The University of New South Wales is establishing three centres of research excellence focusing on the treatment of traumatic brain injuries, immunising risk populations, and e-health, it was announced on 27 October.
UNSW was awarded AU$7.5 million in the latest round of NHMRC funding for the three centres, the largest number to be awarded to any Australian university.
The Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), led by Skye McDonald, will take a multidisciplinary, multisite approach to addressing the rehabilitation of people with brain injury. It will bring together key experts and partner organisations from all over the country.
The CRE’s activities will focus on improving outcomes for those with TBI, by attempting to tackle deficits in fatigue, mood, self-awareness and self-regulation, as well as social competency.
The second centre will examine immunisation in understudied populations.
Led by Raina MacIntyre, head of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, the centre will address research gaps in at-risk populations, such as older and indigenous Australians, as well as migrants and refugees, where targeted research is not commercially viable.
The e-health CRE will work to improve the quality, safety and effectiveness of health services generally.
Led by Enrico Coiera, the centre will support the design, evaluation and use of e-health systems in three areas: monitoring e-health safety using incident monitoring, evaluating consumer e-health safety, and developing next generation evidence-based support tools.
UNSW received a total of AU$46m in the latest NHMRC round.