Australia PhD Expression of Interest: Example

Australia PhD Expression of Interest: Example

An Australian PhD expression of interest is a request for supervision, read first by one prospective supervisor. At UQ, Sydney, UWA and Adelaide University, you need that supervisor's support before the formal application goes anywhere (Sydney's Law and Business Schools excepted). It is not the SkillSelect EOI, which is a skilled-visa system.

Our view: write the first contact as a one-page research pitch to one person, not as a statement of purpose to a committee. Adelaide University says your likelihood of an offer "will largely be determined by" two things: how your project aligns with potential supervisors' interests, and whether they have capacity to take you. A long, general SOP answers neither. If you are drafting the outline now, a free PhD research proposal review reads it against a public rubric.

Every university and government page quoted below was checked on 29 October 2026. These steps can change between scholarship rounds, so recheck each page before you contact a supervisor. For UQ's own stage-by-stage process, see our UQ expression of interest guide. This page compares four universities and gives one worked example.

Contents

• Two different EOIs
• What four universities ask for before you apply
• Should the proposal go in the first email?
• How long the proposal should be at this stage
• Constructed example: the email, the outline and the 50-word statement
• Scholarship timing changes when you should write
• If the supervisor says no, or does not reply
• Questions about Australian PhD expressions of interest

Two different EOIs

A search for "expression of interest Australia" can return two unrelated systems. The Department of Home Affairs' SkillSelect EOI is for skilled visas: "Submitting an expression of interest (EOI) detailing your work experience and qualifications lets us know you are interested in being invited to apply." It has nothing to do with a PhD.

A university's PhD expression of interest is a different document. At UQ it is the first stage of the application itself: "When you're ready to apply, you'll need to first submit an expression of interest (EOI) for your preferred program." At the other three universities below, the same step is an enquiry email to a supervisor, with no form called an EOI.

What four universities ask for before you apply

Three details change what you write:

• UQ's supervisor reads the EOI first. "The supervisor you've nominated will review your EOI." If they want to talk, they "organise an informal interview". Then: "If the supervisor supports your EOI, you will be invited to submit a final application."
• Sydney says what the email should describe: "your academic background and research experience, the topic you'd like to research and how your research project aligns with the work of your proposed supervisor."
• Adelaide requires an interview. Its document list asks for "Confirmation of an interview (in English) with your proposed supervisor" unless you have "a prior professional relationship (e.g. supervisor of summer scholarship, honour project or tutoring under their direction)".

Unknown: none of the four pages says how many supervisors you may contact at once, or how supervisors choose between enquiries.

Should the proposal go in the first email?

The four universities disagree, so advice written for one of them can be wrong for another.

• Sydney: yes. The enquiry email "must include" your "initial research proposal".
• UWA: an outline. Contact supervisors "with your academic transcript and a brief outline of your research proposal".
• UQ: not as the first contact. UQ's June 2026 article on research proposals says: "If sending your research proposal is your first point of contact with your prospective supervisor, you've jumped the gun a little." It explains: "At UQ, you'll nominate your primary supervisor in your Expression of Interest (EOI). Once the supervisor has approved your EOI, you'll be free to discuss your proposal with them".
• Adelaide: the supervisor sets it. For an advertised project, contact the supervisor and send what they ask for. The proposal template is an application document.

Our recommendation: send a one-page outline at first contact wherever the university asks for a proposal or outline (Sydney, UWA), and send none at UQ unless the supervisor asks. In every case, keep a longer version ready for the week after the supervisor replies.

The countercase: if a supervisor's own page or advertised project asks for a full proposal up front, send the full proposal. A supervisor's written instruction beats a university's general page. And if you are applying to an advertised, funded project, you are not proposing your own question. Write to the project as advertised; our PhD position cover letter rubric is built for that letter.

How long the proposal should be at this stage

Only two of the four universities publish anything close to a number:

• UQ says the proposal's length "can range from a 1-page maximum to a 3,000-word minimum depending on your supervisor and research area".
• Adelaide University's Graduate Research Proposal Form sets section limits: a title of "no more than 20 words", a summary "up to 100 words", project details of "200-500 words", and research methods "up to 200 words", plus references. That is at most 820 words before references (our arithmetic: 20 + 100 + 500 + 200).
• Sydney says "initial research proposal" and UWA says "brief outline". Neither gives a length.

Adelaide's form is the only one of the four with section limits, and it works as a length guide for a first outline even if you are not applying there: it forces a title, a plain-language summary, a background-and-aims section and a methods section, and it caps all four. The example below follows it.

Constructed example: the email, the outline and the 50-word statement

Constructed example, written by us, not a real applicant statement. Context (invented): an environmental science master's graduate writing to a prospective supervisor in spatial ecology at an Australian university. Names, the university, the sites and the supervisor's work are bracketed placeholders or invented. Replace each with facts you have checked on the supervisor's own page.

