A woman working at a computer in a robotics workshop.

The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) announced 116 scholarships for women and non-binary people in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers. 

ATSE’s Elevate Program offers the scholarships and aims to address gender inequities in STEM by:

  • fostering more women- and non-binary-led industry-academia collaborations in applied research and business
  • growing professional skills of women and non-binary people in STEM
  • propelling women and non-binary people into leadership.

We awarded $41.2 million in funding to ATSE to help deliver 500 scholarships from 2021–22 to 2027–28 as part of the program.

In this second round of the Elevate Program, ATSE partnered with the Australian Defence Science Technology Group (DSTG) to provide an extra 14 undergraduate scholarships. The partnership aims to help address Australia’s growing science and defence workforce needs amid the current STEM skills shortage. 

Scholarships recipients will include: 

  • 74 students starting STEM undergraduate degrees 
  • 32 scholars pursuing postgraduate STEM research 
  • 10 women building leadership qualifications.

Twenty-six universities across Australian will host scholarship recipients. Eleven of these universities are in regional areas and 20.7% of the proposed scholars will choose these as their first preference. 

Scholarships recipients will be studying a wide range of STEM courses, including: 

  • cybersecurity
  • nuclear engineering
  • energy transition
  • health technology
  • digital futures
  • agriculture
  • robotics
  • marine systems
  • engineering
  • astronomical sciences
  • aerospace engineering
  • computer science
  • biotechnology
  • palaeontology
  • mathematics
  • nanotechnology.

The ATSE Elevate Program is one of many existing programs we administer to increase diversity in STEM. A review of existing government programs and investments is now currently underway to boost greater diversity in STEM fields.