$39.8m Investment in Brain Research Centre

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PDF printable version of $39.8m Investment in Brain Research Centre (PDF 16 KB)

20 April 2010


The Rudd Government will inject $39.8 million into a new research super-hub to help treat and prevent common brain disorders that affect millions of Australians.

The funding, drawn from the Government’s Health and Hospitals Fund, will help the Florey Neuroscience Institutes and its partners, the Mental Health Research Institute and The University of Melbourne, create Australia’s largest brain research centre in Melbourne with the building of two new state-of-the-art research facilities and the fit out of the Centre for Translational Neuroscience.

Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Mark Butler, today signed the funding agreement between the Commonwealth and the Florey Neuroscience Institutes and announced the first payment of $9 million toward the project.

Mr Butler said the project would bring together leading researchers dedicated to developing more effective treatments for brain disorders such as dementia, depression, Parkinson’s disease, stroke and Multiple Sclerosis.

"The sharing of technologies, insights and expertise in a medical research hub nurtures discoveries that can potentially bring significant economic benefits as well as transform lives by improving our ability to tackle health disorders in Australia and across the globe.

“Quality medical research needs quality facilities and this funding will help expand the vital work of neuroscience researchers whilst creating local jobs,” Mr Butler said.

"The Rudd Government’s investment in medical research infrastructure is an investment in Australia’s future."

The new facilities, located at Austin Hospital in Heidelberg and the University of Melbourne in Parkville, will accommodate over 700 staff and include laboratories, research offices, a Magnetic Resonance Imaging suite and a brain bank.

The Mental Health Research Institute and University of Melbourne researchers will co-locate with the Florey Neuroscience Institutes in the new buildings.

The Florey Neuroscience Institutes, the largest brain research group in the Southern Hemisphere, is an amalgamation of the Howard Florey Institute, the Brain Research Institute and the National Stroke Research Institute.

Media contact: Lisa Sedgwick, Parliamentary Secretary’s Office, 08 8242 0827