Leadership INSIGHTS: Issue 01

This first issue of Research Australia’s Leadership INSIGHTS series presents three opinion pieces written during the COVID-19 pandemic by leaders of member organisations from across the health and medical research pipeline. Professor Briony Dow, Director of the National Ageing Research Institute (NARI), argues that ageism underlies the low value placed on older people and on those who care for them. She describes the complex needs of aged care residents, notes that migrant workers make up around half of personal care workers, and observes that aged care staff received little public recognition for adapting their roles during the pandemic, concluding that reform of the sector requires challenging ageism. Dr Sean Hall, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Medlab Clinical Ltd, examines the difficulty of funding medical innovation through public capital markets, stressing a simple investor pitch, a culturally aligned share register and the trade-offs of early commercialisation or dual listing. He identifies a small specialist biotech investor market and slow government research grants as barriers to Australia becoming a global biotech hub. Kerry Strydom, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF), recounts the foundation’s move to remote operations from March 2020, its expanded donor stewardship and new fundraising, the effects of the pandemic on funded researchers, and its decision to continue its grant round.