Zero Net Emissions Agriculture CRC Scholarship (guidance for on-farm greenhouse gas accounting)

This scholarship supports a PhD candidate to develop nationally consistent, practical guidance for on-farm greenhouse gas accounting in Australian agriculture, as part of the Zero Net Emissions Agriculture CRC. The research will examine how the treatment of carbon opportunity costs, permanence, and double-counting risks shapes farmer and agribusiness incentives, and how emissions reductions and sequestration can be recognised in a rigorous, transparent, and equitable manner. Outcomes will inform industry calculators, inventory methods, and reporting frameworks, with guidance co-designed with industry for integration into farm management tools.

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Australian agriculture faces growing pressure to quantify, report, and reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Yet the methodological foundations for on-farm GHG accounting remain inconsistent across industry calculators, national inventory methods, and voluntary reporting frameworks. Key unresolved issues, including the treatment of carbon opportunity costs, the permanence of carbon sequestration, the risk of double counting, and the management of reversal risk, create ambiguity for farmers, agribusiness, and policymakers alike, and undermine confidence in emissions reduction claims.

This PhD scholarship, funded through the Zero Net Emissions Agriculture CRC (ZNE-Ag CRC), will address these gaps by developing rigorous, nationally consistent guidance for on-farm GHG accounting in Australia. The candidate will focus on land use and carbon sequestration, analysing how methodological choices within accounting frameworks influence incentives for farmers and agribusiness, and how they affect the attribution of emissions reductions across supply chains. The research will be conducted in alignment with international best practice and will seek to harmonise approaches across industry tools, scheme and reporting requirements.

A defining feature of this project is its co-design approach: the candidate will work directly with industry partners to ensure that the resulting guidance is practically usable within farm management tools and supports companies in making credible, auditable claims that accurately reflect their abatement actions.

The scholarship is supervised by A/Prof Jonathan Moss (University of New England), Adjunct Prof Annette Cowie (NSW DPI), and A/Prof Aaron Simmon (Australian National University), providing the candidate with access to expertise spanning agricultural economics, carbon accounting, and national policy.

The stipend of $37,746 per annum (2026 rate, equivalent to the base RTP stipend) will be paid in regular instalments by the University of New England in accordance with the Scholarship Student Agreement (SSA) executed under the ZNE-Ag CRC Master Scholarship Agreement. Stipend payments are reviewed annually at the discretion of ZNE-Ag CRC. No extension of funding will be provided by the CRC Entity under any circumstances. Funding for two weeks of the scholarship is contingent on completion of a two-week full-time industry internship.

Continued payment of the stipend is conditional upon satisfactory participation in ZNE-Ag CRC activities. Specifically, failure to attend the annual ZNE-Ag CRC event, without prior written approval from the ZNE-Ag CRC Education and Training Lead, may result in the suspension of stipend payments until the condition is remedied to the satisfaction of ZNE-Ag CRC or termination of the stipend.

Governed by the ZNE-Ag CRC Master Scholarship Agreement (ZNE-AG CRC Limited ABN 33 674 855 577 and University of New England ABN 75 792 454 315) and the executed Scholarship Student Agreement. Students must comply with UNE policies and regulations, ZNE-Ag CRC policies and procedures, and the policies of any CRC Partner at whose premises they undertake placement activities. All publications arising from the HDR project must comply with the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research and require prior approval from ZNE-Ag CRC in accordance with CRC confidentiality and publication requirements.