The School of Agricultural Science and its research institute the Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research (TIAR), delivers world class postgraduate training in areas of fundamental and applied research relevant to agriculture. TIAR undertakes research, development and extension activities that are industry focussed and designed to address agricultural productivity and efficiency, safe food production, and social and natural resource management issues facing rural communities.

TIAR currently has established research activities in the following programs and themes:

Centres (industry aligned research)

• Dairy centre
• Extensive Agriculture Centre
• Food Safety Centre
• Perennial Horticulture Centre
• Vegetable Centre

Themes (research transecting industries)

• Climate Change
• Natural resource Management
• Rural Social research
• Agricultural Value Chains

Opportunities exist for postgraduate students to undertake Masters and PhD studies in each of these areas.
For further information regarding the position please contact our Graduate Research Coordinator: A/Prof Sergey Shabala; email Sergey.Shabala@utas.edu.au.

10 Elite Scholarships are available in the School of Agricultural Science (Download pdf)

1. Understanding apoptosis and Programmed Cell Death in plants
2. Degradable polymer film effects on soil water and solute dynamics
3. Objective and rapid measures of grape quality
4. Identification and chemical characterisation of a potato metabolite conveying a thrips-deterrent phenotype and its genetic inheritance in potato.
5. Unlocking the potential of novel plant-soil microbe interactions
6. Improving the utilisation of red wheat by lactating dairy cows
7. Manipulating  apple and cherry tree physiology in production of premium quality fruit
8. Manipulating differentiation of Bacillus spp. to minimize spoilage of dairy products
9. Sex and the single beetle: manipulating the behaviour of leaf feeding beetles in eucalypt plantations
10. Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research Scholarship

Potential Projects in the School of Agricultural Science (Download pdf )

1. Managing forest health in tropical acacia plantations being managed for solid-wood products
2. Unlocking the potential of novel plant-soil microbe interactions 
3. Improving yield security in high value tree fruit crops
4. Nutritional biology and chemical ecology of below-ground insect herbivores in Tasmanian agricultural production systems: novel management tools for rooting out the root pests (G. Allen)
5. Understanding and managing wine quality 
6. Medicinal value of Tasmanian essential oil components - Efficacy against cancer and other human diseases
7. Mechanisms of oxidative stress signalling and tolerance in plants
8. Regulation of xylem loading and improving salt tolerance in barley
9. Managing apple scab in Tasmanian conventional and organic orchards with reduced chemical use and plant resistance
10. Impacts of controlled traffic farming systems on soil - water relations in vegetable cropping (L. Sparrow/J.McPhee)
11. Impacts of controlled traffic farming systems on soil - nutrient relations in vegetable cropping
12. The effect of elevated temperatures and light quality on virus resistance and gene silencing in plants
13. The role of Candidatus Phytoplasma australiense in Zebra Chip disease in Potatoes -infection, detection, distribution and transmission of this pathogen in Australia
14. Assisting Tasmanian farmers to develop strategies of adaptation and mitigation to cope with climate change 
15. Manipulation of long-chain omega-3 fatty acid compositions of crossbred and purebred Angus cattle by tactical grazing and precision feedlotting
16. miRNA gene mining and expression profiling in crossbred sheep sired by genetically divergent rams
17. Nutritional manipulation of milk omega 3-fatty acids in dairy cattle of varying genotypes and  9-desaturase gene expression
18. Phenotypic switching contributing to survival and persistence of Listeria monocytogenes during acid stress
19. Developing climate change adaptation strategies for the mixed crop-livestock farming systems of Tasmania
20. Preliminary evaluation of remote sensing technologies for the detection of oestrus in dairy cows
21. Sustainable cattle production for the north-west highlands of Vietnam