Gary Sansom Scholarship aims to attract best and brightest to chicken meat industry

The prestigious Gary Sansom Scholarship aims to uncover future chicken meat industry leaders and champion important research working to boost the productivity and sustainability of chicken meat production. Applications for the 2021 Gary Sansom Scholarship are now open.
The Gary Sansom Scholarship identifies high quality students and, with the support of a generous bursary, allows the successful candidate to foster a career pathway in the chicken meat industry and support their industry-relevant research. The scholarship is named in honour of the late Gary Sansom. Mr Sansom was a former AgriFutures Chicken Meat Advisory Panel chair and was the Australian Chicken Meat Federation president.
AgriFutures Australia manager research Georgie Townsend said the scholarship supports Mr Sansom’s vision for the industry – to ensure it is valued and respected by all sectors of the Australian community and to develop leadership in the research community. “Gary was a long-standing supporter of initiatives to encourage new people into the chicken meat industry,” Ms Townsend said.
“It’s important that the scholarship is awarded to someone who is passionate about the chicken meat industry and who wants the industry to thrive into the future.” University of Adelaide PhD student Joshua Angove was the 2019 Gary Sansom Scholarship recipient. His research project aims to understand whether optimising breeder hen rearing environments can improve growth and carcass characteristics in the progeny they produce, while trying to understand the contributing physiology behind offspring performance variation. “Chicken meat production has experienced unparalleled expansion globally, primarily through genetic advances and improvements in our understanding of bird nutritional requirements,” Mr Angove said.
“To continue this expansion the chicken meat industry requires new economically viable approaches to propel the industry into the future.” Understanding and optimising the maternal environment is one potential methodology. The end goal of his research is to develop and apply an economically viable targeted approach that utilises the maternal environment to enhance commercial chicken meat production. “I encourage anyone interested in the chicken meat industry to apply for the scholarship,” Mr Angove said.
“As a young scientist the networking from attending conferences, particularly those the Gary Sansom Scholarship have afforded me, is invaluable.
“Meeting industry and academic professionals has showcased opportunities across the entire poultry industry.”