CEO current newsletter
This CEO newsletter is produced monthly
April 2008
» Download: CEO's current newsletter (PDF, 13.8kb)
» Download: CEO's current newsletter (Word, 43kb)
Contents
CEO’S NEWSLETTER – APRIL 2008
I am delighted that the Chair of NHMRC’s Council, Prof. Michael Good, has been appointed by the Government to co-chair, with the Minister for Health and Ageing the Honourable Nicola Roxon, the health session of the National 2020 Summit in April 2008. This is a wonderful recognition of Michael and his achievements and by reflection of the important role the NHMRC has in improving health.
NHMRC’s Council is currently discussing prevention, obesity, research in clinical environments and the looming challenges in health.
RESEARCH NEWS:
I have engaged two international panels to provide NHMRC with advice on the development of our organisation to enable us to perform our responsibilities more efficiently and to meet the challenges, and opportunities, of the 21st century. Prof. Alan Bernstein led the first panel in September last year. Dr Elias Zerhouni, Director of the United States National Institutes of Health was chair of the second panel, and he was joined by Dr Sally Davies, Director of Research and Development at the UK National Health Service, and Dr Ed Holmes, Chairman, National Medical Research Council, Executive Deputy Chairmen, Biomedical Research Council at A*Star, Singapore.
Presentations given by Dr Zerhouni and Dr Davies during their visit can be seen on our website here.
NHMRC will respond with a new vision for the organisation, and new ambition to better support research and better serve the improvement of health in Australia. A discussion paper, for consultation with the research, health and general community will be release in June 2008 with consultation session to be conducted in the second half of 2008.
The Project Grants scheme is NHMRC’s major means of supporting health and medical research. We have now received almost 2,700 applications, including those submitted for potential funding by our charity partnerships such as Cancer Australia, the Cancer Council Australia, the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and the Heart Foundation.
Refinements to our peer review this year include:
- Separating the allocation of applications to Grant Review Panels (GRP) from the membership of GRPs.
- Refinement of GRP functions and increasing the importance of the role of the Chairs, including new formal briefing of the chairs.
- Two written reviews will be sought from external assessors.
- A half day formal briefing of the GRP members in Melbourne prior to their work, to ensure consistent policy application across the panels.
- A structured final report.
Program Grants: Applications for funding beginning 2010 will open in early July 2008, with some changes, including to the Record of Research Achievement (RORA) requirement. Changes will be flagged at the opening of the round in July, but these will not materially change the general nature of this successful grant scheme.
Our support of Fellowships is currently being considered by Research Committee, across all our early career, mid-career (Career Development Awards) and flagship NHMRC Research Fellowship schemes. We are seeking independent demographic advice so that we can better plan for the future, to develop Australia’s health and medical research capacity. Our schemes have been very successful, but times change and career expectations change.
In recent years, NHMRC has supported some of the national research facilities needed to underpin the research we fund, through the Enabling Grants scheme. Research Committee has advised that it believes this scheme should be more strategic, funding major items that benefit the whole national research effort. These changes will be announced shortly.
The Development Grants Scheme is currently being reviewed to ensure it achieves its aims of supporting “proof of principle” research. The review is expected to be completed by mid-year, with any changes to the Scheme to be implemented in 2009. The next round of Developed Gants is scheduled to be advertised in May 2008 using the existing Development Grant policy.
Centres of Excellence and Capacity Building: All our schemes in this area will be advertised on April 12, 2008. Substantial funds have been allocated to Capacity Building Grants in Population Heath research (Public Health and Health Services Research), and to Centres of Clinical Research Excellence.
Indigenous Health Research: In 2007 I established the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Research Advisory Committee to give me advice on health and research issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. We have started our review of The NHMRC Road Map: A strategic framework for improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health through research. The review will be consultative and include an evaluation of the existing Road Map and development of a new Road Map for the future. Please watch the website for information about consultations and opportunities to participate across Australia.
HEALTH ADVICE
Work is almost complete on updating The Australian Alcohol Guidelines and I am especially pleased with the amount of interest shown in the draft. We are also developing evidence-based advice on the subjects of eye health and blood lead levels.
NHMRC has also developed a strong partnership with the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Healthcare to review and update the Australian Guidelines for infection control in the healthcare setting. Consultation workshops are now taking place, preliminary to a more formal and extended consultation period.
The NHMRC is consulting with consumer and health professional’s organisations about the development of a web portal for genetic information. Our intention is to provide a one-stop shop to make finding information easier. This will be a key partnership with a range of organisations across the country.
ETHICS
Harmonisation of Multicentre Ethical Review (HoMER): NHMRC is leading a project which aims to harmonise the ethical review of research conducted at more than one centre following AHMAC recommendations. On Friday 14 March 2008 meetings were held with the States and Territories health jurisdictions and with a project steering group to discuss key issues and a workplan.
Australian Health Ethics Committee activities (AHEC) is meeting on 25-26 March 2008. Key issues for discussion at this meeting include ethical issues around ageing well and the end of life consistent with broader work NHMRC is doing in this area. AHEC is also looking at commencing work on ethical issues related to the commercialisation of human tissue. Issues relating to progressing and finalising the national ethics application form (NEAF) will also be discussed, along with a proposal to review ethical guidelines, statements or reports that require updating.
GENETICS CONFERENCE
The NHMRC will host a scientific conference later in 2008 about gene technology. Details about this event will be posted on the NHMRC website.
Professor Warwick Anderson
Chief Executive Officer
[top]
Help
|
|
Linked documents tagged with the PDF icon Note: Attempting to open large PDF files within the browser window may lead to system problems. For more information see Troubleshooting and access of large pdf documents. |
are formatted as Adobe Acrobat PDF (Portable Document Format) files. If you wish to view the PDF files you will
need to install the Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer.
The Adobe Acrobat Reader is available for free download from the