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  • New era for health research and innovation funding

    The Western Australian Future Fund Amendment Bill has been introduced to the WA Parliament paving the way for hundreds of millions of dollars to be invested in health and medical research and innovation.

    The Amendment Bill allows for interest from the WA Future Fund to be used to fund health and medical research and innovation in WA.

    The $1.3 billion WA Future Fund currently earns approximately $40 million in annual interest. Funds committed to health research and innovation will ramp up gradually, with $52 million being committed over a three-year period between 2020-21 and 2022-23. Alongside existing State Government research funding, this will deliver a total of $126.6 million over the next four years and transform WA into a leader in health research and innovation.

    Formation of the WA Future Health Research and Innovation Fund delivers on a McGowan Government election commitment, it will grow local jobs, retain WA’s brightest health researchers and innovators and attract more leading research projects and partnerships from around the world.

    The funding boost will also ensure that WA does not lose potential innovation and commercialisation opportunities stemming from local research discoveries and innovative practices.

    Read the full media release here.

  • Forrest Research Foundation PhD Scholarships 2020

    The Forrest Research Foundation is offering up to 9 four-year PhD scholarships to outstanding researchers from around the world to conduct paradigm-shifting research at any of Western Australia’s five universities.

    These generous scholarships, which are open to candidates of any nationality, working in any subject area, provide for all tuition fees, and a stipend accommodation package valued at over AU$50,000 per annum which includes a luxury self-contained studio apartment in Forrest Hall.

    If you have an outstanding academic track record (with a minimum GPA of 3.8/4.0), are a creative thinker, an excellent communicator, a passionate researcher and wish to join this elite group of exceptional Forrest Scholars, visit the Foundation’s website for further details. Applications must be submitted via the online application form by 31 October 2019.

    Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed in December 2019, and PhD scholarships must be commenced between January and August 2020.

    Apply now 

  • Human Genome Meeting 2020: Call for abstracts

    On behalf of the local organising committee and HUGO, you are invited to submit an abstract for the 24th Annual Human Genome Meeting to be held in Perth, Western Australia on April 5 – 8, 2020. The committee encourages applicants to submit recent work for consideration in either an Oral Presentation and/or Poster Presentation. Inclusion of original work not previously published is highly encouraged. The contribution of presenters like yourself is crucial to the success of the Conference and we greatly value your input.

    The themes for this year’s meeting include:

    • Precision Oncology
    • Clinical Genomics
    • Single Cell Genomics
    • Regulatory Regions and Epigenetics
    • Functional Genomics
    • Genetic Diagnosis
    • Population Scale Genomics
    • Neurogenomics
    • Human Evolution
    • Ethics
    • Genomic Therapies
    • New Genomic Technologies
    • Non-coding RNAs

    The Human Genome Meeting is an international meeting with a long history and broad audience of researchers and clinicians applying leading edge genomic technologies to study the human genome and diagnose and treat disease.

    The 2020 meeting is broadly spread across three themed days covering genome function, genome variation and clinical application. We have secured high profile international and national speakers across each of these themes.

    Oral Abstract Submissions close: Midnight (AWST), Friday 10 January 2020
    Poster Abstract Submissions close: Midnight (AWST), Friday 7 February 2020

    To submit an abstract, click here.

  • Cancer Council WA funding opportunities

    The Cancer Council WA have two funding opportunities now open for applications.

    The opportunities are:

    • Cancer Council WA PhD Top Up Scholarship – Applications close Wednesday 30 October 2019
    • Cancer Council WA Paul Katris Honours/Master Scholarships – Applications close Wednesday 16 November 2019

     

    Cancer Council WA PhD Top Up Scholarship
    PhD Top Up Scholarships are awarded to highly ranked PhD students with a Research Training Program (RTP) Stipend or equivalent. The amount offered is up to $36,000 for up to 3 years full-time, with a maximum payable rate of $12,000 per annum. These scholarships are offered to students with an outstanding track record in academic achievement and research potential to pursue full-time PhD studies in Western Australia in cancer-related research.

    The Baguley Family Bladder Cancer PhD Top Up will also be offered this year. This scholarship will be awarded to a student with an outstanding track record in academic achievement, and who is conducting research into the understanding and/or treatment of bladder cancer.

