WA researchers given a second chance at national success

The Cook Government has awarded more than $2 million to WA health and medical researchers as part of the 'WA Near Miss Awards: Ideas Grant program'.
  • Government awards $2.2 million to WA health and medical researchers
  • Grants assist early-to-mid career researchers to set up for future national success
  • Health and medical research remains priority for Government

The Cook Government has awarded more than $2 million to WA health and medical researchers as part of the 'WA Near Miss Awards: Ideas Grant program'.

Medical Research Minister Stephen Dawson said the grants were being provided through the Government's successful Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund.

The grants assist WA researchers who submitted applications to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grant scheme that were deemed suitable for funding but exceeded the NHMRCs budget.

The State funding helps WA researchers improve their applications for resubmission to the NHMRC, increasing the likelihood of success during the next round of NHMRC grant applications.

A total of 22 grants, valued at $100,000 each, are awarded to researchers from six different organisations. Recipients can be seen at https://fhrifund.health.wa.gov.au/News-and-Events

Successful applicants are given the opportunity to continue their valuable input towards health and medical research areas such as multiple sclerosis treatment, mental health, and use of AI to diagnose speech disorders.

Since the introduction of the WA Near Miss Awards in 2020, more than $9 million has been awarded to 99 WA researchers.

Comments attributed to Medical Research Minister Stephen Dawson: 

"The Cook Government's successful FHRI Fund targets funding to support local medical research organisations and position WA as a global leader in research and innovation.

"The Near Miss Awards is a fantastic opportunity for Western Australian researchers who have narrowly missed out on a highly competitive national grant, to have a second chance.

"WA Researchers in the early-to-mid-stage of their careers can continue to make vast improvements to health and medical research happening in the State.

"This will ultimately lead to the improved health and well-being of the WA community."

Responsible Entity

No. of Grants

Total Funding

Curtin University

7

$700,000

Edith Cowan University

4

$400,000

Murdoch University

1

$100,000

Telethon Kids Institute

2

$200,000

The University of Western Australia

7

$700,000

Fiona Wood Foundation

1

$100,000


22

$2,200,000

Below is the full list of recipients for the WANMA IG 2023-2024 program.

CURTIN UNIVERSITY

Dr Tasmin Symons

$100,000

Realising the potential of malaria treatment on illness, infection and transmission

Dr Virginie Lam

$100,000

Revolutionising multiple sclerosis treatment: An Innovative remyelination therapy to halt disease progression

Dr Virginie Lam

$100,000

Developing prophylactic interventions for chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment for breast cancer survivors

Dr Thi Ninh Ha

$100,000

Understanding configurations of community-based multidisciplinary team care to improve management of diabetes: mixed methods in large linked administrative data in Western Australia

Dr Laurence Cheung

$100,000

Deciphering the role of bone marrow fat cells in children with high-risk leukaemia

Dr Hani Al-Salami

$100,000

Repurposing of cholesterol-lowering drug to prevent hearing loss in children with cancer

Dr Roslyn Ward

$100,000

Application of AI in the diagnosis of speech sound disorders in children

EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY

Dr Christopher Latella

$100,000

Human motor impairment in Long COVID: Brain and motoneuron dysfunction

Dr Oliver Schumacher

$100,000

Exercise as a novel therapeutic approach for sensitising prostate cancer to radiotherapy

Dr Amanuel Gebremedhin

$100,000

Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes, Immediate, and Long-Term Morbidity: A Life Course Approach

Dr Manshu Song

$100,000

Exploring and translating subjective and objective measures of suboptimal cardiometabolic health in a community-orientated setting

MURDOCH UNIVERSITY

Dr Luke Gray Whiley

$100,000

A molecular atlas of the skin - Characterising intrinsic skin metabolic phenotypes to improve outcomes in burn injury

TELETHON KIDS INSTITUTE

Dr Jua Iwasaki

$100,000

A novel vaccine to prevent Group A Streptococcus attachment to the tonsils

Dr Jonatan Leffler

$100,000

Elucidating the contribution of sex hormones to Epstein-Barr Virus responses associated with Multiple Sclerosis: leveraging the transgender immunity study

UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA 

Dr Marcus Korb

$100,000

Ironing Out Antimicrobial Resistance with a new class of Iron (Half-)sandwich-sugar Conjugates

Dr Jamie Beros

$100,000

A brain connectivity approach to treating depression: TMS in adolescent and adult preclinical models

Dr Aron Chakera

$100,000

The AVENGE Study: Accelerating Phage Therapy Development - AI-driven Genotype-phenotype evaluation for targeted pathogen eradication

Dr Erin Lloyd

$100,000

Targeting inflammatory dysfunction to treat dysferlinopathy

Dr Benjamin Zwick

$100,000

Can physics-informed neural networks improve registration accuracy for image-guided neurosurgery?

Dr Yee Man Elaine Wong

$100,000

Novel nano targeted gene therapy for hearing loss

Dr Belinda Guo

$100,000

PlateletSeq: a novel blood test to assess cancer status in myeloproliferative neoplasms

FIONA WOOD FOUNDATION 

Dr Lucy Barrett

$100,000

Preventing inflammageing after burn injury: Understanding and ameliorating the life-long impact of burns on whole-body homeostasis and health


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