The Strategic Research Development Committee (SRDC) is a principal committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). Its objective is to develop a strategic research capacity in areas where current research is not concomitant with the magnitude of its importance to health care in Australia. The SRDC provides a mechanism through which the NHMRC can target research funding and SRDC has a discretionary budget to commission work. The SRDC felt that social and behavioural research into hepatitis C warranted such strategic focus.
Social and Behavioural Research into Hepatitis C as at December 2003
One million dollars was made available in 1999 for research that would:
- identify strategies that will slow the spread of hepatitis C, and
- improve the quality of life of people with the disease.
Twelve project grants were awarded and at the end of a two year period all researchers provided a written report of their preliminary findings.
The SRDC workshop on social and behavioural research into hepatitis C on 9 November 2001 brought together clinical researchers, and people from a range of interest groups including consumer representatives. The aim of the workshop was to provide an opportunity for the SRDC to evaluate the success of its Program of Social and Behavioural Research into Hepatitis C. Specifically the SRDC wanted to:
- evaluate what each project has accomplished
- evaluate the relevance of the findings to public policy
- incorporate the lessons learnt from conducting the program to improve its processes.
- Report on the SRDC's Program of Social and Behavioural Research into Hepatitis C (PDF, 128KB)