CSIRO Industry PhD Scholarship: Useability Framework for Verifiable Credentials

Acknowledgement of Country

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The Opportunity

• Gain experience working with industry to solve real-world problems while you earn your PhD 
• Develop transferable professional skills 
• Get access to specialised expertise, equipment and training  

The CSIRO Industry PhD Scholarship (iPhD) Program is an industry-focused, applied research scholarship and training program that brings together an industry partner, the university and CSIRO. 

You will undertake a co-designed research project that will develop your ability to translate research into commercial outcomes.  

You will get real-world experience and access to specialised expertise, equipment and training.

Our graduates develop transferable professional skills and are well positioned to work at the cutting edge of industry focussed research.  

Scholarship details 

The Program includes:

• admission to the university PhD program  
• a four-year scholarship package of approx. $45,000 per annum  
• a four-year Project Expense and Development package of up to $13,000 per annum  
• an in-business component with an industry partner of at least 3 months 
• professional development training to enhance your applied research skills  
• supervision by CSIRO, the industry partner, and the university    

Project Title:   Useability Framework for Verifiable Credentials 

Project Description:   Verifiable Credentials (VC) is an emerging decentralised identity management (IdM) solution designed to address the privacy and security challenges arising from traditional IdM solutions. Benefits to both identity providers and end users from the application of VC is well established in the literature, however real-life use cases of VC technologies remain troublingly low. Preliminary research suggests that this discrepancy between the benefits provided, and lack of adoption of VC is due to usability challenges, specifically their perceived lack of usability. Given users’ natural preference for simplicity and ease of use, there is a general tendency in the industry to avoid requiring users to perform complex operations, learn the extra subject matter, or make difficult decisions. 

Therefore, the primary aim of this project is to examine the usability of current solutions and adopt a mixed methods approach to develop a usability framework to provide guidance for the development of highly usable verifiable credentials solutions. 

Project supervisors:   

CSIRO

• CSIRO supervisor: Surya Nepal 
• Business Unit: Data 61
• Research program: Human Centric Security  
• Email address: [email protected] 

University

• University supervisor: Robin Doss  
• Deakin University  
• Email address: [email protected] 
• Faculty: Science, Engineering and Built Environment 
• School: Centre for Cyber Security Research and Innovation (CSRI)

Industry

• Company name: BUPA HI PTY LTD 
• Website: www.bupa.com.au 

Location:     

• Primary location of the student: Deakin University, Melbourne Burwood campus. 
• Other potential locations: CSIRO, Clayton 
• In-business component with Industry partner: BUPA Asia Pacific, Melbourne 

Overview of who we are looking for 

The ideal student will:

• hold a relevant higher education research degree (Honours or Masters) from an accredited university in either information systems or computer science. 
• possess excellent written and oral communication skills. 
• demonstrate ability to develop relationships with key academic and industry stakeholders.  

It also also desirable that the student has:

• some industry work experience closely related to the field of research presented 
• some experience in publishing research outcomes in peer-reviewed journals 

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply you must:

• be an Australian citizen or permanent resident, or a New Zealand citizen 
• meet host university PhD admission requirements 
• meet university English language requirements 
• not have previously completed a PhD 
• be able to commence the program in the year of the offer 
• enrol as a full-time PhD student  

Applications will be assessed on:

• Experience relevant to the field of research, including any research experience
• Suitability for the project
• Academic excellence
• Motivation for undertaking an Industry PhD project

About CSIRO

At CSIRO Australia's national science agency, we solve the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. We put the safety and wellbeing of our people above all else and earn trust everywhere because we only deal in facts. We collaborate widely and generously and deliver solutions with real impact

Further information about the CSIRO Industry PhD Program can be found at:  www.csiro.au/

How to Apply:

CSIRO is not accepting applications.  Please email an expression of interest, CV and all transcripts to CSRI.

For details on how to apply, please see website at:  HDR Scholarship - Verifiable Credentials | 

Applications close:

This advertisement will remain open until filled. Early applications are strongly encouraged.