Genomics Health Futures Mission Expert Advisory Committee

Role

The Genomics Health Futures Mission Expert Advisory Committee has been appointed to provide the Minister for Health with advice on the strategic priorities for research investment through this mission. Its role is to define evidence and knowledge gaps that should be addressed through mission research funding to assist in transforming health care and health outcomes for individuals and communities. This role includes the definition of key research questions that, if answered, will deliver meaningful change to patients through the translation of research.

Expert Advisory Committee members will consult and engage with other researchers, industry and consumer/patient groups and participate in media and public activities to build awareness of and facilitate interaction with the mission and with other MRFF-funded research.

Further information on the roles and responsibilities of MRFF Expert Advisory Panels can be found in the MRFF Mission Governance resource.

Members

The Australian Government appoints the Expert Advisory Committee. The Chair is independent and the members are appointed for their health system and genomics-related expertise.

Member	Background and experience	Declarations of interest
Professor Ian Frazer AC (Chair)	Professor Frazer is a scientist and Professor of Medicine at the University of Queensland. He is the previous Chief Executive Officer and Director of Research of the Translational Research Institute. He is now Chair of the Translation Research Institute Foundation Board and a member of the Council of National Health and Medical Research Council. He also chairs the Australian Medical Research Advisory Board.	Board member/Director of Microba Pty Ltd, Jingang Medicine (Australia) Pty Ltd, Implicit Bioscience Limited, Immuno Services Pty Ltd. Shareholder of health sector companies.
Professor Kathryn North AC	Professor North is the Director of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the David Danks Professor of Child Health Research at the University of Melbourne. Professor North is also lead, Australian Genomics Health Alliance.	Nil
Professor Warwick Anderson	Professor Anderson is Janet Dora Hine Professor of Politics, Governance and Ethics in the Department of History and the Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney.	Nil
Professor Christopher Barnett FRACP FCCMG	Professor Barnett is the Head of the Paediatric and Reproductive Genetics Unit at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in South Australia.	Nil
Professor Christopher Goodnow FAA FRS MNAS	Professor Goodnow is the Executive Director of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and holds the Bill and Patricia Ritchie Foundation Chair as Head of the Immunogenomics Laboratory at Garvan, and is Professor and Director of the Cellular Genomics Futures Institute at UNSW Sydney.	Executive Director of Garvan Institute. Professor and Director of the Cellular Genomics. Futures Institute at UNSW. Not-for-profit medical research funding recipient (2018-2024).
Professor Emma Kowal	Professor Kowal is a Professor of Anthropology in the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University. Professor Kowal was Deputy Director of the National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, ANU College of Health and Medicines, from 2013 to 2017.	Department of Health funding recipient for Chief Investigator/Coordinator at Australian Genomics - Summer Internship for Indigenous People in Genomics.
Ms Sue MacLeman FTSE	Ms MacLeman is the Chair and Non-Executive Director of MTPConnect, a MedTech and Pharma Growth Centre	Nil
Ms Anne McKenzie AM	Ms McKenzie is the Manager of Community Engagement at the Telethon Kids Institute, Perth Children’s Hospital. Ms McKenzie is also a senior consumer representative for Consumers Health Forum of Australia and former Chair of Health Consumers Council WA	Nil
Professor Tania Sorrell AM	Professor Sorrell is the Director, Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity; Professor, Clinical Infectious Diseases; Deputy Dean (Clinical), Sydney Medical School; Director, Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Westmead Institute for Medical Research.	Nil
Professor Keith McNeil	Professor McNeil is the Assistant Deputy Director-General of the Clinical Excellence Division and Chief Clinical Information Officer at Queensland Health.	Nil
Professor Dianne Nicol	Professor Nicol is a Professor of Law and the Director of the Centre for Law and Genetics at the University of Tasmania.	MRFF funding recipient. Holds a research contract with the Department of Health.
Dr Simone Reynolds	Dr Reynolds is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University and Affiliate Scientist at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute. Dr Reynolds is an emerging leader in Indigenous health and one of the few Indigenous biomedical scientists in Australia.	Nil
Professor Robyn Ward AM FAHM	Professor Ward is the Executive Dean and Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. Professor Ward is also chair, Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC).	Nil
Declarations are accurate as of 14 May 2021. No conflicts of interest required action beyond ‘register’, as defined in the MRFF Declarations of Interest Policy Statement.

Terms of reference

Purpose of the Advisory Committee

The Mission Expert Advisory Committee will provide the Minister for Health with advice on the strategic priorities for research investment through this Mission.

The role of the Expert Advisory Committee is to define evidence and knowledge gaps that should be addressed through Mission research funding to assist in transforming health care and health outcomes for individuals and communities.

Expert Advisory Committee Members will consult and engage with other researchers, industry and consumer/patient groups and participate in media and public activities to build awareness of and facilitate interaction with the Mission and with other MRFF funded research.

Membership

The Expert Advisory Committee will be chaired by Professor Ian Frazer AC.

Key deliverables

The Expert Advisory Committee will provide advice on priorities for research investment through the Mission by developing a Roadmap and Implementation Plan, including 2–3 questions/goals that investment through the Mission will support and be evaluated against.

Roadmap

A two page high level strategic document for the Mission which will include:

the aim, vision and goals for the Mission
possible themes and priorities for investment.

Implementation plan

To support implementation of the Roadmap, the Expert Advisory Committee will develop an Implementation Plan to outline:

2–3 questions/goals that will outline specifically how the Mission will benefit Australian patients, guide the investment priorities that will achieve this objective, and will be used to evaluate the ongoing progress of the Mission
priorities for investment, particularly defining research questions and outcomes for short, medium and long term investment
opportunities for leveraging additional investment through philanthropy and other sectors, to support achievement of the Mission’s outcomes
activities required to support the Mission’s outcomes, and facilitate their longer term implementation, including community and industry engagement.

Public consultation

A public consultation on the Roadmap and Implementation Plan was undertaken between 14 December 2020 and 23 April 2021 to enable broad engagement on the priority setting process. The themes of feedback provided on the Roadmap and Implementation Plan, and how the feedback has been incorporated will be published on the Mission website.

Meetings

The Genomics Health Futures Mission Expert Advisory Committee will meet twice a year with additional meetings held as required.

Related committees and groups

The Genomics Health Futures Mission Expert Advisory Committee reports to the Minister for Health.

The Health and Medical Research Office provides secretariat support to the committee.