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The Australian Medical Research Priorities for 2020-2022 have been released and were developed by the independent Australian Medical Research Advisory Board (AMRAB) following a comprehensive national consultation process. Community and sector engagement on the development of the Priorities is critically important as the Priorities serve to inform future Government decisions on MRFF initiatives and investments. The 2020 consultation engaged the Australian public, organisations with expertise in health and medical research and innovation, consumer representatives, clinicians and health services managers.

Please visit the Department of Health website to read on and for a comprehensive breakdown of the 2020-2022 Priorities.

An omnibus Bill has been introduced into the State Parliament seeking to extend the timeframe for the COVID-19 legislative amendments that have helped Western Australia successfully manage the global pandemic and better protect Western Australians.

The COVID-19 Response Legislation Amendment (Extension of Expiring Provisions) Bill 2020 will also ensure that the amendments made to protect and support our emergency and frontline workers will remain in place for longer, providing much-needed certainty.

The Bill amends the Emergency Management Amendment (COVID-19 Response) Act 2020 and the Criminal Code Amendment (COVID-19 Response) Act 2020, which had appropriate 12-month sunset clauses from when they came into operation on April 3.

Those Amendment Acts introduced new clauses into the Emergency Management Act to give hazard management officers or authorised officers the necessary ability to direct a person or class of persons to take any action the officer considered reasonably necessary to prevent, control or abate risks associated with COVID-19.

The Acts also increased penalties for serious assaults and threats in the context of COVID-19 against public officers such as frontline workers or police.

These increased penalties of up to 10 years’ jail reflect the seriousness of deliberately coughing or spitting on public officers who are trying to help keep the State safe.

These new amendments enabled WA to implement its border arrangements, put in place quarantining measures that stopped the spread of the virus, and allowed contact tracing and physical distancing measures in line with the health advice to better protect Western Australians.

The new Bill will seek to extend those necessary provisions for another six months from April 4, 2021 until October 4, 2021.

Read the full media statement

The McGowan Government has announced the make-up of the Advisory Council of WA’s Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund.

The FHRI Fund was the centrepiece of the State Government’s commitment to drive research and innovation in Western Australia by providing the State’s health and medical researchers and innovators with a secure and ongoing source of funding.

Its establishment followed legislation that repurposed the WA Future Fund (the State’s sovereign wealth fund) – allowing interest earned on it to be directed to local health and medical research, innovation and commercialisation.

The Advisory Council of eminent Western Australians will provide high-level advice to the Health Minister and the Department of Health.

The announcement of the council coincides with the launch of the WA Future Health Research and Innovation Fund Strategy 2020-2022 which will provide direction for FHRI Fund activities.

Read the full media statement

While the creation of the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) has greatly increased research funding, Australia still lags behind other nations in translation of research into improved healthcare and economic growth. Unlike Australia, competing jurisdictions (e.g. UK, USA and Singapore) have systematically invested in frontline health service clinical staff who drive research and translation in combination with clinical care. Such staff have dedicated funded time to involve consumers and stakeholders in all aspects of research and translation; to lead clinical, data, innovation and healthcare improvement research embedded in clinical care; to provide translational expertise for partnership with healthcare and industry; and to champion integration of research-driven evidence and innovation into healthcare to deliver “Better Health through Research”. AHRA describe such staff as Research Translators and propose that funding such positions would plug a critical clinical workforce gap that threatens to inhibit delivery of many MRFF priorities.

Learn more

The Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund enabling legislation commenced on 24 June 2020. The legislation provides Western Australian health and medical researchers and innovators with a secure and ongoing source of funding.

The first program to be funded under the FHRI Fund scheme is now open and calling for proposals with a COVID-19 Focus. The FHRI Focus Grants: COVID-19 program will provide funding across the following three streams:

• Research Grants: high-quality COVID-19 related research projects that will generate knowledge which has the potential to be translated into improved policy and/or practice.
• Innovation Grants: high-quality COVID-19 related innovation projects that will develop new ideas, research and/or technology to create new processes, products and/or services.
• Infrastructure Grants: essential infrastructure that supports COVID-19 related research and innovation in WA.

