Decoding airborne volatiles in environmental smoke that taint wine

This PhD scholarship is funded by an Australian Research Council Industry Fellowship grant. It is a 3.5-year research training program. The ARC Industry Fellowship program aims to develop a strong pipeline of researchers in Australia with capabilities in research collaboration, translation and commercialization, open up and maintain a diversity of career pathways traversing university and industry settings, increase strategic engagement and alignment between universities and industry, contribute to the solving of industry-identified challenges and opportunities, and create commercial, economic and other benefits for Australia through enhanced translation and commercialisation, including the development of start-up companies.

Apply today for this exciting opportunity in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at the University of Adelaide.  Applications close 27 September 2025.

Project overview

Bushfires, stubble burns, and controlled burns all pose major risks to the international winemaking industry. Noxious, volatile chemicals in the smoke can be absorbed by grapes, making them unfit for winemaking. Australia’s vignerons have suffered $1.4B in losses in winegrape quality from smoke damage over the last 20 years and the problem is only expected to get worse with climate change. Currently, grapes need to be ripe before testing, so growers need to maintain crops for several months only to find they are worthless at harvest. This project aims to develop new capability to detect and measure volatile agents directly in smoke, allowing growers to make more cost-effective vineyard management decisions and mitigate risk.