West Australian not-for-profits team up to fight infectious lung disease
Two West Australian not-for-profit organisations have formed a unique partnership to fight infectious lung diseases, with $100,000 already being awarded to WA scientists for projects that address diseases such as pneumonia and infections in COPD patients.
Tomorrow morning - 2 Dec - the 2011 LIWA Westcare Grant for Infectious Respiratory Disease Research, worth $50,000, will be awarded at a gala breakfast hosted by Westcare Inc at Burswood Resort. Â
In what is believed to be a unique approach to managing funds donated for research, LIWA has invited any West Australian scientist working in the field of infectious lung disease to compete with its own researchers for the grant.
Director of LIWA Prof Philip Thompson said since its inception LIWA has been committed to fighting lung disease through world class research and has sought to collaborate with the best scientists and clinicians in the world to help achieve this aim. He said the decision to establish a grant model which offered researchers working outside LIWA the opportunity to apply for funds reflected this ethos. Every second year, researchers external to the Institute can apply for the grant. The selection of the eventual winner is competitively based and adjudicated by an independent scientific committee.
This year the grant has been won by respected researcher, Prof Peter Richmond, from the Vaccine Trials Group at the University of WA, for a project that will examine recurrent bacterial infections in the lungs of COPD patients.Â
Prof Thompson said the Institute was indebted to Westcare Inc who agreed to support the annual $50,000 research grant for an initial three years.Â
Westcare Inc is known to many West Australians for its work providing housing, and also training and employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Westcare’s origins, however, are in supporting people with tuberculosis, an infectious lung disease that affected many West Australians at the time Westcare was established in 1947, but fortunately is rare today.
 This historical link to infectious respiratory disease was the inspiration behind the establishment of the grant with the Lung Institute of WA. LIWA is based at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and investigates a wide range of respiratory diseases.
Westcare and LIWA are very aware that being breathless is a major disability that is under recognised and that we need to champion this to the wider community. As such the LIWA Westcare Research Grant which will be awarded 2 December, at corporate breakfast at Burswood to mark International Day of People with a Disability.