Successful grants could include projects related to infection prevention and control, surveillance, diagnostics, therapeutics as well as direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19 across a range of health conditions.

Grants will be awarded through a competitive merit-based selection process.

Applications close: 1pm, Friday 16 October 2020.

The FHRI Focus Grants: COVID-19 Application Forms and Guidelines and Conditions are available from the new FHRI Fund website.

Any queries related to the program can be directed to the Research and Innovation Office (formerly the Research Development Unit).

The Australian Medical Research Advisory Board (AMRAB) is conducting a consultation to develop the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Australian Medical Research and Innovation Priorities 2020-22 (the Priorities).

The Priorities are considered by the Minister for Health before the Commonwealth Government decides on the disbursement of funding from the MRFF. It is therefore important that the community – patients, clinicians and researchers alike – are engaged in consultation.

Further information about the consultation opportunity, including a Consultation Guidance Paper that has been prepared by AMRAB, is available via the Department of Health’s consultation hub. Public submissions can be made through the consultation hub. The process will be supported by public webinars and where necessary, targeted virtual roundtable discussions. Details and booking arrangements for the webinars will be made available on the MRFF website.

The consultation opportunity will be open until 7 October 2020.

CT:IQ is pleased to launch a series of use cases illustrating successful implementation of eConsent in Australia, aimed to be used as a guide for researchers and HRECs seeking to develop and implement eConsent.

In 2019, Chrysalis Advisory, on behalf of CT:IQ, undertook an investigation of stakeholder opinions about the benefits, risks and critical success factors for eConsent implementation, published in a 2019 report. A summary of this report has now been published as a perspective in the MJA.

Following on from this work, the need for use cases to demonstrate practical implementation of eConsent was identified and subsequently developed. The examples, which can now be accessed via the CT:IQ website, show that the use of eConsent is acceptable to HRECs and institutions and should be treated no differently to standard consent processes.

There are currently three use cases featured, including the Australian Genomics Health Alliance, Royal North Shore Hospital and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute that demonstrate:

• eConsent
• Dynamic consent
• eConsent for remote/telehealth study recruitment
• Use of video animations in clinical consent
• Paediatric Asthma Re-admissions Study

CT:IQ will continue to provide updates as the bank of use cases on the website grows over the next few months.

WAHTN, along with Australia’s other nine Research Translation Centres, under the auspices of the Australian Health Research Alliance, have come together to address priority areas for women and girls across physical and mental health and to support career advancement for women in health and medical research.

A Women’s Health Research, Translation and Impact Network (WHRTN) has been formed which has received funding of $5 million over five years from the Morrison Government, the Hon Greg Hunt MP and the Medical Research Future Fund.

This national collaboration across community, health services and academic institutions will boost national and international collaboration on women’s health, build health workforce capacity, develop leaders in women’s health, and advance research and translation to deliver impact and better health for Australian women.

Learn more

The Chief Allied Health Office of the WA Department of Health has partnered with the WA Health Translation Network this year, via two initiatives to progress early stage research and provide clinicians with time for research development. The combined value of $236,979 for these two initiatives is being delivered through the Allied Health Enabling Platform.

Congratulations to the following recipients of the 2019/20 Allied Health Early Stage Funding Grants (total grant value $128,979):

The University of Melbourne is calling for nominations for the award of The Sir William Upjohn Medal. The Sir William Upjohn Medal is awarded by the University of Melbourne in commemoration of Sir William George Dismore Upjohn (1888-1979) and is available for award every five years.

In awarding this Medal the University aims to recognise an individual’s distinguished services to medicine in Australia: services such as national leadership or reform of medical processes, systems or programs, or a seminal medical discovery, that have made a widespread impact on the Australian population by improving or protecting the health of the Australian people.

Please see the University of Melbourne’s website for more information or to make a nomination.

Nominations close: 16 October 2020.