2024 has been another successful year for APR Intern. By the end of the year, over 80 research focussed internships will have been completed with students from over 22 universities around Australia. APR continues to bring high level talent to all sectors of Australian business. This year internships have been completed at organisations as diverse as, Agriculture Victoria Research, Tidetech, Cox Architecture, the James Martin Institute for Public Policy; start ups like Misti and Sample Assist and our larger corporate clients such as Telstra, CSL, Aurecon and Dolby. While these companies may be vastly different when it comes to scale and product/service type, they all seek to move the dial on innovation by bringing to their business the best talent our university sector has to offer.
A special shout out to the many businesses have employed APR interns post assignment including Genetic Signatures in Sydney, Speed3D and Aurecon in Melbourne who have employed multiple interns.
Another highlight of 2024 was the delivery of the first Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship (WiSE) Masterclass. This three-day event was co-hosted with Western Sydney University at the Parramatta City Campus. The Masterclass provided participants with critical insights into research commercialisation, innovation and entrepreneurship which are key areas crucial for advancing Australia’s research and economic landscape. The feedback from the participants, mostly Wise interns, was very positive and a follow up event is being planned for 2025.
APR is deeply grateful to our partner Western Sydney University for co-developing the program and providing such an outstanding venue.
The Wise program, delivered by APR on behalf of the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, has place 67 women into STEM internships. With one year remaining, APR is well placed to compete the final internships in this highly successful program.
Another highly successful collaboration in 2024 has been with the University of Wollongong to deliver internships via the LIFT program. APR was tasked with facilitating 15 internships via this program and at the end of 2024 has competed 12, and the remaining three are in development. This outstanding result, effectively completing the internship program months in advance, would not have been possible without the collegial and collaborative efforts from Georgia Watson and the team at UoW.
APR collaborates with the Defence Science Institute in Victoria to provide financial support to defence related companies taking interns. Often highly technical and with restrictions around the eligibility of the interns, these placements can be challenging to fill. 2024 has been a solid year, however, with seven projects underway and several others in development. APR also continues its collaboration with the Defence Science Centre in WA and will soon sign its first internship under that program.
The successes of 2024 could not have been possible without the clever, motivated, and dedicated interns at the centre of the APR Program. And without the businesses and organisations that are farsighted enough to see the value of bringing high level research skills to their organisation, we wouldn’t have the outstanding projects that provide real and rich industry experiences to our interns.
We would also like to thank the universities that we work with… all 22 of them in 2024, but especially our subscribing universities who work closely with us to maximise the outcomes of the internship program. Their support is vital and deeply appreciated.
Finally, as National Program Manager, I would like to thank the team at APR who frequently go above and beyond to make sure our program works for everybody; the interns, the business and the universities.
Wishing you a safe and festive holiday season… and looking forward to 2025!
– Glen Sheldon, National Program Manager
