Category: News

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.

The Australian Academy of Science has created a COVID-19 Expert Database so governments, the business sector, research sector and other decision-makers can easily access experts across many fields.

The fully searchable database is a collaboration between Australia’s leading academies; Australian Academy of Science, Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, Australian Academy of the Humanities, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and the Australian Council of Learned Academies.

It is championed by Australia’s Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel AO and represents more than 3000 of Australia’s scientists, researchers and other experts.

Search for an expert or register your expertise

A coalition of peak Australian experts have come together to develop new ‘living guidelines’ that will provide continuously-updated, evidence-based guidance to clinicians treating people with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infections across primary, acute and critical care settings.

The guidelines will form a key part of Australia’s response to COVID-19. Clinicians are being encouraged to submit questions or suggestions.

The National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce is convened by the Australian Living Evidence Consortium, based at Cochrane Australia at Monash University. The Taskforce received $1.5 million from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) to deliver the guidelines.

The initial focus of the guidelines will be:
• definitions of disease severity
• monitoring and markers of clinical deterioration
• antiviral medications and other disease modifying treatments
• respiratory support

The Guardianship and Administration Amendment (Medical Research) Bill 2020 has been passed by Parliament and has been in effect from yesterday, 8 April 2020. The Guardianship and Administration Act 1990 now provides an avenue for the inclusion of incapacitated adults in research. This is particularly relevant at this point in time when clinical trials related to COVID-19 are of critical importance.

For your information please see the following documents:

• Media statement from the Attorney General and Minister for Health dated Tuesday 31 March 2020.
• Position Statement released by the Office of the Public Advocate.
• The Guardianship and Administration Act 1990 with tracked amendments (Blue Bill).

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) have been working hard and consulting with Research Committee and a number of peak stakeholder groups to develop a way forward in these very uncertain and challenging times.

As a number of grant schemes are currently open with deadlines approaching, NHMRC have focused in the first instance on providing clarity about those schemes. There are other matters to consider over coming days and weeks, but the most urgent issue is to provide advice to researchers in the middle of putting together grant applications.

This is the revised plan for 2020. It is important to note that this plan relies on a number of factors, many of which cannot be predicted or controlled. They include the health and availability of applicants, peer reviewers and NHMRC staff. NHMRC will be relying even more than usual on strong support from the sector and peer reviewers to make this happen, acknowledging that many of their regular peer reviewers will not be available, given their involvement in the clinical and public health response to the COVID-19 outbreak, and additional teaching and caring responsibilities.

These changes will have consequences for the timing of round outcomes and the commencement of funding. Further information will be provided as NHMRC work through the details.

Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies Scheme (CTCS) – delayed
NHMRC has received considerable feedback about the extraordinary impact of the pandemic on clinical, allied health and public health researchers.

Acknowledging this and the importance of funding these projects, the closing date for the CTCS scheme will be extended to 25 November 2020.

It will likely be necessary to streamline peer review processes to ensure that funding is delivered in a timely manner while maintaining high quality peer review, equity and transparency. NHMRC is aiming to have funding outcomes from this round known in mid-2021.

Ideas Grant Scheme – extra time
Recognising the size of the scheme and the role of Ideas Grants as the complement to Investigator Grants in the system, NHMRC will proceed with the Ideas Grant scheme in 2020.

The deadline will be extended by 5 weeks, with a new closing date of 10 June 2020.

Ideas Grants will also be assessed with a streamlined peer review process, to reduce the burden on peer reviewers and in an attempt to finalise funding outcomes by the end of 2020.

Research Administration Officers (RAOs) in Administering Institutions will be under significant pressure and dealing with their own uncertainty around staffing and resources. NHMRC encourage Ideas Grant applicants to support their RAOs by getting their applications in early where possible. If your Ideas Grant application is already close to being finalised, please don’t wait until the extended deadline to submit.

Synergy Grant Scheme – cancelled for 2020
NHMRC has made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 Synergy Grant round. This will be very disappointing for many researchers who have worked hard to develop their research plan and build the collaborations underpinning this important scheme.

A key factor leading to this decision is the anticipated “all hands on deck” that will be required both of peer reviewers and the office of NHMRC to deliver the Ideas Grant round this year. NHMRC won’t be able to do everything and have decided to prioritise completing the Ideas Grant round due to its size and broad impact across the sector.

Peer reviewers who had agreed to provide reviews of Synergy Grant applications will be asked to consider instead undertaking review of Ideas Grant applications later in the year.

NHMRC will consider whether it is possible to run an expanded Synergy Grant round in 2021.

Investigator Grants 2020
Thank you to everyone who applied for Investigator Grants in the current round, and to the many people who completed peer review. NHMRC are expecting outcomes from the 2020 Investigator Grant round to be available soon.

NHMRC expect that updated documentation for CTCS, Ideas and other grant schemes with changed due dates will be available in GrantConnect and on the NHMRC website over the next two weeks.

The McGowan Government is urging all Western-Australia-based researchers to apply for a new $3 million funding program to support COVID-related research.

The new COVID-19 research grants will be awarded on merit. While all projects will need to be scientifically and ethically sound, every effort will be made to expedite high-quality research through the governance process to enable earlier commencement.

Projects could involve anything from trials of new treatments or testing regimes to data or epidemiological studies.

The funding will also be available to provide infrastructure support for COVID-19 research.

Applicants will have until Wednesday April 8, 2020 to lodge applications for research projects and infrastructure support.

The new funding program will be overseen by the WA Department of Health in conjunction with the WA Health Translation Network, which includes consumer representation through the Consumer and Community Health Research Network.

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

The Priority-driven Collaborative Cancer Research Scheme (PdCCRS) is Cancer Australia’s innovative annual national research project grants funding scheme which brings together government and other funders to collaboratively fund cancer research in identified priority areas in Australia. PdCCRS project grant applications must directly relate to a research priority area specified by Cancer Australia and/or its Funding Partners. Experienced investigators as well as Early Career Researchers with less than 7 years post-PhD or post-MBBS are eligible to apply.

The estimated grant value is anywhere between $10,000 and $600,000.

Applications close: 5pm (ACT), Wednesday 13 May 2020.

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