Available PhD projects

Project type: PhD

Supervisor: Dr Bosco Rowland

Area: Development and prevention, mental health, adolescent

Research Group: Clinical and Social Research, Turning Point (Richmond) and Eastern Health Clinical School (Monash University)

The prevalence of problem behaviours (drug, alcohol and antisocial behaviour) and mental health disorders rapidly increases during adolescence before peaking in early adulthood. With approximately 25% of the world’s population comprising adolescents (1.9 billion persons), and the prevalence of these behaviours currently at pandemic levels, understanding how to prevent these issues from developing in adolescence is critical to international global health.

 This project will build on the ideas and concepts from Positive Youth Development (PYD) literature and classical Greek philosophy (Eudaimonia), which argue that civic and social engagement can be used to develop important social and emotional competencies. These competencies help adolescents to negotiate critical risk factors that emerge in the adolescent years to prevent the development of problem behaviours and poor mental health.

 This project will use Australian, US (Washington) and other national, international longitudinal studies, and administrative data sets, to examine the mechanisms and processes of key social and emotional core competencies that can be cultivated in schools, communities and homes to prevent problem behaviour and mental ill-health.

It is expected the project will lead to the development of systemic and targeted interventions to improve local and global health.

This project will be supervised by Dr Bosco Rowland, a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University and a Statistician at Turning Point. His work has predominantly focused on designing and evaluating health behaviour interventions, randomised control trials and longitudinal studies. As a registered psychologist, he has focused primarily on the behaviours of alcohol consumption, smoking, illicit drug use, mental health, and healthy eating.

Project Type: PHD SCHOLARSHIP

Supervisor: Dr Jasmin Grigg.

Area: Implementation science, Alcohol-related disorders, Breast cancer, Health promotion

Research Group: Dr Grigg is a Senior Research Fellow in Addiction Studies at Monash University and Turning Point. Her research uses hybrid implementation-effectiveness methods to develop novel public health interventions to reduce alcohol consumption and related harms and raise population awareness about the low levels of drinking that cause harm.

The Health4Her program of research uses co-design and implementation science methods to raise awareness of the alcohol-breast cancer link among women participating in population-based breast screening programs, and support women to keep their consumption in a low-risk range.

A PhD scholarship is being offered to conduct research as part of the Health4Her Project, to examine alcohol-related harms among women aged 40+ years through analyses of an existing population-level dataset, conduct a systematic review on alcohol preventive interventions offered in the context of population cancer screening programs, and contribute to co-design studies and effectiveness-implementation trials examining how the Health4Her intervention can be optimally embedded in breast screening services, and adapted for other healthcare settings and populations.

The project will involve quantitative and qualitative research methods, use of implementation research frameworks, and consumer and expert stakeholder participation approaches.

Project Type: PhD Scholarship

Supervisor: Dr Rowan Ogeil

Area: Alcohol-related disorders, Sleep, Treatment and recovery

Research Group: Dr Ogeil is a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University, and the Strategic Lead of the National Addiction and Mental Health Surveillance Unit at Turning Point. In his role, he leads novel research projects centred around the impact of AOD use on sleep, and understanding AOD, mental health and suicide and self-harm behaviours in ambulance data.

Despite advances in our understanding of the neurobiology of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), and in particular the role of the orexin system in the drive to seek and consume alcohol, the clinical treatment of AUD by psychosocial and/or pharmacological interventions has proven difficult. While treatment can lead to striking improvements in physical and mental health outcomes, often the results are poor particularly when comorbid conditions such as insomnia are present. This is problematic given that sleep disturbances are a prominent clinical problem in AUD and are recognised as an important predictor of relapse.

This PhD project will work on clinical trials and studies at Turning Point to investigate sleep disturbances in patients seeking treatment for AUD. The project will involve collection and analysis of both subjective and objective measures of sleep with outcomes of this work helping to delineate the role and impact that comorbid sleep disturbances have on the course and progression of recovery from AUD.

Project Type: PhD Scholarship

Supervisor: Professor Victoria Manning

Area: Implementation Science, Neurocognition, Alcohol Use Disorders, Artificial Intelligence

Research Group: Professor Victoria Manning is a Professor of Addiction Studies at Monash University and Head of Research and Workforce Development at Turning Point. Her research portfolio is primarily focussed on innovative treatment approaches, running clinical trials neurocognitive, psychological and peer-support based interventions to optimise treatment effectiveness.

Summary: Backed by an NHMRC Partnership Project Grant, this visionary research will co-design and deploy a next-generation Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) platform and smartphone app, developed in collaboration with consumers and clinicians from across Australia. The project will harness cutting-edge AI technologies to personalise CBM training, enhance patient outcomes, and unlock deeper insights into treatment effectiveness and user experience.

As the PhD candidate, you’ll work within a dynamic, interdisciplinary team—including fellow CBM PhDs and Research Engineers—to develop and implement a clinician-friendly infrastructure for delivering CBM during inpatient care, and a seamless app-based experience for continued training post-discharge.

The project will harness cutting-edge AI technologies & suit someone with a psychology/ neuroscience/ implementation science background with experience in quantitative & qualitative methodologies.