Palliative Care Research Program

The Palliative Care Research Program aims to fund research and activities that will develop capacity within the palliative care research community.

Background

The Palliative Care Research Program is a joint initiative between the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Department of Health and Ageing.

The program is part of the Australian Government’s National Palliative Care Program that aims to improve access to and quality of palliative care. National activities and research will directly improve palliative care services for Australians with a life-limiting illness and provide support for their families and carers.

Palliative Care Research Program Round Three

The third round of the Program provides $4.205 million over 4 years from 2006 to 2010 to fund research and activities that will develop capacity within the palliative care research community. The Program comprises the following components:

Research Development Grants
Priority Driven Research Grants
Training Awards, comprising PhD Scholarships and Postdoctoral Fellowships

Research Development Grants

The purpose of the Palliative Care Research Development Grants is to provide opportunities for emerging investigators and research teams to build capacity and foster the potential to develop significant careers in palliative care research. They are also intended to provide a building block on which future projects can be developed and submitted to the NHMRC (or other organisation) for funding.

The grants are designed for persons in a range of health care professions including nurses, other allied health professionals, Indigenous health workers, general and other medical practitioners, and clinical researchers to undertake a research project specifically in the field of palliative care.

The Research Development Grants are targeted at early career researchers. The primary objective of the program is to promote the development of new researchers and research teams through implementation of innovative projects focusing on palliative care.

In August 2008 the Minister for Health and Ageing, the Hon Nicola Roxon MP, approved 16 grants totalling nearly $740,000.

Priority Driven Research Grants

The purpose of the Priority Driven Research Grants is to fund research projects that will provide a significant advance in knowledge of palliative care treatment in one or more of the following four broad priority areas:

Symptom assessment and management in palliative care
Families and caregiver support
Psychosocial support, which may include bereavement and/or spiritual aspects, and
Models of care in palliation.

» Grants awarded in 2008

Training Awards

Palliative Care Training Awards provide opportunities for Australian researchers to undertake research that is both of major importance in the field of palliative care and of benefit to Australian health. The Training Awards provide a vehicle for training in research in Australia to enable award holders to work on palliative care research projects with nominated advisers. The Training Awards have been offered to a limited number of persons of outstanding ability who wish to make research a significant component of their career.

The Training Awards comprise:

PhD Scholarships with total funding up to $350,000 over three years
Post Doctoral Fellowships with total funding up to $975,000 over two years.

» Training Awards granted in 2008

Research funded under previous rounds of the program

The Palliative Care Round 1 and Round 2 Research Programs were a joint initiative between the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Department of Health and Ageing (the Department). These programs were established in 2001 and 2003 respectively with funding of $2 million for each program provided by the Department. The Programs aimed to improve the quality of palliative care by undertaking research capacity building initiatives, including offering training awards and funding research into palliative care.

Round Two

Under Round 2, twelve Research Grants, three PhD Scholarships, one Postdoctoral Fellowship were funded. Most of the projects have now been completed.

Details of projects funded can be viewed here.

» View funded projects - Round Two

Round One

Under Round 1, thirteen Research Grants and six PhD Scholarships were funded, along with two researcher workshops. These projects have all been completed and a Summary Paper on Round 1 of the Program has been prepared.