    The guidelines and application forms are available on the Cancer Council WA website.

    Cancer Council WA Paul Katris Honours/Master Scholarships
    These scholarships are available for research projects in any relevant cancer related research field such as laboratory, clinical, epidemiological, psychosocial and/or behavioural science. Awarded in memory of Paul Katris, a member of Cancer Council WA family for more than 20 years, consideration is given to the relevant criteria, and research excellence, with one scholarship earmarked for a psycho-oncology research project.

    These scholarships are awarded to highly ranked Honours students commencing cancer research in 2020 as part of their Honours degree. The total value of the Scholarship is up to $7,500 for 1 year full-time, with $6,000 to be allocated as an allowance and an additional amount of $1,500 to be allocated to research costs.

    The guidelines and application forms are available on the Cancer Council WA website.

  • 2019 RAC Small Grant Funding

    The Sir Charles Gairdner Osborne Park Health Care Group (SCGOPHCG) in collaboration with the Charlies Foundation for Research is offering funding for short-term projects to be conducted within the SCGOPHCG.

    The 2019 small grants of up to $5,000 are available to researchers employed at the Sir Charles Gairdner Osborne Park Health Care Group for at least 0.25 FTE. The allocation of all grants is subject to funding being made available:

    • Preference in this round will be given to projects for novice researchers (defined as staff who have not previously received ANY research funding)
    • A mentor (experienced researcher) must be nominated on the application form and assistance can be found in identifying a mentor if required
    • Applications from staff in nursing and allied health are strongly encouraged
    • Applications will only be accepted for discrete projects, not funded from any other source
    • Expectation that project will be completed within the financial year

    Applications Close: 5pm, Monday 7 October 2019

    For more information about the Research Grant application, please click here.

    Queries regarding the application process should be directed by email to scgh.research@health.wa.gov.au or via telephone (08) 6457 4531

     

  • WAHTN awarded Federal Budget funds for the Rapid Applied Research Translation program

    Today the Australian Government’s Minister for Health, Hon. Greg Hunt MP, has announced eight national translation research centres, including the Western Australian Health Translation Network (WAHTN), will receive more than $33 million for research into health care practices and interventions. The funding will focus on people with, or at risk of, developing chronic conditions.

    The WAHTN has been awarded $4.14 million in the latest round of the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) as part of the Rapid Applied Research Translation (RART) program. This round of RART grants was targeted to primary care research, with an emphasis on multidisciplinary care and public health interventions which address lifestyle factors which lead to chronic disease. This builds on $1.97 million previously awarded to WAHTN in 2018, totalling $6.1 million provided by the Australian Government over three years.

    Commenting on the successful funding application, Executive Director of WAHTN, Professor Gary Geelhoed, said “The awarding of these funds to WAHTN and to similar bodies around Australia, comprising the Australian Health Research Alliance (AHRA), confirms the ongoing commitment of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and MRFF to the importance of these entities in promoting medical research and its timely application.”

    The grant will provide funding for 12 research projects from WAHTNs Health Service Translational Research Projects (HSTRP) initiative, three Targeted Translational Research (TTR) Fellowships and several National System Level Initiatives, which are projects carried out across the nine AHRA Centres throughout Australia.

    The TTR Fellowships align with WAHTNs aim to support our emerging research talent. Along with building and strengthening the research workforce within WA and enhancing our capacity and capability to undertake high quality translational research. The Fellowships will be targeted to the research areas of:

    • Wound Care
    • Biostatistics

    The HSTRP program attracted 68 applications from the public and private health sector, PathWest and the WA Primary Health Alliance. The large number of quality applications made the process highly competitive. It also provided an encouraging snapshot of the strength and breadth of translational health research occurring in WA hospital and primary health settings. The successful projects, listed in the table below, will be supported by $2.84 million in MRFF funding, with matched funding from the health services.

