The nation’s leading health and medical researchers, innovators and advocates have been recognised at Research Australia’s 21^st Health and Medical Research Awards Gala Dinner this evening in Melbourne.

Research Australia’s CEO Nadia Levin reflected on the importance of the Awards. “They honour and celebrate Australia’s outstanding researchers and innovators, and those who support their work across the health and medical research innovation pipeline – whether that be in transformative research, or impactful data innovations. The fact all awards are nominated by sector peers significantly recognises how exceptional these nominees are in contributing to national and global health outcomes.

As the national peak body for the entire health and medical research innovation pipeline, Research Australia views the awards as a celebration of what is working well across the pipeline.

Ms Levin in her speech highlighted some of the current complexities and opportunities in the sector. “We recognise that researchers and innovators are working in a rapidly changing landscape. National and global challenges are becoming more complex. It is imperative that our sector, including the policy and funding landscapes, mobilises the disparate parts of our pipeline, activates the implementation of the policy levers and removes barriers for research and innovation to thrive; and ignites the urgency of getting this done now.

“Right now, we have the unique opportunity to reform and reimagine a whole of system that sets up a future Australia.  One that is responsive, affordable, and sustainable, but also one that enables Australia to reach its potential as a health and medical research innovation global leader. The calibre of the nominees, finalists, highly commended and winners demonstrates Australia’s exceptional talent and our broader potential in health innovation.”

The prestigious Peter Wills Medal, which recognises an individual who has made an outstanding, long-term contribution to building Australia’s international reputation in areas of health and medical research and fostering collaboration for better health, was presented by Research Australia Chair, Martin Bowles AO PSM to Clyde Campbell AM. Mr Campbell founded Shake It Up Australia Foundation, in partnership with The Michael J. Fox Foundation, following a  diagnosis Parkinson’s at age 44. The Foundation aims to increase awareness and funding for Parkinson’s research to prevent, slow and stop the progression of the disease and ultimately lead to a cure. Australia is renowned globally for leading researchers and innovators specialising in Parkinson’s.

Research Australia’s premium event partner was the University of Melbourne, and the award sponsors included Australian National University, AbbVie, the Victorian Government Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions, Digital Health CRC and GSK.

Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, and Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health, the Hon Ged Kearney delivered a keynote address at last night’s event. Attendees also heard from Deputy Premier of Victoria, the Hon Ben Carroll MP, Senator the Hon Anne Ruston, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care, and Senator Steph Hodgins-May, Greens Spokesperson for Industry, Innovation and Science.

A full list of winners follows.

2024 Award Winners

Peter Wills Medal: Created in honour of Research Australia’s founder, Peter Wills AC, the Peter Wills Medal is the flagship award and recognises someone who has made an outstanding, long-term contribution to building Australia’s international reputation in areas of health and medical research and fostering collaboration for better health.

Winner – Mr Clyde Campbell AM (Shake It Up Foundation)

Discovery Award (sponsored by Victorian Government Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions): This Award recognises an early career researcher (anytime from qualification but no more than 5 years past PhD) whose paper/patent/discovery has already demonstrated its importance or impact.

Winner – Dr Mustafa Atee (The Dementia Centre, HammondCare)

Great Australian Philanthropy Award: This Award profiles personal philanthropy that is outstanding in its generosity, effectiveness, vision, high impact and transformative quality. The Award recognises and encourages personal philanthropic donations over a period of time by an individual or family to Australian health and medical research.

Winner – Paul and Sue Taylor

Advocacy Award (sponsored by AbbVie): This Award recognises and congratulates exceptional contributions made by research champions who help raise community awareness and understanding of the importance of health and medical research.

Winner – Dr Jane Tiller (Monash University)

Frontiers Research Award (sponsored by Australian National University): This Award recognises transformative research that could revolutionise health outcomes in Australia and internationally.

