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23 January 2023.

The Winston Churchill Trust will soon open applications for this year’s Churchill Fellowship – and organisers are particularly keen to hear from people in agriculture.

The Fellowship offers Australians from all walks of life the opportunity to travel overseas, fully funded, to investigate a topic or issue of their choice.

An online information session with a live Q&A will be held on Wednesday, 1 February at 5.15pm (AEST).

The session will be hosted by former head of ABC Rural, Leigh Radford, who will be joined by two Churchill Fellows talking about their experiences to help inspire and inform potential applicants:

  1. Dan Brown, who used his 2018 Fellowship to investigate dairy cow nutrition and has since become head of dairy at Moxey Farms; and
  2. Research agronomist, Loretta Serafin, who explored alternative summer oilseed crops for north-eastern Australia; and now leads the NSW Department of Primary Industries northern summer grains research program.

The information session is the first in a series, which also includes sessions built around the themes of environmental management and sustainability (6 February) and food production (13 February).

Importantly, no specific qualifications are required to apply for the Fellowship – in fact people do not even need to have finished school.

Instead of formal study, Churchill Fellowships open doors so recipients can meet with leaders in their field of endeavour, observe, learn and then bring their new-found knowledge home to share with their industries and communities.

Registration for the online sessions is essential. To book and for more information visit the website

The application round opens on 1 March 2023, closing 1 May 2023.

Recipients will be announced in September 2023.