$37 million for health research

UNSW has received $37 million in the latest round of funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Prime Minister Tony Abbott yesterday announced more than $559 million for 963 grants to health and medical researchers across Australia.

The result means that for work starting next year, UNSW will have received the largest amount of NHMRC funding for any institution in the country, when including the previously announced Program Grants. Almost $88 million from the Council has been earmarked for the University’s work beginning in 2014.

In the latest announcement, UNSW was successful with 67 grants, including Project Grants, a Partnership Project, Research Fellowships, Early Career Fellowships and Career Development Fellowships.

A Partnership Project of $1.26 million was awarded to a team led by Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite from the Australian Institute of Health Innovation. It will investigate the appropriateness of healthcare delivered to Australian children.

The largest of UNSW’s 38 Project Grants, almost $1.3 million, was for the research Preventing Falls in Older People with Dementia – a randomised controlled trial, led by Conjoint Associate Professor Jacqueline Close, who is part of the Prince of Wales Clinical School and based at NeurRA.

Over a million dollars will also go to a team led by Professor Adam Jaffe from the School of Women’s and Children’s Health to work in the area of pneumonia in children. 

Other Project Grants awarded to UNSW include:

• Using an app for suicide prevention amongst young Indigenous people: a randomised control trial ($918,809) – led by Dr Fiona Shand, Black Dog Institute
• Identifying new targets for primary school mental health interventions using population data ($772,647) – led by Dr Kristin Laurens, School of Psychiatry
• Biomechanical, Neural and Sensory Phenotyping of the Upper Airway in Obstructive Sleep Apnoea ($716,304) – led by Professor Lynne Bilston, Prince of Wales Clinical School

UNSW also received 10 Early Career Fellowships, seven Career Development Fellowships, a Partnership Fellowship and eight Research Fellowships.

The largest Research Fellowship awarded to any institution in the country, at almost a million dollars, was given to UNSW Professor Helen Christensen, who is the Executive Director of the Black Dog Institute. It was a very good day for Professor Christensen, who is also the Chief Investigator on another successful UNSW Project Grant. That work will trial an e-health application to prevent depression, suicide risk and anxiety in youth.

For the full list of grants, go to the NHMRC website.

Media contact: Susi Hamilton, UNSW Media Office, 0422 934 024