Gambling Research Capacity Grants

The objective of these grants is to improve the quality, diversity and impact of Australian gambling research by supporting talented and committed researchers.

For 2025, we are offering two grant types:

• two PhD scholarships of up to $60,000 per year (comprising $50,000 stipend and $10,000 research costs) for 3 years per candidate, or top-up scholarships of $30,000 per year ($20,000 per year for stipend top-up and up to $10,000 per year for research costs) for 3 years per candidate

• one post-doctoral fellowship up to $160,000 per year for 3 years per candidate. 

Applications for the 2025 Gambling Research Capacity Grants open Friday 29 November 2024 and close Friday 28 February 2025   

What are we looking to fund? 

Applications should address at least one of the following research themes from the Office’s Strategic Plan 2024-27:

• Understanding and tracking changes in gambling behaviour and attitudes across the population and in specific groups

• Understanding and monitoring emerging technologies and trends, and their impacts on people and communities in NSW

• Understanding issues affecting different groups and communities across NSW, particularly vulnerable populations, and how to respond to these issues. 

There are multiple and diverse groups and communities affected by gambling, including but not limited to:   

• Young people

• People from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds

• Aboriginal people

• People who are impacted by another person’s gambling (also known as affected others)

• People experiencing co-morbidities such as mental health issues, substance abuse, homelessness, suicide and domestic violence

• People from professions at higher risk of gambling harm such as veterans, first-responders, fly-in fly-out workers and people working in the gambling industry. 

About PhD scholarships

We established PhD scholarships to support people involved in gambling research to achieve their proposed research goals and build their career in this important field. 

You can apply for a PhD scholarship if you’ve completed your honours year or if you hold (or expect to hold) a master’s degree in the same discipline as your proposed research. You must meet all eligibility requirements for the PhD you intend to pursue or have confirmation of an enrolment offer. 

About the post-doctoral fellowships

We established post-doctoral fellowships  to support early-career researchers to continue developing their skills and build their career in the field of gambling harm minimisation.

You can apply for a post-doctoral fellowship if you’re an early career researcher who was awarded a PhD less than seven years ago.

Meet the previous Gambling Research Capacity Grant recipients

Meet the previous post-doctoral fellowship recipient

Deakin University

Family member treatment for gambling harm: Development and evaluation

Family members affected by the gambling of others experience substantial harms yet are under- represented in the treatment system. This project developed and evaluated an online, self-directed intervention for family members (GAMBLINGLESS–FOR FAMILIES), with the aim of expanding low-intensity treatment options for family members.

Grant amount: $449,199

Meet the previous PhD Scholarship recipients

Monash University

Do "losses disguised as wins" in Australian pokies cause harm?

This project investigated a controversial feature of poker machine design feature known as losses disguised as wins. Methodologies from experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience were used to consider how this feature contributed to pokies-related harm, with a view to informing gambling public health initiatives and Australian pokies regulation.

Grant amount: $44,000

The University of Sydney

Exploring the Harm Reduction Potential of Cashless Gambling Payment Systems for Electronic Gaming Machines.

Technology is rapidly changing the ways people make payments and spend money, but what impacts do digital payment methods have on gambling and gambling-related harm? This project investigated how we can help people to make smart choices about their gambling expenditure in the age of digital transactions.

Grant amount: $159,000

Central Queensland University

Wellbeing in those affected by problem gamblers.

The research investigated how significantly gambling-related harms influence a concerned significant other’s global wellbeing, and how these impacts may differ across different relationships to the problem gambler (e.g., partner, child, etc.), and across wellbeing domains (e.g., relational, health, etc.). Secondary data analysis and primary data collection were also undertaken.

Grant amount: $78,606

Queensland University of Technology

In it to win it: interdisciplinary investigation of sports betting.

The project aimed to better understand how young adults use, communicate about and experience smartphone sports betting applications. This was achieved through social practice theory and ethnography to examine how the use of sports betting apps is becoming established as an everyday social practice

Grant amount: $59,400

University of Adelaide

The effects of gambling advertisements on young people.

This project was concerned with studying the effects of gambling advertisements on young people's perceptions of gambling and their gambling-related decision making.

Grant amount: $165,000