Winner – Centre for Microbiome Research (Queensland University of Technology)

Digital and Data Innovation Award (sponsored by Digital Health CRC): This Award recognises an individual or team whose innovation is considered to represent one of the most impactful new data innovations in the health and medical research sector within the past five years.

Winner – The RMIT University-Telstra Health-Digital Health CRC project team

Health Services Research Award: This Award is for an individual or team who has provided leadership and made an outstanding contribution to health services research; driven research that has led to a significant improvement in healthcare; and/or has championed the development of the health services research field.

Winner – Professor Christobel Saunders AO (The University of Melbourne)

GSK Award for Research Excellence: The GSK Award for Research Excellence recognises outstanding achievements in medical research with a focus on improving human health.

This is one of the most prestigious and long-standing awards available to the Australian research community. GSK Australia is proud of its research legacy, having now presented the Award for Research Excellence for more than 40 years, supporting local research and helping to improve health outcomes for patients in Australia and around the world. This year’s award is accompanied by a grant of $100,000 to advance the winner’s research.

Winner – Professor Matthew Kiernan AM (Neuroscience Research Alliance)

The national peak body for health and medical research innovation, Research Australia, welcomes the appointment of Rosemary Huxtable AO PSM to lead the development of the National Health and Medical Research Strategy.

Research Australia has led the call for the development of such a strategy emphasising the need to facilitate coordinated, sustainable investment in research; strengthen the connection between research and healthcare; and support emerging innovative health industries.

Developing the National Health and Medical Research Strategy provides an opportunity to bring a whole of pipeline and whole of governments approach to health and medical research. However, Research Australia reiterates the call that the strategy must include innovation and industry. Just as the Strategic Examination of R&D, currently underway, must include health and medical research.

To be truly national, the Strategy must have input from all States and Territory Governments, all portfolios and jurisdictions.

On behalf of our members across the whole of the health and medical research innovation pipeline, Research Australia looks forward to working with Ms Huxtable who has considerable experience in policy, bringing strong insight into the complexities of research and innovation policy and investment.

Research Australia welcomes the Australian Government’s announcement that it will finalise the establishment of the much-anticipated Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC).

The announcement is in response to the government’s release of the independent inquiry into Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research Australia also encourages the expansion of the recommendations to include direction of emergency funding and a wider remit in supporting the alignment of Australian research and innovation with unmet health needs.

Research Australia CEO, Nadia Levin said “the establishment of an Australian Centre for Disease Control is an important first step in ensuring Australia is prepared for the next pandemic. In the event of a health emergency, the Australian CDC should have the capacity to direct emergency funding provided by the Australian Government from outside normal funding streams”.

The CDC, with its extensive data gathering and analysis capabilities and its responsibility for assessing and mediating the risks of future health emergencies, will also be ideally placed to coordinate the application of research into prevention and control of disease.

An Australian CDC should play a role in identifying promising interventions (e.g. from clinical trials) with the potential to help address a disease and support the activities needed to help implement and test the intervention in a pilot program and its subsequent scaling up into routine care.

“Research Australia will continue to work with the Australian Government and the Department of Health and Aged Care as the role of the interim CDC is developed and calls on the Government to consider a broader role in supporting Australian researchers across the health and medical research and innovation pipeline”, Ms Levin said.

The national peak body for health and medical research and innovation, Research Australia, today notes the Australian Government’s announcement that it intends to introduce a National Planning Level for new international student commencements from 2025.

It is widely known that the revenue universities receive from international student enrolments is reinvested back into universities, especially in the funding of research. More than half of all R&D funded within the higher education sector comes from the universities themselves, with health and medical research accounting for 35% of all R&D expenditure in universities.

Research Australia acknowledges that some universities, especially in regional centres may not have their international student numbers reduced under the caps. However, overall Research Australia is concerned that these caps will see a reduction in the amount of lifesaving health and medical research being undertaken, as well as severely reducing some universities’ capacity to cover the full costs of research.

