- Government awards $3.4 million to establish collaborative medical research centres
- New Collaborative Centres Program will boost national and international partnerships
- WA health and medical research leaders recognised for groundbreaking work
The Cook Government has awarded $3.4 million to accelerate Western Australia's world-leading research into rare and undiagnosed diseases, gene therapies and lung cancer management.
The Collaborative Centres Program, a new initiative of the Government's successful Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund, will develop and enhance national and international research partnerships, as well as putting WA health and medical researchers on the world map.
First-round recipients of the Program include clinician-led teams in the Child and Adolescent Health Service (CAHS), East Metropolitan Health Service (EMHS) and North Metropolitan Health Service (NMHS).
Grant funding will enable the Rare Care Centre at CAHS to establish a global leading Collaborative Centre for Research and Innovation Excellence for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases (RUD) in WA.
The Centre will drive collaborative, culturally safe research to improve the lives of the 63,000 Western Australian children, young people and their families living with RUD and will link world-leading researchers from around the world.
EMHS will establish the Collaborative Centre for Advanced Therapies (CCPAT), leveraging existing expertise in cell and gene manufacturing at Royal Perth Hospital, Westmead Hospital in New South Wales, the Alfred Hospital in Victoria and the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital in Queensland. This collaboration will see a diverse range of locally manufactured cell and gene products advance the development of novel medical therapies.
NMHS will set up the Collaborative Centre for Innovative Pleural Research, building on Western Australia's world-leading management of cancer-related pleural effusions (abnormal buildup of fluid in the chest) via the use of innovative new catheters. The catheters support cancer patients in being able to have the treatment in the comfort of their own home, improving their quality of life. The new centre will enable WA researchers to share and expand their expertise in the management of cancer-related pleural effusions and develop trials for non-cancer effusions.
The Cook Government established the groundbreaking FHRI Fund in 2020, which incorporated almost $1.8 billion being held under the State's sovereign wealth fund. Since then, $173 million has been committed to almost 600 projects supporting health and medical research and innovation in WA with a further $250 million being available over the next four years.
As stated by Medical Research Minister Stephen Dawson:
"The Collaborative Centres Program is a terrific new initiative under the Cook Government's successful FHRI Fund to provide a strong platform to drive forward WA's world-leading health and medical research.
"The number and quality of applicants for the first round of the Program was very high, demonstrating the depth of Western Australia's research talent and capacity.
"It is exciting to see such amazing research being carried out here locally and this new Program aims to propel these achievements nationally and internationally.
"The grants awarded to establish these new collaborative centres will provide a great foundation to ensure the research is self-sustainable beyond the life of the funding Program and continues well into the future."
