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$70 million boost for Australia’s next generation of medical researchers

The Australian Government has announced an additional $70 million for Australian health and medical researchers to help boost their research capability and to find innovative, practical solutions for better health care.

The Hon Greg Hunt MP
Former Minister for Health and Aged Care

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The Turnbull Government is today announcing an additional $70 million for Australian health and medical researchers to help boost their research capability and to find innovative, practical solutions for better health care.

This investment is being made over the next five years from 2017-18 through the Turnbull Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Next Generation Clinical Researchers program.

This program will boost the talent and capacity of Australia’s health and medical research workforce by increasing the scale of existing fellowship schemes offered by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Building researcher capacity is vital to Australia’s continued success as a global health and medical research leader and innovator.

Fellowships encourage leading researchers in the early to middle stages of their careers to remain in the competitive research arena. It’s about supporting the next generation of Australia’s researchers.

Expansion of fellowship schemes was recommended by the independent Australian Medical Research Advisory Board, which advises the Government on the best use of MRFF funds.

The Next Generation Clinical Researcher program increases the funds available to researchers through three NHMRC fellowships schemes.

The program received $8 million from the first tranche of MRFF disbursements. The first group of MRFF fellowships were announced by the Prime Minister and myself in October.

Today, we are also announcing the allocation of $1.79 million to the next group of MRFF fellowships.

Ten MRFF Translating Research into Practice (TRIP) Fellows will use the funds to work on a broad range of health issues, from suicide prevention to chronic kidney disease and to translate theory and laboratory work into improved health care practice and outcomes for patients.

In addition, the successful applicants for the 12 TRIP fellowships funded by the NHMRC are also being announced today. These fellowships are worth a total of $2.15 million.

These TRIP fellowships will increase the number of opportunities for Australia’s talented researchers to continue their important work.

The announcement today of a further $70 million for fellowships into the future will ensure Australia has the research capacity to maintain its global research powerhouse status.

Translation of research into clinical practice is crucial to improve the health outcomes of all Australians and the operation of our health system.

This reinforces the Turnbull Government’s unprecedented commitment to health and medical research.

NHMRC Funded TRIP Fellowships Commencing 2018

List of researchers, their institutions, projects and funding.

Chief Investigator

Research project

Administering institution

Funding

A/Pr Bamini Gopinath

Implementing and evaluating a telephone-delivered dietary intervention for age-related macular degeneration patients

University of Sydney

$179,118

A/Pr Anita Wluka

TreatOA4life (Treat OsteoArthritis4life) – a sustainable lifestyle treatment to improve outcomes in knee osteoarthritis

Monash University

$179,118

Dr Trisha Peel

Optimising Patient Outcomes following Surgery: Improving Uptake of Evidence into Practice for Surgical Antimicrobial Prophylaxis

Monash University

$179,118

A/Pr Gillian Gould

Translating evidence based smoking cessation care for pregnant Indigenous smokers

University of Newcastle

$179,118

A/Pr Fiona Russell

Implementing Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine in Pacific Island Countries

University of Melbourne

$179,118

Dr Hamish MacDougall

Acute vertigo in emergency departments: distinguishing between central and peripheral causes by objective measure of oculomotor examination (HINTS)

University of Sydney

$179,118

Dr Jane Yelland

Enhancing communication, language services, and information exchange: the ECLIPSE StudyMurdoch

Children’s Research Institute

$179,118

Mrs Rachel Sutherland

A randomised trial of an intervention to facilitate the implementation of evidence based secondary school physical activity practices

University of Newcastle

$179,118

A/Pr Rachael Morton

Incorporating patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) into clinical registries

University of Sydney

$179,118

A/Pr Angela Dawson

Improving the quality of maternity care for women with female genital mutilation

University of Technology Sydney

$179,118

Prof Monika Janda

Evaluating and disseminating the implementation success of a surgical training program

Queensland University of Technology

$179,118

A/Pr Lisa Askie

Resolving 60 years of uncertainty: oxygen saturation targets in preterm infants

University of Sydney

$179,118

Total

$2,149,416

MRFF Funded TRIP Fellowships Commencing 2018

List of researchers, their institutions, projects and budgets.

Chief Investigator

Research project

Administering institution

Budget

Ms Kelly Lambert

Implementing a health literacy focused dietetic outpatient model of care for people with chronic kidney disease

University of Wollongong

$179,118

Associate Professor Niranjan Bidargaddi

Enhancing the capacity of mental health services to review, personalise and intervene early through implementation of real-time outcome monitoring

Flinders University of South Australia

$179,118

Associate Professor Leonard Crocombe

Sustaining oral and systemic health in Residential Aged Care Facilities

University of Tasmania

$179,118

Doctor Christian Barton

Implementing appropriate exercise and education for Australians with knee osteoarthritis

La Trobe University

$179,118

Doctor Alison Beauchamp

Closing the communication gap in chronic disease

Deakin University

$179,118

Doctor Kate Bartlem

Translation of preventive care for chronic disease risk behaviours into community mental health service delivery

University of Newcastle

$179,118

Doctor Fiona Shand

Catch them when they fall: Providing best evidence care after a suicide attempt

University of New South Wales

$179,118

Doctor Donna Urquhart

Closing the evidence-practice gap with a highly innovative, patient-centred, decision-support program to guide narcotic use in chronic low back pain

Monash University

$179,118

Doctor Lauren Ayton

Improving patient management pathways in age-related macular degeneration

Centre for Eye Research Australia Limited

$179,118

Associate Professor Meg Jardine

Pragmatic implementation trial to reduce evidence practice gap in chronic kidney disease and diabetes

University of New South Wales

$179,118

Total

$1,791,180

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