Puzey Postdoctoral Fellowship

Overview

The Puzey Postdoctoral Fellowship is available to outstanding early career Australian researchers working in the fields of medicine, science and engineering. The fellowship is awarded annually and supported by the Elizabeth and Vernon Puzey Foundation, which was established in 1992 with the aim of enabling Australian researchers to improve the health and wellbeing of all Australians.

The Fellowship rotates between the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences (MDHS), the Faculty of Science (SCI) and the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (FEIT) each year. The table below lists the faculties in which fellowships will be based in 2025-2029.

Funding

The Puzey Fellowships provide a salary equivalent to Research Fellow A.6 for three years. Generally, one fellowship is awarded per year. The host faculty also provides a single allocation of up to $25,000 for research project costs over the full term of the Fellowship.

Eligibility

Applicants must be eligible to apply for the McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme. To be eligible:

• Applicants must have graduated, or have met the requirements to graduate, with a PhD in any discipline from a university in any country, including Australia and the University of Melbourne.
• Applicants should have completed the requirements for the award of their PhD degree no earlier than 1 February 2021 (i.e. the applicant has had no more than three years of scholarly research opportunity post-PhD). For applicants who have not yet graduated, a letter indicating they have met all the requirements for a PhD degree and the date on which this occurred must be submitted by the Expression of Interest (EOI) due date.
• Applicants must be able to commence their fellowship by 30 June 2025.
• Applicants must not have outstanding Progress Reports or Final Reports from any other University of Melbourne researcher development scheme.
• Applicants must not have previously held a McKenzie or Melbourne Postdoctoral Fellowship.

The Puzey Fellowship eligibility additionally requires that awarded Fellows must be:

• An Australian citizen and resident.
• Based in the relevant faculty.
• Proposing research which aims to support the health and wellbeing of Australians.

Unless otherwise indicated, the Puzey Fellowship is subject to the same conditions as the McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellowships.

How to apply

1. Review the Scheme guidelines

Read the McKenzie Fellowship guidelines and supporting information as per the McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellowships page.

2. Establish an Academic Contact

   • All applicants are required to establish an Academic Contact at the University of Melbourne. The Academic Contact's details must be listed in Part A2 of the EOI Form. The Academic Contact nominated in the application should be a regular point of contact at the University of Melbourne. They are expected to endorse your application, provide informal mentoring to the successful fellows throughout their Fellowships, or nominate an appropriate mentor. To find academics in your field, please use the University’s Find an Expert search tool.
   • Provide the Endorsement Declaration form (Using the template available under the  'supporting documents' section below) to your Academic Contact and request them to submit the fully signed Endorsement Declaration via email to mckenzie-application@unimelb.edu.au by the EOI due date.

3. Prepare and submit your  EOI (including Eligibility Exemption Requests if relevant)

   • Log in to SmartyGrants to begin your EOI application. If you do not meet all of the eligibility criteria due to exceptional circumstances, please provide additional details in part B-1 of the application.
   • As per the scheme’s guidelines, you may request an eligibility exemption if:
   1. your PhD was awarded before 31 January 2021, and you can demonstrate interruption/s to your career that have limited your post-PhD scholarly research opportunities to be effectively three years or less; or
   2. you do not meet another eligibility criteria and can demonstrate exceptional circumstances to justify your eligibility.
   • Ensure your Academic Contact submits the fully signed Endorsement Declaration via email to mckenzie-application@unimelb.edu.au by the EOI due date.

   When completing the McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellowship Expression of Interest (EOI) in SmartyGrants, if you are applying to hold your Fellowship in MDHS, you will be asked if you would like to be considered for the Puzey Fellowship. Please tick the ‘yes’ box.

   Once you tick ‘yes’, you will then be required to write a short statement (in addition to your McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellowship EOI) about how your research will support the health and wellbeing of Australians.

4. Complete the application form

   • Only shortlisted applicants will be invited to complete the full application.
   • If successful in your EOI application, log in to SmartyGrants to complete stage two of the application form.
   • Ensure that your referees submit their written testimonials via email to mckenzie-application@unimelb.edu.au by the due date.

5. Submit the application

   • Ensure you submit your complete application via SmartyGrants portal by the due date.

Supporting documents

Documents for 2025:

• 2025 McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellowships Scheme Guidelines
• EOI Project Summary template
• Full application Project Description template
• Endorsement Declaration Template

Please contact mckenzie-application@unimelb.edu.au for documents in alternate accessible formats.

Contacts

Manage Your Grant