What is a data fellowship?

A data fellowship is a 3 month full-time work placement with the CSIRO’s data-innovation group Data61.

We select high-performing people to step outside their day jobs and create prototypes that improve or completely redesign our approach to real-life problems.

Who is it for?

Australian Public Service employees within Commonwealth entities can apply for this round of data fellowships.

We're looking for applicants with an interest in building data skills within their agency and a willingness to share their knowledge and expertise with colleagues.

Previous participants

Former participants in the program have carried out a variety of data-related projects using a range of techniques.

Overall the experience was excellent. I met extremely talented people and was surprised at how helpful everybody was throughout the three months.
- Previous participant

I had great supervision and mentorship at Data61. My mentor...was always there when I had questions...I was able to work at my own pace and allow the research to grow as it needed to.
- Previous participant

[The] tools, they were...fabulous. I got access to tools that I did not have access to at [my home agency]...At Data61 I also had access to super computers at CSIRO, which made processing the data a lot quicker. So, if I tried to do what I was doing at Data61 back at [my home agency] then things would have happened a lot more slowly, just with the volume of data that I was analysing.
- Previous participant

Some previous projects include:

• machine learning to detect offensive material during forensic investigations to protect staff wellbeing
• empirical modeling to identify and target biosecurity risks at Australian airports
• longitudinal network analysis to see how policy affects how government buys products and services

Find out what other projects people have worked on in the past.

How to apply

Apply online

You’ll need to make sure you:

• have approval from your agency’s data champion or a senior executive (SES Band 1 equivalent or above)
• can start your project within 3 months of the application closing date

In your application you’ll need to include:

• the name of your data champion or senior executive
• the name of your current supervisor
• your preferred placement start date and location
• details of your data-related project proposal and technical skillset
• your up-to-date resume

Read about how we select participants.