Phd Scholarship in Csiro Next Generation Graduate

**The Opportunity**

Monash University seeks applicants for this opportunity who are able to demonstrate and present valid and current Australian work rights.

Almost half of Australians will experience mental ill health. But nearly 70% of those with a known mental health condition don’t seek professional help due to stigma, high costs, limited access, fear, and other factors.

**The problem**

Most mental health problems are established between the ages of 14 to 24, highlighting the importance of early detection and intervention. From an economic perspective, $10.6 billion is spent on Australian mental health services annually, and productivity losses caused by mental ill-health are as high as $39 billion per year.

From facilitating data-supported decision-making to enabling self-directed intervention via everyday technologies, there are ways that AI can be used to respond to this national and global challenge.

**The goal**

**Outcomes you’ll drive**

We will achieve our goal through:

- New models of care and technologies to support the mental health of Australians
- A model of research training that has been co-designed with industry and service delivery partners to deliver maximum impact
- A problem-driven research program grounded in the strategic priorities of our partners
- Sustainable collaborations between academia, industry and service providers supported by an AI in Mental Health network
- Opportunities for networking and professional development in the forms of regular events including talks, workshops and annual ‘all hands’ conferences

**Your study experience**

As one of our graduate researchers, you will:

- Develop an understanding of both clinical mental health and applied AI methods, as well as expertise in your chosen area of interest
- Undertake industry placements that are directly related to your research, giving you first-hand experience of digital mental health care service design, development and delivery
- Have support from industry and service delivery partners, as well as academic researchers with clinical and technical expertise
- contribute to solving real-world problems that are co-designed with industry partners and clinical services - providing a direct Pathway from research to impact
- Take part in a dedicated nine-week training program delivered by CSIRO’s Data61
- Engage with a national cohort of Next Generation Graduate Program research students and industry partners through expert Seminars, networking activities and student-led grassroots events

**The specific project - Enhancing Service User Care Pathway Experience through AI-Driven Personalisation**

The project is a partnership with headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation. Refer to this page for more information.

We are seeking a highly motivated and innovative PhD student interested in exploring the opportunities for using AI to enhance personalisation of services and resource recommendations, ultimately optimising the overall user journey. This project will improve the care pathway experience for young people and families accessing mental health services through the headspace website.

Possible approaches to addressing this challenge might include:

- Developing algorithms to identify patterns and preferences based on service users’ previous content engagement on the headspace website, enabling the generation of tailored service and resource suggestions
- Exploring 1:1 and group chat inputs to identify recurring themes in presenting needs and implement AI-driven tools to automate content suggestions or propose next steps
- Establishing a system to share identified themes and content suggestions in real time with service providers during live engagements, to facilitate more specific and timely content recommendations by service providers to enhance user engagement
- Analysing website activity data to identify potential crisis points that might require intervention or escalation to a clinician when critical points are detected, ensuring timely support
- Utilising data inputs from service user surveys to enhance the generation of personalised service and resource recommendations and implementing strategies to continuously refine recommendations based on evolving user preferences and needs
- Analysing assessment inputs to determine appropriate next steps which may include appropriate resource or service recommendations or follow-up assessments

**Diversity drives innovation**

We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, including those without a traditional science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) background.

We help our students unlock their full potential to shape the future of AI and emerging technologies, with the understanding that diversity in thought and backgrounds is crucial for innovation.

Our program is designed to bring together a community of creative thinkers from various disciplines, building a collaborative and inclusive environment for learning and discovery