October. Hosts will be asked to submit formal feedback on the project at this time.
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The intellectual property remains with the host company with permission for the student to use the work as part of their studies and assessment.
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You are providing a genuine learning opportunity for students to work on a real-world problem of strategic relevance to your organisation. In addition to receiving credit towards their degree, the students also enhance their professional skills by completing the industry project.
Within the project, students conduct research and analysis to provide recommendations that may be implemented by your organisation at a future date. They are not completing any day-to-day work tasks which would normally be undertaken by an employee.
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Being based in Melbourne is not a requirement. Industry projects are generally undertaken off site, so location is no barrier for engaging a team of students.
Many organisations have remote employees, and similarly, our diverse student population is located around the globe. We have successfully completed projects based in several interstate and international locations.
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Yes. This would be an employment agreement between the student and your organisation.
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Yes. If you or your organisation has the capacity to support multiple projects, we are happy to assign multiple project teams to the same host contact/organisation. Because science crosses many disciplines, some hosts have had concurrent projects in Biotechnology and Data Science, as well as Environmental Science and Biotechnology.
What's your project?
Contact the Careers and Industry team to find out how we can collaborate to achieve your organisation’s goals.