Translating knowledge into better health
Indigenous and older Australians will be the main winners in the latest round of research grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Nine capacity building grants totalling $18.2 million have been awarded to university research teams across Australia. These grants will support work in population health and health services – the implementation of health research and studies into effective and efficient health care services.
The grants will also build the skills of teams of population health and health services researchers.
The 2008 grants support research into diverse areas to improve health at a population level by:
- Providing better outcomes in Indigenous health to close the 17 year gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and other Australians
- Ensuring health initiatives are not only cost effective but that they achieve the best possible outcomes for patients and families.
- Addressing the mental health of Australia’s ageing population
The projects, funded for five years, include:
- Prevention and management of mental disorders in older Australians: Professor Perminder Sachdev, University of New South Wales, has been awarded $2.4 million to develop young researchers to translate knowledge of the major neuropsychiatric problems that Australia’s ageing population will face in the next 50 years, dementia, mild cognitive impairment and depression, into better health outcomes for older Australians.
- From Broome to Berrima: Building Australia wide research capacity in Indigenous offender health and health care delivery : Associate Professor Tony Butler, Curtin University of Technology, WA, will receive $2.3m to improve the health services and health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in custody.
- Using health economics to strengthen ties between evidence, policy and practice in chronic disease : Associate Professor Stephen Jan, University of Sydney, will receive $1.8m to develop a team of health economists to research the costs and benefits to individuals, their family and the economy of different treatment strategies for chronic disease and how to sustain these in the real world.
The scheme provides up to $2.5 million over five years, commencing in 2009, to build groups of excellent population health and/or health services researchers. The scheme will strengthen and grow teams with an established basis and a record of undertaking innovative, significant and internationally competitive research.