     

    Read the Australian Government’s media release 

     

    The successful HSTRP recipients are:

    Recipient Project Title Health Service
    Dr Christopher Brennan-Jones PCH Ear Portal: Improving access to specialist ENT and Audiology services in metropolitan Perth Child and Adolescent Health Service
    Dr André Schultz Implementation of solutions to improve follow-up for Aboriginal children hospitalised with lower respiratory tract infections Child and Adolescent Health Service
    Prof Graham Hillis Community based education and exercise training in heart failure: Harnessing an existing resource to bridge a gap East Metropolitan Health Service
    Prof Christobel Saunders Measuring the cost of continuous improvement in care-cancer at Royal Perth Hospital – a ‘proof-of-concept’ East Metropolitan Health Service
    Assoc Prof Paul Cohen Getting the MOST out of follow-up: a randomised controlled trial to compare three-monthly nurse-led telephone follow-up, including monitoring serum CA125 and patient reported outcomes using the MOST (Measure of Ovarian Symptoms and Treatment concerns) with routine clinic-based follow-up, following completion of first-line chemotherapy in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer North Metropolitan Health Service
    Prof Michael Millward Integrating Tumour Mutational Burden (TMB) testing for appropriate selection of immuno-oncology therapy in metastatic melanoma fit for the modern era North Metropolitan Health Service
    Prof Girish Dwivedi High Performance Medicine through Artificial Intelligence in the Emergency Department South Metropolitan Health Service
    Assoc Prof Andrew Maiorana Primary Care Adherence to Heart Failure guidelines IN Diagnosis, Evaluation and Routine management (PATHFINDER) Study South Metropolitan Health Service
    Dr Wei-Sen Lam TeleTrials in WA: A feasibility study to develop and pilot a TeleTrials framework to bring clinical trials closer to home for country patients WA Country Health Service
    Ms Jo Moore A community and health system partnership to prevent hospitalisation and improve outcomes through a Compassionate Communities Model of End of Life Care WA Country Health Service
    Prof Desiree Silva Embedding E-Health (Pregnancy Lifestyle, Activity, Nutrition (PLAN)) into routine clinical practice pathways to provide a healthy start to life Ramsay Health Care
    Mr Richard Varhol Unlocking the potential of health system integration through data linkage: Combining primary and secondary data across the continuum of care to support policy development and clinical management of chronic disease in WA WA Primary Health Alliance

  • Raine Medical Research Foundation Grants – Closing Soon!

    Please note the below funding opportunities all close 1pm (AWST), Thursday 19 September, 2019. Guidelines, Conditions and Applications Forms

     

    Visiting Fellow Awards

    Raine Visiting Professor Awards

    These Awards facilitate the visits of distinguished scholars to Western Australia for the purpose of advancing medical research. Nominations are invited for 2020 and are open to medical researchers from WA Universities or affiliated medical research institutions in Western Australia.

    Charter Hall Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar Awards

    This Award facilitates the visit of a high-achieving postdoctoral research scholar who is within seven years of completing their PhD, for the purpose of advancing medical research. Nominations are invited for 2020 visits and are open to medical researchers from WA Universities or affiliated medical research institutions in Western Australia.

    Read more about the Visiting Fellow Awards

     

    Research Collaboration Awards

    Healy Research Collaboration Awards

    These Awards are for early-career researchers in Western Australia to establish and develop research collaborations, both nationally and internationally, to seek a better understanding of the nature, origin, and cause of human diseases, and their prevention and treatment. A maximum of $30,000 shall be available for each Award.

    BrightSpark Research Collaboration Awards

    These Awards are for early-career researchers in Western Australia, to develop research collaborations that investigate the cause and treatment of childhood disease. A maximum of $30,000 shall be available for each Award.

    Charter Hall Research Collaboration Awards

    These Awards are for early-career researchers in Western Australia, to develop research collaborations that investigate the cause and treatment of childhood disease. A maximum of $30,000 shall be available for each Award.

    Cockell Research Collaboration Awards
    These Awards are for researchers in Western Australia from early-career, mid-career, to senior scientists, to develop research collaborations that investigate the cause and treatment of mental illness. A maximum of $30,000 shall be available for each Award.

    Read more about the Research Collaboration Awards

     

    Publication Prizes

    Raine Research Prize

    This Prize is awarded for the best scientific paper arising from research undertaken by an early-career medical researcher in Western Australia. The successful applicant will receive a travel allowance to the value of $5,000 and a medallion.

