Western Alliance 2024 wrap up

2024 has been another strong and positive year for Western Alliance.

We were thrilled to welcome A/Prof Nicole Mercer and Ms Katherine Stanley onto our board as our Aboriginal and Consumer representatives respectively, and their guidance has kickstarted some exciting work in our efforts to advance aboriginal led research and facilitate stronger consumer and community involvement in research across the region.  

Importantly, we have now been formally recognised for our work through our full accreditation as Research Translation Centre by the National Health and Medical Research Council. 

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our team members, member organisations and other partners, we’ve made significant progress towards our four strategic objectives:
 
Strengthening partnerships and collaborations for translational research and research translation: 

  • As a member of the Australian Health Research Alliance (AHRA), we contributed to national initiatives on Consumer and Community Involvement in Research and Women’s Health
  • A-CTEC (Australian Clinical Trials Education Centre) continues to develop and thrive, with over 400 users from Western Alliance member organisations, and over 10,000 across Australia
  • DELIVER is collaborating with all Western Alliance member organisation and working towards improving out of hospital care for older people across western Victoria
  • Our partnership with the Victorian Department of Health has facilitated a PhD fellowship program with our member Universities; Deakin and Federation.
  • As part of our continued efforts to advance Aboriginal led research, we were accepted as a member of the Lowitja Institute, Australia’s only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled health research institute

Building the capacity and capability of individuals and teams for translational research and research translation: 

  • STaRR has had its most successful year, training and supporting emerging researchers and research mentors to ensure research capacity in our member organisations continues to grow. STaRR has also expanded on its offerings in 2023 to now include specific training on implementation science and health economics.

Creating an enabling environment for translational research and research translation: 

  • Through our support of the Community and Research Network (CARN), we have improved access to consumers and carers for research studies and Western Alliance grant funding panels
  • The 2024 Symposium provided an opportunity for 140 registrants to reconnect with colleagues and develop new collaborations, while showcasing 50 research presentations and 4 keynote speakers across two days in Lorne
  • Our Research Translation Coordinators were instrumental in supporting and enabling many research and translation initiatives across the region, and either leading or supporting ‘Research Day’ events across our member health services

Targeting support and funding to accelerate the translation of research into health policy and practice: 

  • 2 Research Translation Grants ($80k)
  • 3 STaRR Emerging Researcher Grants and our inaugural STaRRShip (translation fellowship) ($30k)
  • 5 Successful External grants supported by Western Alliance ($100k investment, $12.25M in funding)

We hope that you are all able to have a restful break, and we’ll see you back to kickstart what will be an exciting 2025 for research and research translation across the region.

L-R Michael Field, Brendan Crotty, Anna Wong-Shee, Warren Payne, Ella Ottrey, Alesha Sayner, Peter Kelly, Drew Aras, Charlotte Molesworth, Jessie Adams, Sarah Shaw, Cas Hamilton. Absent: Olivia King

  • About the author: Western Alliance

If you would like to write an article for our Talking Points newsletter or In Brief blog, email Cassandra Hamilton (cassandrahamilton@westernalliance.org.au) or call 0450 921 324.