A Sir Roland Wilson Pat Turner Scholarship has enabled Anthony Cowley create knowledge to benefit communities.

Anthony began his scholarship journey in 2019, after more than 20 years’ experience in the Australian Public Service. Seventeen of these years have been dedicated to working in Indigenous Australian policy and program delivery areas.

As a Sir Roland Wilson Pat Turner scholar, he is undertaking his PhD, titled ‘How do the drivers of design and co-design for mainstream Federal Government grants affect the welfare of Indigenous Australians?’

His research examines the values and priorities that drive decision making by Australia’s federal public servants as they make critical choices about public spending (through grants) for social welfare.

“I had been considering postgraduate study for a couple of years after working on the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC) which is formed around an annual national survey run by the Department of Social Services. LSIC provides a deep well of information for statisticians and policy makers about what factors help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children grow up strong,” Anthony said.

“I saw many postgraduate students and worked with strong Aboriginal academics like Professor Mick Dodson and Professor Maggie Walter who use the data from the survey to give evidence for new government policy and I knew I wanted to be part of that wisdom discovery process for the benefit of our communities.”

Applications for 2023 Sir Roland Wilson Pat Turner Scholarships are now open. For more information visit https://srwfoundation.anu.edu.au/scholarships/sir-roland-wilson-pat-turner-scholarship.

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