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Twelve Western Australian research projects have been boosted with funding from the McGowan Government.

$1.9 million in research grants has been awarded to support COVID-related research projects. Another $1 million has been provided for infrastructure support which will cover costs of consumables, staffing and site set-up for local COVID-19 research.

The WAHTN were tasked with distributing the funding along with the Department of Health, appointed the Panel including the Chair, Peter Klinken and worked with the research community to best use the $1 million for infrastructure.

The funding for the 12 research projects will go towards treatments, studies of at-risk groups, development of less invasive tests, study of mental health impacts and tests that will more accurately inform us about immunity of COVID-19.

One of these projects is a pilot study that will assess the effectiveness of transfusing active COVID-19 cases with plasma from recovered patients (convalescent plasma).

The pilot, being led by Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital respiratory specialist Dr Anna Tai, will determine whether antibodies contained in donated plasma can prevent patients from deteriorating to the point where they need to be hospitalised or develop Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The project will also see whether such early intervention can reduce the time it takes for the person to feel better or clear the virus from his or her system.

With Western Australia’s current low number of active cases, Dr Tai is collaborating with other research groups to involve patients from other states and jurisdictions.

In the absence of a vaccine or treatment for COVID-19, Dr Tai’s study will investigate the therapeutic potential of convalescent plasma in treating COVID-19 patients in the early stages of disease.

Convalescent plasma has been shown to be effective in managing patients during other major viral outbreaks including the SARS, MERS, Ebola and H1N1 and H5N1 pandemics.

The full list of recipients is on the Department of Health website.

The full media statement can be found on the Government of Western Australia’s website.

Western Australia is poised to be a leader in the future of health and medicine after the Western Australian Future Fund Amendment (Future Health Research and Innovation Fund) Bill passed State Parliament today.

The milestone legislation will give Western Australian health and medical researchers and innovators a secure and ongoing source of funding that will include an initial commitment of an extra $37 million over the next three years.

The legislation repurposes the $1.4 billion WA Future Fund – allowing interest earned on it to be directed to local health and medical research, innovation and commercialisation.

Under the fund’s ramp-up program the first year’s allocation, expected to be up to $6 million, will be dedicated to COVID-19 research, including the McGowan Government’s nation-leading DETECT program.

The DETECT program tests selected cohorts of asymptomatic people in order to learn more about COVID-19. It is currently examining education and FIFO groups. Other cohorts being investigated for potential inclusion include health care, aged care, police, retail, hospitality and meat workers.

Going beyond COVID-19, the increased certainty provided by the Future Health Research and Innovation Fund is expected to help create health sector jobs, diversify the economy, improve patient care, and help Western Australia retain its brightest health researchers, innovators and clinicians, as well as attract global projects and partnerships.

The full media statement can be found on the Government of Western Australia’s website.

The Minister for Health, the Hon Greg Hunt MP, has announced details of funding for the National Health and Medical Research Council and Medical Research Future Fund Investigator schemes. We would like to congratulate the following researchers on their successful applications:

NHMRC Investigator Grants

Duration: 5 years

Tipping the balance – improving response rates to cancer immunotherapy
Emerging Leadership 2
Dr Willem Lesterhuis, Centre for Child Health Research/Telethon Kids Institute
Total Funded: $1,562,250.00

Improving patient outcomes in familial hypercholesterolaemia across the continuum of care
Emerging Leadership 1
Dr Jing Pang, UWA Medical School
Total Funded: $645,205.00

Reducing global mortality and severity of disease in newborn infants through innovation and holistic interventions
Leadership 2
Professor Jane Pillow, School of Human Sciences
Total Funded: $2,060,520.00

MRFF Investigator Grants

Duration: 5 years

Better penicillin, better hearts: improving secondary prevention of rheumatic heart disease
Emerging Leadership 2
Doctor Laurens Manning, Centre for Child Health Research/Telethon Kids Institute
Total Funded: $1,281,125.00

Preventing bronchiectasis in Indigenous people
Emerging Leadership 2
Doctor Andre Schultz, Centre for Child Health Research/Telethon Kids Institute
Total Funded: $1,131,125.00

The Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC) has launched a new website, the Telehealth Hub, which will help clinicians, health professionals and health consumers to access and deliver telehealth services in Australia more effectively.

In the face of COVID19, rapid adoption of telehealth has been an essential tool in the delivery of health care services. DHCRC launched a series of telehealth webinars that were attended by almost 5,000 people, mainly health professionals.

In the webinars, large audiences learned from expert practitioners and clinicians who generously shared their own experience and tips on getting up to speed effectively and rapidly.

Q&A sessions in the webinars generated a huge amount of valuable information from both presenters and the audience who have submitted links, resources, and recommendations.

DHCRC have collated this crowd-sourced information and presented it on this website, and invite you to add to, update and correct any information you see here – go to the Contact form to submit your questions, information, or suggestions.

DHCRC would also like to acknowledge the numerous government agencies, professional bodies, organisations, and individuals who have contributed the resources shared on the site.

A Perth clinical research company has been selected to undertake a trial of a vaccine to combat COVID-19.

Linear Clinical Research announced it will conduct a human trial of the vaccine candidate, which is being developed to help the body produce antibodies to fight the coronavirus which causes COVID-19 disease.

The vaccine candidate COVID-19 S-Trimer has been developed by China-based, global biotechnology company Clover Biopharmaceuticals.

Phase 1 of the vaccine trial is planned to involve healthy adult and healthy elderly participants and the company is currently seeking volunteers to participate in the study within the next two months.

