Role
The Indigenous Health Research Fund (IHRF) is the first national research fund led by Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people, and conducted through close engagement with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities.
The Indigenous Health Research Fund EAP was appointed in September 2019 to provide the Minister for Health with advice on the strategic priorities for research investment through the IHRF. Its role was to define evidence and knowledge gaps that should be addressed through research funding to assist in transforming health care and health outcomes for individuals and communities. This role included the definition of key research questions that, if answered, will deliver meaningful change to patients through the translation of research.
EAP members consulted and engaged with other researchers, industry and consumer/patient groups and participated in media and public activities to build awareness of and facilitate interaction with the IHRF and with other MRFF-funded research.
Further information on the roles and responsibilities of MRFF EAPs can be found in the MRFF Mission Governance resource.
Members
The EAP was independently chaired by 2 co-chairs and included Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander health researchers and community leaders. It ceased in September 2022. The following information, including declarations of interest, was current until the EAP ceased.
|
Member |
Background and experience |
Declarations |
|---|---|---|
|
Professor Alex Brown (Co-Chair) |
Professor Brown is Professor of Indigenous Genomics as part of a strategic partnership between Telethon Kids Institute and the Australian National University. |
Department of Health, MRFF, NHMRC, The Hospital Research Foundation, SA Government Department of Health and Wellbeing, Macular Disease Foundation Australia, The Wyatt Trust, and The Ian Potter Foundation funding recipient. |
|
Associate Professor Misty Jenkins (Co-Chair) |
Associate Professor Jenkins is the Laboratory Head of Immunology at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. |
MRFF and NHMRC funding recipient. |
|
Professor Ngiare Brown |
Professor Brown is a clinician and researcher and the Founding Executive Director at Ngaoara and Chair of the National Mental Health Commission Advisory Board. |
Nil |
|
Professor Jonathan Carapetis AM |
Professor Carapetis is the Director of the Telethon Kids Institute. |
MRFF, NHMRC, Medtronic Foundation, St John of God, Health Research Council of New Zealand, National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association, Health Research Council of New Zealand, BUPA Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust funding recipient. |
|
Professor Susan Clark |
Professor Clark is the head of the Epigenetics Laboratory at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. |
Nil |
|
Professor Patricia Dudgeon |
Professor Dudgeon is a Poche Research Fellow at the School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Western Australia (UWA) and the Director of the UWA Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention. |
Nil |
|
Professor Gail Garvey |
Professor Garvey is the Senior Principal Research Fellow and Deputy Division Leader, Wellbeing and Preventable Chronic Diseases Division at the Menzies School of Health Research. |
Member of Cancer Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Leadership Group. NHMRC and ARC funding recipient. |
|
Associate Professor Kelvin Kong |
Conjoint Associate Professor Kong from the University of Newcastle's School of Medicine and Public Health, is an otolaryngology, head and neck surgeon and a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. |
Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Member of The Australian Society of Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery (ASOHNS). Co-Chair of the Hearing for Learning Initiative, Menzies Institute. NHMRC funding recipient. |
|
Dr Janine Mohamed |
Dr Mohamed is the CEO of the Lowitja Institute. |
Nil |
|
Dr Simone Reynolds |
Dr Reynolds is a Research Fellow in the Laboratory for Vaccines for the Developing World at Griffith University. |
Member of the Australian Strep A Vaccine Initiative – Indigenous Advisory Board (2020 – current). Member of the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service Human Research Ethics Committee (2019 – current). Co-Chair of the National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, Governance Board (2014 - 2019). Better Indigenous Genetics Health Services Project Reference Group Member (2018 - 2019). |
|
Professor Hugh Taylor AC |
Melbourne Laureate Professor Taylor is the Harold Mitchell Professor of Indigenous Eye Health at the University of Melbourne. |
Nil |
|
Ms Patricia Turner |
Ms Turner is the CEO of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation. |
Co-Chair of the End RHD Coalition. Co-Chair of the Australian Strep A Vaccine Initiative (ASAVI) Indigenous Advisory Board. |
|
Related committees and groups
The Indigenous Health Research Fund EAP reported to the Minister for Health.
The Health and Medical Research Office provided secretariat support to the committee.