Part 1: the enquiry email (190 words, salutation to sign-off)

Subject: PhD enquiry: timing drone surveys to find new invasive grass patches

Dear Dr [Surname],

I am writing to ask whether you would consider supervising a PhD on finding small new patches of an invasive grass from drone imagery, by timing the flights to the days after rain. I would like to apply for the [round name] scholarship round.

Your [year] paper on [mapping invasive grasses from satellite imagery] is the reason I am writing to you. It maps established infestations; my master's work tried to find patches too small for that scale.

In my master's thesis at [University], I surveyed three sites by drone. I planned all eighteen flights, flew fourteen of them, labelled 400 plots in the images by hand, and trained a classifier. It found most small patches at two sites but missed most at the third, and I want to find out why.

I have attached my CV, transcripts and a one-page outline. The outline proposes repeat flights after rain at four sites and a field method I would need to learn.

Would you be open to a short call? If your group is not taking students this year, I would be grateful to know.

Kind regards, [Name]

Part 2: the one-page outline, on Adelaide's four headings (413 words)

1. Project title (13 words): Timing drone surveys after rain to detect new patches of an invasive grass

2. Project summary (73 words): Land managers want to find invasive grass patches while they are still small. This project will test whether drone flights timed to the days after rain can detect small new patches reliably, on the idea that the grass and the native plants around it green up at different speeds. It combines repeat drone surveys at four sites with field plots, and aims to produce a survey timing rule a land manager can apply.

3. Project details (221 words): In my master's survey, a classifier trained on single-date drone images found most small patches at two sites but missed most at the third. The third site was flown eleven days after rain; the other two were flown four and five days after rain. One explanation is that the colour difference between the grass and the native plants narrows as the days pass. If that is right, the flight date matters more than the classifier. This project asks: does timing drone surveys to the days after rain make small new patches of the grass reliably detectable? The aims are (1) to measure, at four sites, how the colour difference between the grass and native plants changes in the three weeks after rain; (2) to find the flight window in which small patches are detected most reliably; and (3) to test a survey timing rule built from aims 1 and 2 at two new sites. The work fits [Dr Surname]'s group, which [maps invasive plants from remote sensing] and has [field site access, to confirm]. Aim 3 matters because a rule that works only at the sites it was built on would not help a land manager. The expected outcome is a tested, written survey rule and a labelled image dataset others can reuse. References would include [key papers, to be added].

4. Research methods (106 words): Field: drone flights at four sites on days 2, 5, 9, 14 and 21 after each qualifying rain event, with plant cover recorded in field plots on the same days, a field method I would need to learn in the group. Analysis: measure the colour difference between the grass and native plants on each date, then train and test a classifier for each date separately. Access: two sites are on public land and two depend on landholders' agreement, which is not yet confirmed. If landholder access fails, the project would use the two public sites only, which reduces aim 3 from two new sites to one.

Part 3: the 50-word contribution statement (48 words)

UQ's CV instructions ask for "a brief statement (maximum 50 words) outlining your specific contribution to any multi-authored outputs or publications". A constructed one, for an invented conference paper:

I planned all eighteen drone flights, flew fourteen of them, labelled the 400 image plots and trained the classifier. I wrote the methods and results sections and produced all figures. My supervisor framed the research question and edited the paper. The second author flew the other four flights.

What the example is doing

• The email names one question in its first sentence. Sydney asks the email to describe "the topic you'd like to research and how your research project aligns with the work of your proposed supervisor". The second paragraph does the alignment in two sentences, with one specific paper.
• It states the applicant's own share with numbers. "I planned all eighteen flights, flew fourteen of them" matches the contribution statement, where the second author flew the other four: 14 + 4 = 18 (our arithmetic).
• It asks a question the supervisor can answer quickly. A short call, or a no. It does not ask "Will I be admitted?"
• The outline obeys Adelaide's limits. Title 13 words (limit 20), summary 73 (limit 100), details 221 (range 200-500), methods 106 (limit 200), by our count. That is 413 words, about one page (our arithmetic).
• It names what is not yet confirmed. Landholder access is "not yet confirmed", and the methods section gives the fallback and what it changes. Our proposal data-access guide covers that move in more depth.
• The contribution statement separates roles. UQ asks "how much of the original research you were responsible for" and "the extent to which you authored the paper". The first two sentences answer those; the last two name who did the rest.

What it leaves out: why the applicant chose Australia, family background, career plans beyond the project, and any visa detail. None of the four universities asks for those at this stage.

Scholarship timing changes when you should write

The supervisor step takes time, and scholarship rounds do not wait for it.