“International students add immensely to Australia’s tertiary education landscape. Research is inherently a collaborative and international endeavour. The diverse perspectives brought by international students foster innovation, drive research forward, and lead to more comprehensive nationally and globally relevant outcomes”, CEO & Managing Director of Research Australia, Nadia Levin said.

“Research Australia urges policymakers to carefully consider solutions that do not jeopardise the future of Australia’s health and medical research capabilities”.

Research Australia will be working closely with our members over the coming weeks to understand the impact of what has been proposed today and will continue to advocate for a strong and sustainable health and medical research landscape and workforce.

Media Release 16 July 2024

The national peak body for health and medical research and innovation, Research Australia, welcomes today’s release of a new RNA blueprint for growing medical manufacturing by the Federal Government.

Australia’s RNA Blueprint: Understanding our ribonucleic acid (RNA) potential outlines Australians current RNA capability and opportunities for future growth and capability building.

Research Australia welcomes the Department of Industry, Science and Resources’ recognition of the need for governments, academia and industry to work together on the blueprint’s 5 goals and actions, which include:

• Connect and promote our national RNA ecosystem
• Increase skills and access to infrastructure
• Improve research, translation and investment
• Lead RNA regulation and guidance development
• Build and strengthen international partnerships

Whilst the potential actions outlined within the blueprint are welcome, there are a number of policy reforms government could implement to better support local health innovators and manufacturers, including:

• Better supporting innovators with early-stage development advice through the TGA on prospective treatments and devices to assist in bringing products to the Australian marker quicker
• Government procurement as a tool to support Australian innovations
• Better supporting innovators in the progression of research to translation and commercialisation.
• Better support to attract and retain innovation and manufacturing in Australia.

“Australian health innovation represents 26% of all Australian R&D activity. Australia is leading the world in many health technologies but bringing them to market more quickly and efficiently is key to facilitating better commercial, economic and social outcomes for Australia and Australians.” Nadia Levin, CEO & Managing Director of Research Australia said.

“Australia needs a strong and thriving medical manufacturing industry to ensure Australians have access to world-leading therapies and technologies. This can only be achieved when government, academia and industry work together.”

“Research Australia was pleased to be able to contribute to the consultation on this blueprint and look forward to working with Government to progress the actions outlined by the Department.”

Media release 10 July 2024

The national peak body for health and medical research and innovation, Research Australia, is calling for better support for clinician researchers.

In its response to the Department of Health and Aged Care’s consultation paper on a draft outline of the National Allied Health Workforce Strategy, Research Australia, is calling for better recognition of the role of allied health professionals as clinician researchers in creating a self-improving allied health sector. Doing so will support the retention of allied health professionals, a primary goal of the Strategy.

In supporting clinician researchers, the Strategy needs to:
• Create a more research aware and research active allied health workforce.
• Provide resources and training to allied health professionals so they can rapidly translate evidence into clinical practice
• Better partnerships between universities and healthcare agencies to enable clinical research to be done in clinical settings, with support for allied health professionals to undertake education and training, including higher degrees on topics relevant to health industry partners.
• Allow for better pathways to support allied health practitioners to upskill, particularly in research.
• Provide more opportunities for AH practitioners to become allied health clinician researchers and find ongoing employment.

“Australia needs more experts to bridge the growing divide between medical science and healthcare delivery. Clinician researchers, especially those in allied health, are crucial in connecting our knowledge with practical healthcare to ensure the best outcomes for everyone,” Nadia Levin, CEO & Managing Director of Research Australia said.

“Despite this vital role in the healthcare workforce, allied health clinician researchers are often overlooked and poorly understood”.

Read Research Australia’s submission to this consultation here.

Media Release 27 June 2024

The national peak body for health and medical research and innovation, Research Australia has partnered with Australian biotech company, Vaxxas, to bring around 70 health innovators together with Government to identify policy solutions to support the uptake of Australian health innovations here at home.

