Kathleen Lumley Foundation will open its inaugural round of top-up scholarships for PhD students in December 2025, offering $18,000 per year up to 3.5 years.

Applicants from any discipline who are commencing their PhD in 2026 and are in receipt of a primary scholarship at Flinders University are invited to apply, providing their proposed research addresses the current Area of Focus:

• responds to a minimum of 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals, and
• has the potential to contribute to systemic change for health access and/or welfare outcomes.

Applications are not limited to any specific discipline – the Foundation invites applications from all disciplines subject to its meeting the full eligibility required of the program. Find out more here and via the Foundation Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

Applications open 8 December and will be published on Flinders Scholarships site with a closing date of 31 January 2026.

Kathleen Lumley Foundation emerged following the closure and subsequent sale of Kathleen Lumley College, a non-denominational residential college for postgraduate students which opened in North Adelaide in 1967 with the generous backing of Sir Kenneth Wills, KBE MC (then Chancellor of The University of Adelaide) and his sister Kathleen Lumley, after whom the College was named.

From the very beginning, the College facilitated a thriving postgraduate community bringing together multidisciplinary scholars and senior academics from more than 50 countries, building relationships and networks that would impact both South Australia and the broader global community.

The College was proud of its contributions both to internationalisation and to postgraduate education through scholarship and collegiality. This legacy inspired the Foundation’s choice to support post-doctoral researchers and postgraduate students advancing cross-disciplinary study on issues that contribute to the creation of social, cultural, economic and environmental prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.