The AgriFutures Horizon Scholarship is a collaboration between many of the Research and Development Corporations (RDC’s) to provide eligible university students with a $10,000 bursary over two years and plenty of opportunities to develop their leadership skills and expand their networks. As part of the Program, students also attend an annual four-day professional development workshop and complete two weeks of industry work placements.
The Horizon Scholarship Program is open to students studying agriculture-related or STEM degrees with major studies and/or subject selections that align to agriculture.
In acknowledging that the prosperity of agriculture is going to require a stronger inter-disciplinary approach, the inclusion of STEM degrees broadens the Horizons Scholarship offering.
AgriFutures Australia Managing Director, John Harvey says that collaboration across a broad range of disciplines will be crucial to the growth of our rural industries and is excited to see the Horizon Scholarship Program evolve to meet this need.
“Our cohorts are no longer made up solely of ag students from traditional farming backgrounds. We now have scholars studying engineering, economics, plant and animal science,” said Mr Harvey.
“We have scholars who have never set foot on a farm in the same room as fifth-generation farmers, and this diversity in backgrounds and thinking is beginning to elevate the conversations beyond anything we’ve seen before.”
The diverse range of industry sponsors involved in the Horizons Scholarship program represents the desire to build prosperous and sustainable rural industries. To do this, there is a need to build the skills, capacity, leadership and knowledge of the future rural leaders of Australian agriculture.
