Autumn 2016 Issue Out Now!

Welcome to the Autumn issue of Research Australia’s grassROOTS magazine. Activity in our sector has been at fever pitch for a while now and there have been some good outcomes. The National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA) was announced by the Prime Minister in early December. Research Australia welcomes this clear focus by our Government on science and innovation as essential to Australia’s future and there is no doubt that health and medical research has an important role to play.

This agenda reconfirmed the importance of the Medical Research Future Fund, it has enabled the set up of a biomedical translation fund to quickly address the funding gap for mid to later stage clinical research and development, and it is also focused on developing a new plan for research infrastructure and championing the importance of STEM subjects such as maths and science, in our education system.

These sorts of initiatives take clear thinking and leadership to deliver and it is worth noting that there is support across the political spectrum about the importance of science and innovation to Australia’s future. And it is not just the Commonwealth that is investing in H&MR. State Governments around Australia are investing in new facilities and programmes to advance research and innovation, and philanthropy continues to make a vital contribution.

Innovation takes a collective effort to make it happen and some of the articles in this edition of grassROOTS highlight just how much can be achieved when that effort is made. For example, a research team from the University of South Australia has developed a novel diagnostic technology that could enable surgeons to immediately detect the presence of tumour cells in surrounding healthy tissue potentially sparing further surgery.

Researchers at the University of Melbourne and the Florey Institute of Medical Research have developed a device the size of a matchstick, implanted into the brain that could help paralysed people walk and it seems humans and fast cars have quite a lot in common as GSK and Formula 1’s McLaren discover through the sharing of their collective expertise.

There is so much more and the Research Australia team looks forward to both finding and sharing with you, evidence of all of our collective efforts.

grassROOTS Magazine can be viewed and downloaded from our website, or join us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn as we share excerpts from each article over the coming weeks.