• Sydney: "Postgraduate research degree applications are open all year round" but "to be considered for the RTP stipend you will need to submit your application by these dates." Late applicants "will not receive a stipend outcome until the next round of RTP rankings."
• UWA: "Research Training Program (RTP) scholarships are not transferable between universities".
• UQ: the EOI itself asks for "details of the scholarship you're applying for or have been awarded".
• Adelaide University: Project Round projects "will be listed only when the round is open (October)", and "Applicants applying in a Project Round will be asked to submit relevant documentation in the Expression of Interest form attached to the project."

Our recommendation: work back from the scholarship round date on each university's page, and make first contact early enough that a slow reply does not push you past it. Our guide to what an Australian RTP covers explains the stipend and fee parts.

If the supervisor says no, or does not reply

UQ publishes the clearest rule. The nominated supervisor reviews the EOI, and "You should receive a response within 2 weeks. If you haven't heard from the supervisor after 4 weeks, you can contact us for advice." And: "If your nominated supervisor declines your EOI, you can choose another supervisor and submit a new EOI."

A procedure that works at all four universities:

1. Write to one supervisor per project idea. Pass: you can name one specific piece of their work your project extends.
2. Wait for the university's stated window where there is one. At UQ that is 2 weeks for a response and 4 weeks before you contact UQ.
3. Send one short follow-up if the university states no window. Pass: it adds one new fact, such as a result or a date, not just "following up".
4. Rewrite the alignment paragraph for the next supervisor. Pass: the paragraph would make no sense if sent to the first supervisor.
5. Record every contact, with dates and replies. Adelaide's document list asks for supervisor confirmation and interview confirmation by "informal email", so you will need those emails.

Our view on mass emails: sending the same email to ten supervisors fails step 4 by design. Our guide to contacting a PhD supervisor covers timing and templates outside Australia, and emailing a professor before you apply covers what the email can and cannot do.

Questions about Australian PhD expressions of interest

Is the expression of interest the same as the application?

At UQ, it is the first stage of it: you submit the EOI, and "If the supervisor supports your EOI, you will be invited to submit a final application." At Sydney, UWA and Adelaide University, supervisor contact comes before the formal application, which is a separate step.

Can I contact several supervisors at once?

None of the four pages we checked sets a rule. At UQ, the EOI names one proposed supervisor, and a decline lets you "choose another supervisor and submit a new EOI". Our recommendation is one supervisor per project idea at a time.

Does the 50-word statement go in the email?

No. At UQ it belongs in the research outputs section of the academic CV. It is worth drafting early, because it forces you to state your role in every co-authored output.

What should I write if I have no publications?

Write the outline and email from your thesis or project work, as the example does. UQ's CV instructions also invite an optional statement of "maximum 200 words" on research achievements relative to opportunity, if disruptions or a career change shaped your record.

Get a free review of your PhD research proposal

Get a free Quick Review of your PhD research proposal against GradPilot's research proposal rubric for UK, Irish and Australian doctoral applications. It reads for a question stated early, a bounded gap in named prior work, methods that answer each question, a feasible scope, and where the project belongs in the department or supervisor's work. Applying to an advertised project instead? Use the PhD position cover letter rubric. For the supervisor-fit paragraph in a statement of purpose, use the adviser-fit rubric, or start from the PhD statement of purpose review page.

More guides for this decision:

• UQ PhD: EOI, proposal and formal application: UQ's stages in detail, with two UQ cases.
• PhD research proposal: a 1,500-word UK example: what changes when a UK school sets the length.
• Australia RTP: tuition, stipend or both?: the scholarship side of the same timeline.
• PhD essays hub: every PhD statement and proposal guide in one place.

Sources

Retrieved 29 October 2026, except where noted.

• Australian Government Department of Home Affairs, SkillSelect (no year stated): what a SkillSelect EOI is.
• The University of Queensland, Submit an expression of interest for a UQ research degree (no year stated): EOI contents, supervisor review, response times, decline rule, 50-word contribution statement and 200-word context statement in the CV instructions.
• The University of Queensland, How to write a research proposal (published 23 June 2026): proposal length range; proposal as first contact.
• The University of Sydney, How to apply for postgraduate research (no year stated): supervisor-first rule, Law and Business exception, enquiry email contents, RTP stipend dates.
• The University of Western Australia, Higher Degree by Research (no year stated): supervisor contact with transcript and brief outline; RTP not transferable.
• Adelaide University, Apply for a research degree (page lists projects "for commencement in 2026"): supervisory support, interview requirement, Project Round EOI form, offer factors.
• Adelaide University, Graduate Research Proposal Form (no year stated; PDF read with pdftotext): section word limits.