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.
