University of Melbourne renews joint PhD program with Forschungszentrum Jülich

Professor Wolfgang Marquardt, Associate Professor Stefan Bode and Professor Justin Zobel
L-R: Professor Wolfgang Marquardt, Associate Professor Stefan Bode and Professor Justin Zobel

The University of Melbourne has renewed its joint PhD program with Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), a Helmholtz research centre in Germany, with the program committing to fund up to 60 more PhD candidates over the next five years.

The Jülich-University of Melbourne Postgraduate Academy (JUMPA) was established in 2017 and was officially extended during a Helmholtz Association delegation, led by president Professor Otmar Wiestler, to Australia in March 2023.

The JUMPA program offers PhD candidates the opportunity to carry out a joint PhD project with the University of Melbourne and FZJ, alongside its partner universities in Aachen, Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf and Wuppertal.

As one of Europe’s most prominent research institutions, FZJ predominantly focuses on solving challenges in the fields of energy and environment, information and brain research.

So far, 14 PhD candidates have commenced their research projects through JUMPA, exploring topics including treatments for brain disease, next generation fertilizers and the influence of ageing on decision making processes.

Seven of those candidates are now close to completion, including Sibel Yildirim, who presented her research on chemical inhibitors to increase nitrogen uptake in plants to the incoming Helmholtz delegation.