Linear’s Chief Executive Officer Jayden Rogers said if successful, a larger clinical trial involving thousands of people around the world would be conducted immediately.

Mr Rogers said the COVID-19 S-Trimer vaccine trial was a major coup for WA and Australia.

“WA is in the unique position of working towards successfully suppressing the disease, so medical experts can dedicate resources to prevention.

“We are fortunate to be one of the few countries in the world to still be offering functional clinical trial facilities because we do not have large volumes of COVID-19 cases as compared to other parts of the world,” he said.

Mr Rogers said Clover was one of the first companies to start developing a vaccine and started working on it in January this year.

The company’s access to early COVID-19 data and reagents made them one of the first companies to develop a vaccine which targets a protein that the virus needs to enter host cells.

He said there were more than 60 candidate COVID-19 vaccines in development around the world, but only a few were entering early clinical trials in human volunteers.

Small to Medium Enterprises (SME) Assist, live-streamed their last ‘Meeting Your Obligations’ workshop from Sydney and it is now available for viewing on the TGA Australia YouTube channel. Workshop content is specifically targeted at SMEs who are unfamiliar with the regulatory process for both medicines and medical devices. Topics covered include Basics of regulation, Market authorisation, Manufacturing, Advertising and Post-market monitoring as well as an interactive Q&A session with TGA staff.

Also, for the latest information about COVID-19 from TGA please refer to the Coronavirus (COVID-19): Information on medicines and medical devices webpage.

In the ocean of uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Forrest Research Foundation is an island of opportunity, offering 3-year post-doctoral fellowships to the world’s truly exceptional early career researchers.

The Fellowships are open to candidates from all countries and all disciplines, and are intended to accelerate opportunity for outstanding researchers. Forrest post-doctoral fellows are more than just intellectually brilliant. They are adventurous, curious, open to ideas from anywhere. They think differently, take risks, forge new pathways and collaborate to improve outcomes for the community and the world.

The Fellowships can be held at any of Western Australia’s five universities – the University of Western Australia, Curtin University, Murdoch University, Edith Cowan University and University of Notre Dame, Fremantle.

Applicants will have an outstanding academic profile and will have already made significant personal research contributions to their discipline. They will have gained high-level research experience through studying and researching in a number of different institutions, and their innovative doctoral research will be recognised well beyond their current institutional home.

The Foundation was established in 2014 following the donation of $130 million by Andrew and Nicola Forrest through the Minderoo Foundation. The donation is used to drive research and innovation capacity in Western Australia by supporting PhD Scholars and Post-doctoral Fellows

Applications are open until 1 June 2020; fellowships commence from January 2021. Applicants must have completed their PhD on or after 1 January 2018, or be due to complete prior to 31 December 2020.

Apply online

ACTA Members can nominate a clinical trial that was published in 2019 for ACTA’s Trial of the Year Awards. The awards are open to ACTA Full and Associate members.

Each year, ACTA highlight the best in Australian clinical trials at their National Tribute and Award Ceremony, historically held on International Clinical Trials Day. Due to social distancing requirements, ACTA will announce the Trial of the Year winners at the ACTA Summit later in the year.

Nominations for ACTA’s Trial of the Year Awards remain open until COB 20 May 2020.

Please visit the ACTA website for further information about nominations or contact awards@clinicaltrialsalliance.org.au with any queries.

CT:IQ has launched a practical tool to help research sites navigate the challenges of recruiting participants for clinical trials.

The CT:IQ GREET project (Guidance to Recruitment Examining Experiences at Trial sites) identified barriers and enablers to recruitment at a site level and developed best practice recommendations in the form of the Clinical Trial Site Recruitment Guide.

It is widely accepted and recognised that clinical trial sites often find it difficult to meet recruitment goals, both in terms of accrual targets and timelines. There are very few frameworks targeted at specifically supporting clinical trial sites with recruitment strategies.

As we try to navigate our way through a world impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, many new and ongoing clinical trials will be disrupted. Sponsors, researchers and sites may be asked to postpone planned trials as well as trials that are actively recruiting or in the start-up phase. This might provide an opportunity for many to reflect on current recruitment practices.

Developed by a project team with a broad range of expertise and experience from within the Australian clinical trials sector, key recommendations to improve recruitment are grouped into four main focus areas:

1. Accurate STUDY FEASIBILITY before taking on the trial
2. Upfront STUDY START UP and planning before recruitment starts
3. Understanding & selecting optimal RECRUITMENT METHODS
4. Ensuring PARTICIPANT CONSIDERATIONS are top of mind to maximise recruitment outcomes

The Clinical Trial Site Recruitment Guide can be accessed via the CT:IQ GREET project website as either a PDF document or an online learning platform called Teachable.

CT:IQ welcomes feedback on how useful this resource is for you and how future versions could be improved to enhance recruitment into clinical trials in Australia. Go in the draw for one of three $100 gift vouchers for feedback provided by Friday 25 June 2020.

The NHMRC Postgraduate Scholarship scheme funds successful applicants to attain a research based postgraduate degree (Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) or Research Masters Degree).

The objective of the Postgraduate Scholarship scheme is to support outstanding graduates early in their careers so they can be trained to conduct health and medical research that is internationally competitive.

The intended outcome of the Postgraduate Scholarship scheme is to build research capacity within Australia.

Applications close: 5pm (ACT), Wednesday 8 July 2020.

Visit the Grant Connect website for more information about this grant opportunity.