The Policy Roundtable, kindly hosted by the Australian National University, will be used to explore what’s required by Australian enterprise to enable it to more consistently articulate the vital next steps from R&D to procurement, and subsequent marketing and sales.

Following the Roundtable, a Parliamentary Friends of Health and Medical Research event will take place at Parliament House, hosted at the Speaker’s Courtyard by Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Milton Dick MP to celebrate the success stories of Australian health innovation and the opportunities the sector presents to further Australian health and wealth.“

Australian health innovation represents 28% of all Australian R&D activity.1 Australia is leading the world in many health technologies, bringing them to market is key to facilitating better commercial, economic and social outcomes for Australia and Australians,” said Nadia Levin, CEO & Managing Director of Research Australia.

“The Australian Government’s recently announced ‘A Future Made in Australia’ initiative and the National Reconstruction Fund are welcome, innovative new public policies, but more can be done to drive Australian medical, biotech and health innovation for the benefit of Australians’ health and wealth.

“Today we put Australian health innovation on the national agenda,” Ms Levin said.

One of a number of Australian healthcare innovators represented at today’s events, Vaxxas is developing an innovative needle-free technology that will be fundamental to transforming the way vaccines are delivered in the future with its high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP) technology.

Vaxxas President and CEO, David Hoey said, “Vaxxas takes its role as a leader in Australian health innovation seriously. We want to do everything we can to support a flourishing national health innovation sector.

“We know firsthand the challenges Australian health innovators can face in accessing procurement and traversing complex regulatory pathways, among others. It’s great to be working with Research Australia to bring everyone together to identify policy solutions that can advance the whole sector.”

The key insights gathered from the Roundtable will be developed into policy proposals for future consideration by Government and all political parties at the Commonwealth level.

1 https://researchaustralia.org/category/hmr-facts/

Media Release 14 May 2024

FEDERAL BUDGET: CALL TO REALISE FULL POTENTIAL OF AUSTRALIAN HEALTH AND MEDICAL RESEARCH

Research Australia, the national peak body for Australian health and medical research, says the Budget’s $22.7 billion Future Made in Australia investment must do more to bring Australian health innovations to the world.

“Health and medical research accounts for 28% of Australian R&D and presents an enormous and unrealised health and economic opportunity for Australia’s healthy prosperity. The Government’s commitment to a strategic examination of Australia’s R&D system must shine a spotlight on health and medical research.

“While the Medical Science Co-investment Plan is a good start, there’s certainly more that must be done to realise the full potential of Australian health and medical research.

“A Future Made in Australia must consider the future health of our nation and our growing health innovation sector,

“As is stands there is nothing in the Future Made In Australia Innovation Fund for medical products, despite the lessons of COVID about the importance of manufacturing sovereignty,” said Nadia Levin.

Research Australia Chair, Martin Bowles AO PSM says Research Australia will continue working with Government to unlock the full potential of the Medical Research Future Fund

“While tonight’s MRFF investment of $650 million per year is undoubtedly welcome, an extra $323 million could be invested in lifechanging and economy-building Australian medical research if the Federal Government realised the full potential of the MRFF.

The Board overseeing the Future Fund says $973 million is available for grants in 2024-25, but the Government has only budgeted for disbursement of $650 million.

The intent of the MRFF is to make $1 Billion available each year for investment in medical research, and we need to build to that level as a priority.

“Medical research is the path to a healthy Australian population and a healthy Australian economy. When first announced, the goal of the Fund was to make $1 billion available every year for investment into cutting-edge Australian medical research, innovations and economic growth.

“The Federal Government can help make that goal a reality, with $973 million available for grants in the upcoming financial year.

“We have abundant capacity in the sector to immediately use the additional $323 million in funding, with worthy Australian projects just waiting to be advanced by skilled researchers,” Martin Bowles said.