The Pacific Visitors Program at the Department of Pacific Affairs (DPA) is designed to provide researchers from the Pacific a short term scholarship (typically 6-12 weeks) to conduct research and writing at the Australian National University (ANU). Pacific visitors generally undertake a discrete piece of research or writing for publication under the guidance of a DPA academic staff member, sometimes a colleague they have been collaborating with prior to the visitorship.
The Pacific Visitors Program is funded by ANU as a part of the Pacific Research Program Phase Two (PRP II), which is implemented in partnership between the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the PRP consortium led by ANU DPA. PRP II builds on Phase One of the program to foster strong partnerships between Australian and Pacific universities, and teach and train the next generation of Pacific researchers. Over the next four years, PRP II will also take forward new and ongoing policy-relevant research in key priority areas of:
- Gender, disability and social inclusion;
- Pacific migration and integration;
- Politics, governance and economic resilience;
- Papua New Guinea including Bougainville; and
- Security, regionalism and geopolitics.
With these focus areas in mind, the overall goal of PRP II is: ‘To deepen Australia-Pacific research & education partnerships that support evidence-based policy-making for the Pacific’. Research and writing to be undertaken by DPA Pacific visitors should contribute to one of PRP II’s thematic research priorities and the overall goal of PRP II.