How our Industry Engagement winner is training the next generation

Thirteen years ago, Lee Hickey made a decision that would shape his approach to graduate research supervision. As a PhD student at The University of Queensland, he realised that despite his scientific training, he had never experienced the day-to-day workings of a commercial breeding program. With no formal internship pathway available, Hickey interrupted his doctoral studies for a six-month commercial maize breeding internship in the United States.

This front-row seat to the day-to-day operations of a large commercial breeding program completely reshaped his understanding of the field.

That experience has also guided Hickey’s approach to supervision. It convinced him that direct industry exposure is critical to preparing people for industry, and that the most valuable breeders are not narrow specialists – rather, they are people who can work across disciplines and operate comfortably at the interface of science and commercial practice.

While his own students have thrived under this philosophy, Professor Hickey also recognised that the gap between academic training and industry demand was systemic.

When, in 2022, he surveyed 68 plant and animal breeding organisations across Australia he found that 84% struggled to recruit high-quality candidates. What’s more: 97% reported that graduates lacked practical commercial breeding knowledge, and 67% were not confident in graduates’ ability to apply theory into practice.

The result has been problematic for industry partners like BASF, who said in Professor Hickey’s awards application that while “there is strong demand for highly skilled breeders, we have experienced great difficulty to recruit in Australia, with some positions left unfilled.”

Hickey’s response was to establish the ARC Training Centre in Predictive Breeding, a $13.5 million initiative funded by the Australian Research Council, five Australian universities and 36 national and international industry partners.

The Centre operates around three principles: authentic integration, mutual value creation and skills alignment. The Centre ensures students gain hands-on experience working with datasets provided by industry partners while developing tools that address current industry needs and drive future agricultural innovation.

Within the Centre, students co-design projects with industry collaborators, analyse real-world datasets and undertake placements within partner organisations, transforming how the breeding industry builds capacity.

To balance commercial confidentiality with academic freedom, Professor Hickey designed a two-tier IP contracting structure. A Centre-wide Head Agreement is underpinned by individual project agreements that define the IP for each PhD and guarantee the student’s right to publish through a defined approval process, while protecting commercially sensitive partner information.

The results of the approach are highly tangible. Across the 48 students Professor Hickey has supervised, 38 (79%) have gained industry-funded scholarships and/or conducted their PhD in close collaboration with an industry partner. All 24 of his graduates have secured positions in industry or academia, including roles at InterGrain, Advanta, Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Agriculture Victoria, Rothamsted, Cornell and SALK.  

By integrating students with industry from the beginning of their research training, Professor Hickey is helping to develop a new generation of breeders equipped to move confidently between science and commercial practice.

And while awards and recognition are nice to have, for Professor Hickey, a key measure of true success is whether graduates can enter industry already equipped to contribute. Typically, industry organisations report spending approximately three years bringing PhD graduates up to speed with the inner workings of a commercial breeding program, so well-trained, industry-exposed graduates provide a substantial economic benefit.