     

    Strachan Memorial Prize

    This Prize is awarded to a Western Australian early-career clinical scientist for the most outstanding scientific paper that may translate medical science into better health outcomes. The successful applicant will receive a travel allowance to the value of $5,000 and a medallion.

    Read more about the Publication Prizes

  • Health Economics September Round Table Wrap up

    A health economics roundtable was held on September 11 to discuss what the major issues health economics and data analytics should be addressing in WA, how to promote and encourage an effective system-wide collaboration – including the better transfer of people and knowledge between sectors, and how can state and federal governments, along with other stakeholders, be involved in utilising digital technology, health economics and data analytics.

    The roundtable was hosted by WAs leading health economists – Prof Suzanne Robinson and Prof Elizabeth Geelhoed – from our Western Australian Translation and Collaboration in Health Economics and was attended by some of Western Australia’s top health and medical people, along with university and industry representatives.

    Across WA and nationally, there’s considerable need for health economics and data analytics expertise, both in government and industry. The roundtable was seeking comment on developing capability in uniting the toolkit of economics with the more nuanced picture which can be derived from large complex data. Western Australia is in a great position to do this; its long history of broad data linkage means there’s the potential to unpack what drives health expenditure and where there are opportunities for innovation and commercialisation of solutions. Currently, the pathways for bringing highly skilled individuals and commercially successful organisations into the area are limited, constraining capacity building in WA. The round table was also seeking comment on how to entice, and retain both organisations and specialists in health economics.

    Health economics is a toolkit aimed to help answer WA’s health system challenges. It uses skills from medicine, statistics, economics, mathematics, psychology, public health, policy and ethics to give health professionals, managers, and policy makers the information they need. The combination of health economics and data analytics brings opportunities for industry partnerships between sectors in predictive analytics and real time data to drive sustainable health care. The combination of health economics and data analytics is an area of emerging strength in WA, but we are not yet in a position where we can realise the potential of the digital health revolution in health care, but the outlook is positive with the future capacity of the state.

     

    If you’d like to find out more about Health Economics in Western Australia, visit WATCHE

  • New Medical Research Future Fund Investigator Grants Opportunity

    The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Investigator Grants is a new opportunity to ensure the next generation of Australian researchers have the capacity to make and progress medical discoveries. The Investigator Grants also aim to promote opportunities for clinical researchers to work in partnership with professional colleagues and industry.

     

    The objectives of the Grants is to support the research program of outstanding early- to mid-career clinical researchers which contribute to the following MRFF priority research areas:

    1. Australian Brain Cancer Mission
    2. Million Minds Mission
    3. Genomics Health Futures Mission
    4. Ageing, Aged Care and Dementia Mission
    5. Indigenous Health Research Fund
    6. Stem Cell Therapies Mission
    7. Mission for Cardiovascular Health
    8. Traumatic Brain Injury Mission
    9. Preventative and Public Health Research
    10. Primary Health Care Research
    11. Global Health – Tacking Antimicrobial Resistance and Drug Resistant Tuberculosis

     

    In line with the MRFF supporting and funding research translation, all applicants will need to also demonstrate how the grant will influence one or more of the following:

    • Best practice clinical care
    • Commercial health or medical research product / technology development
    • Health policy
    • Health system improvement

     

    The Grant will consolidate salary and research support into a single grant scheme by offering a salary component (if required) and a Research Support Package (RSP).

     

    To support its objective, this Grant opportunity will only support applicants at the Emerging Leadership (EL) category of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grant scheme. The EL Category is restricted to researchers who are less than, or equal to, 10 years post-PhD or equivalent and comprises two salary levels (EL1 and EL2) with corresponding RSPs.

     

    Read more about this Grant Opportunity

    Applications close 2pm (AWST), Wednesday 27 November, 2019.

    Read the MRFF Investigator Grants Forecast Opportunity Guidelines

  • APSA Research Grant

    The Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association (APSA) is pleased to offer research funding through the APSA Research Grant Scheme to support original research in the disciplines of pharmaceutical science, pharmacy practice and/or pharmacy education. The purpose of the grant is specifically focussed on contribution to the career trajectory of APSA members and/or provision of support to individuals or teams of individuals transitioning to research independence.

    For more information and to apply, click here.

    Applications close, 11:59pm (AEST) 30 September 2019.

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