Announcing the 2025 STaRR Grant Recipients

Western Alliance is committed to building research and translation capability in Western Victoria. The Supporting Translation of Research in Rural and Regional settings (STaRR) Program is a multifaceted training program at the centre of Western Alliance’s research capability building strategy.

To support STaRR Emerging Researchers conduct translation-focused research, Western Alliance offers two funding opportunities:

  • STaRR Emerging Researcher Seed Grants of up to $5,000 available for past STaRR participants to conduct a research project to generate new evidence, and
  • Research Translation Fellowships (STaRRships) with funding of up to $15,000 available for past STaRR participants and past Western Alliance Emerging Researcher grant recipients, to translate research evidence into practice.

After a tight and competitive process, we are delighted to announce that the following health practitioner researchers have received 2025 STaRR Grants:

2025 STaRRship recipient

  • Renee Heard – Senior Speech Pathologist, Colac Area Health. Co-Designing Person-Centred Eating and Drinking with Acknowledged Risk (EDAR) Clinical Practice Guidelines and Multidisciplinary Team Training for Rural and Regional Health Services. Amount awarded: $14,783

2025 STaRR Seed Grant recipients

  • Megan Battersby – Senior Dietitian, Barwon Health. Effectiveness and costs of a novel program in reducing ED presentations and hospitalisations: an economic evaluation of the Connected Care Program. Amount awarded: $4881
  • Joel Craddock – Coordinator Remote Patient Monitoring, Colac Area Health. Understanding COPD Presentations in regional Victoria. Amount awarded: $4876.35
  • Beth Davidson – Clinical Dietitian, Barwon Health. Understanding dietitians’ perspectives on weight stigma: a qualitative study in regional and rural healthcare services in the Barwon region. Amount awarded: $4980
  • Alison Griffiths – Senior Physiotherapist, Grampians Health. A descriptive, exploratory study of patient risk factors and screening processes for Developmental Hip Dysplasia in a regional health service. Amount awarded: $4999
  • Abraham Nyieth and Wenjin Zhang – Mental health clinicians, Grampians Health. Mental Clinicians’ experiences in delivering family interventions for complex parent-child relationship in rural and regional public infant and child community mental health services. Amount awarded: $5000
  • Jordan Swaney – Mental Health Occupational Therapist, Barwon Health. Barriers and facilitators to vocational support: experiences of consumers and staff. Amount awarded: $4926
  • Kate van Berkel, Dietitian, Barwon Health. Balancing convenience and care in Gestational Diabetes management: A retrospective evaluation of a three-part evolving model of care using remote patient monitoring in the Geelong region. Amount awarded: $4936

We congratulate each recipient and wish them well for their research.

  • About the author: Western Alliance

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