Over $40m funding for health and medical research projects

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has issued the second round of funding for its Investigator Grants scheme, developed as part of a major reform of NHMRC’s grant program.

Awarded to only the highest-performing researchers of any career stage, NHMRC Investigator Grants provide investigators with five-year funding for their projects. The grants provide investigators with the flexibility to pursue important new directions for their research as they arise and to form collaborations as needed, rather than being restricted to the current specific scopes of their projects.

Twenty-seven projects were funded as part of this second round, and are listed below.

• Better evidence more rapidly implemented to optimise health for people with musculoskeletal conditions — Professor Rachelle Buchbinder, Monash University, $2,914,215
• Optimising Primary Care for Cancer Survivorship — Professor Raymond Chan, Queensland University of Technology, $1,541,565
• Understanding the genetic basis of breast cancer: translation to primary and secondary prevention — Professor Georgia Chenevix-Trench, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, $2,731,372
• Preventing Illness and Death from Severe Influenza in Australia — Professor Allen Cheng, Monash University, $1,719,110
• Therapeutically Targeting Malaria Pathogenesis — Professor Brendan Crabb, Burnet Institute, $2,000,000
• Improving the health outcomes for children with rare neurological diseases with genomic technologies — Associate Professor Michelle Farrar, UNSW Sydney, $1,000,000
• Understanding and harnessing immunity to fight melanoma — Associate Professor Thomas Gebhardt, University of Melbourne, $3,138,220
• An interdisciplinary approach towards antiviral therapy discovery — Professor Mark von Itzstein, Griffith University, $2,000,000
• Tackling Australia’s low screening participation to prevent bowel cancer deaths — Professor Mark Jenkins, University of Melbourne, $2,188,416
• Regulatory strategies to promote healthier Australian diets — Dr Alexandra Jones, George Institute for Global Health, $645,205
• Improving Aboriginal children’s access to better ear and hearing health through telehealth ENT — Associate Professor Kelvin Kong, The University of Newcastle, $1,123,450
• Tipping the balance – improving response rates to cancer immunotherapy — Dr Willem Lesterhuis, University of Western Australia, $1,562,250
• Improving diabetes-related health outcomes with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the lifecourse — Professor Louise Maple-Brown, Menzies School of Health Research, $2,567,932
• Developing interpretable machine learning models for clinical imaging and single-cell genomics — Dr Davis McCarthy, St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research, $1,312,250
• Transforming acute hospital care to improve outcomes for stroke — Professor Sandy Middleton, Australian Catholic University, $1,350,000
• Embedding economics for cost-effective melanoma prevention, diagnosis and treatment — Professor Rachael Morton, University of Sydney, $1,074,900
• Generating evidence for a strong foundation: using population health data for translational child health, healthcare and policy — Professor Natasha Nassar, University of Sydney, $1,500,000
• Understanding immune responses to severe influenza virus infection and vaccination in humans — Dr Thi Nguyen, University of Melbourne, $645,205
• Optimising outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy to support hospital-in-the-home program across the unique environmental conditions of Australia — Doctor Fekade Sime, University of Queensland, $645,205
• Targeted approaches to improve health outcomes in severe respiratory disease — Associate Professor Natasha Smallwood, University of Melbourne, $645,205
• Teaching an old brain new tricks: optimising cognitive training through neuroplasticity — Associate Professor Genevieve Steiner, Western Sydney University, $1,562,250
• Informing the development and real-world translation of a home-based physical activity intervention for improving postnatal mental health — Dr Megan Teychenne, Deakin University, $566,164
• Addressing Healthcare Disparities in Remote and Low Resource Settings with Solid-State Biodiagnostic Devices — Professor Benjamin Thierry, University of South Australia, $2,194,658.35
• Molecular diagnosis and therapy of autoimmune disease using translational and reverse translational approaches — Professor Carola Vinuesa, Australian National University, $2,331,372
• The Kids Aren’t Alright: Preventing Depression in Adolescents — Dr Aliza Werner-Seidler, UNSW Sydney, $600,715
• Transforming Approaches to Chronic Disease Prevention in Community Settings — Associate Professor Luke Wolfenden, The University of Newcastle, $2,738,220
• Can e-Health improve access to effective and affordable care for musculoskeletal conditions? — Dr Joshua Zadro, University of Sydney, $645,205
   

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/robynmac

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