Graduate research opportunities

Graduate research projects

Orygen offers a diverse range of graduate research projects supervised by world leaders in youth mental health research and clinical care.

Select a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) project from the list below to find out more and follow the steps to apply.

Title	Interests	Supervisors	Type
Applying a gendered lens to body image and eating disorders in elite and recreational sports	Mental health in elite sports; mental health in performance settings; disordered eating; gender and social psychiatry.	Dr Courtney Walton Associate Professor Simon Rice Professor Rosemary Purcell	PhD
Can data-driven stratification match people to therapies?	Ultra-high risk for psychosis; precision medicine, psychotherapy; machine learning.	Dr Dom Dwyer Professor Barnaby Nelson Professor Stephen Wood	MPhil or PhD
Clinical utility of electroencephalogram to detect glutamate abnormalities in psychosis	First episode psychosis; clinical high risk for psychosis; electroencephalogram; psychosis prediction; precision medicine.	Professor Stephen Wood Dr Ilvana Dzafic	MPhil or PhD
Cognitive strengths, motivation and functioning in first-episode psychosis	First episode psychosis; cognition; cognitive strengths; rehabilitation.	Associate Professor Kelly Allott Dr Shayden Bryce Professor Lisa Phillips	MPhil or PhD
Don't judge a book by its cover: discovering neurobiological subtypes of depression	Major depressive disorder; sub-types of depression; clinical, neuroimaging, genetic and mobile phone data.	Associate Professor Lianne Schmaal Dr Laura Han	MPhil or PhD
Evaluating the cost-effectiveness of a new surveillance system for self-harm in Victoria	Self-harm and suicide; suicide prevention; health economics; health systems.	Dr Katrina Witt Associate Professor Jo Robinson Dr Matthew Hamilton Dr Caroline Gao	PhD
Evaluation of HOPE aftercare service for suicide prevention	Suicide and self-harm; suicide prevention; aftercare; health systems.	Dr Dzenana Kartal Associate Professor Jo Robinson	MPhil or PhD
Exploring the role of self-compassion in the mental health of performing artists	Self-compassion; performing arts; mental health intervention development.	Dr Courtney Walton Associate Professor Simon Rice Professor Rosemary Purcell	PhD
Hybrid: a trial of virtual reality, neurofeedback and psychological therapy for hallucinations	Psychosis; virtual reality; cognitive behaviour therapy.	Professor Barnaby Nelson Dr Ilvana Dzafic Dr Imogen Bell Dr Suzie Lavoie	MPhil or PhD
Longitudinal Study of Teenagers with Endometriosis, Period and Pelvic Pain (LongSTEPPP) study	Endometriosis; paediatric and adolescent gynaecology; depression; anxiety; personality functioning; chronic pain.	Professor Andrew Chanen Professor Sonia Grover	PhD
Multimodal approach to preventing suicide in schools	Suicide prevention; education systems; program evaluation; cognitive behavioural therapy.	Associate Professor Jo Robinson Dr Samuel McKay Michelle Lamblin Dr Eleanor Bailey	MPhil
Needs of young people with mental ill-health as they transition to education and training	Mental health; educational and vocational support; recovery.	Dr Jen Nicholas Dr Caroline Gao Dr Kate Filia Professor Eóin Killackey	PhD
Neurodevelopmental conditions and neuropsychological functioning in first-episode psychosis	First episode psychosis; cognition; neurodevelopmental difficulties.	Associate Professor Kelly Allott Dr Shayden Bryce Professor Stephen Wood	MPhil or PhD
Predicting clinical outcomes in young people at high risk of psychosis	Ultra-high risk for psychosis; predicting psychosis onset; predicting clinical outcomes; speech/facial expression data; digital phenotype data.	Professor Barnaby Nelson Dr Dominic Dwyer	PhD
Suicide among young females: a comparative case study in Australia and India to investigate trends, drivers and service response	Suicide prevention; female suicide; help-seeking.	Associate Professor Jo Robinson Associate Professor Maria Michail	PhD
Treating the cognitive difficulties of young people with depression	Depression; cognition; app-based cognitive training; memory-specificity training.	Associate Professor Kelly Allott Dr Shayden Bryce Dr Alexandra Stainton	PhD
Understanding and improving sexual wellbeing in young people with mental ill-health	Sexual wellbeing; high-risk sexual behaviours; mental health.	Dr Ellie Brown Professor Sue Cotton Dr Caroline Gao	MPhil or PhD
Which young people are at risk for poor mental and physical health outcomes?	Anxiety; depression; predictors of mental ill-health; early intervention.	Associate Professor Lianne Schmaal	MPhil or PhD
Developing evidence base around successful implementation and scale-up of the youth mental health integrated care model	Integrated care model; enhanced primary care; transformation and implementation; health systems.	Dr Marina Kunin Professor Eóin Killackey	MPhil or PhD
Enhancing engagement: factors associated with young people’s use of digital mental health interventions	Digital mental health interventions; implementation science; artificial intelligence; chatbots; personalised care.	Professor Mario Alvarez-Jimenez Dr Jen Nicholas Dr Lee Valentine Dr Shaminka Mangelsdorf	PhD
Identifying cognitive impairment in youth mental health care: understanding and improving implementation	Cognitive impairment; cognitive screening; knowledge translation.	Associate Professor Kelly Allott Dr Isabel Zbukvic	MPhil or PhD
Understanding user-experience of a novel digital intervention for young people experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviours	Suicide prevention; depression; interpersonal theory of suicide; novel treatments.	Associate Professor Simon Rice Professor Mario Alvarez-Jimenez	PhD
Developing and evaluating novel virtual reality treatments for youth mental health	Virtual reality, digital interventions; qualitative methodologies; experimental methodologies, co-design; pilot trial.	Professor Andrew Thompson Dr Imogen Bell Professor Mario Alvarez-Jimenez Associate Professor Neil Thomas	MPhil or PhD
Validating the clinical staging model of mood and psychotic disorders using brain-based measures	Mood and anxiety disorders; neurobiological mechanisms; clinical data; psychosocial data; neurobiological data; genetic data; computational modelling; machine learning.	Associate Professor Lianne Schmaal Dr Laura Han Professor Michael Berk Dr Mojtaba Lotfalian	PhD
The impact of in vivo brain glutamate concentration on electroencephalogram derived glutamate abnormalities	Psychosis; predicting psychosis; predicting mental illness; EEG; cognition.	Professor Stephen Wood Dr Ilvana Dzafic	MPhil or PhD
Defining clinically-relevant non-abstinence treatment outcomes for young people with cannabis use disorder	Cannabis use disorder; novel pharmacotherapies.	Associate Professor Gill Bedi Dr Emily Karanges	PhD
New models of clinical care: clinicians’ perspectives on integrating digital interventions into their practice	Digital mental health interventions; implementation science; human-computer interaction.	Professor Mario Alvarez-Jimenez Dr Jen Nicholas Dr Lee Valentine	PhD
A naturalistic investigation of therapy on psychosis outcomes and predictions in youth	Ultra-high risk for psychosis; predicting psychosis outcomes; psychotherapy.	Dr Dom Dwyer Professor Barnaby Nelson Professor Stephen Wood	MPhil or PhD
Understanding complexity in youth mental health using integrated population-level data	Mental health; health systems; health service utilisation; machine learning.	Professor Sue Cotton Dr Caroline Gao Dr Kate Filia Dr Jana Menssink	PhD