Projects, fellowships and centres within the Faculty of Medicine + Biomedical Sciences will receive approximately $29 million in funding through grants awarded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
The University of Queensland was awarded a total of almost $54 million which will provide funding to 84 projects, fellowships and centres.
Recipients working with the Faculty of M+BS include Professor Ros Boyd, who was awarded both a Practitioner and a Research Fellowship.
Associate Professor Daniel Chambers was awarded two Project Grants, which will provide total funding of over $1.8 million over five years.
Professor Kwun Fong’s project, entitled “Low Dose Computed Tomography (LDCT) to diagnose Lung Cancer,” was awarded a Project Grant for more than $3 million over five years. This is the largest funded Project Grant that UQ has received to date.
The NHMRC also revealed it would provide funding for UQ and the School of Medicine to become home to two new national centres of research excellence, each of which will receive more than $2 million over five years.
Professor Jason Roberts will lead “REDUCE,” or the “Centre for redefining antibiotic use to reduce resistance and prolong the lives of antibiotics,” which will bring together national and international collaborators.
The other is a collaboration between UQ, the Cancer Council Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and the University of Sydney, entitled the “Centre of Research Excellence for the Study of Naevi” and led by UQ’s Professor Peter Soyer.
In the inaugural year of the NHMRC-National Natural Science Foundation of China scheme, UQ was successful in its single funding application.
Professor Chen Chen from the School of Biomedical Sciences will receive $598,305 over five years of his project, which aims to develop methods for early prediction of the risks of frequently occurring sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy and thereby reduce diabetes-induced blindness.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Robyn Ward said, “The NHMRC’s large investment here speaks to UQ’s extremely high standard of research. On behalf of the University’s senior executive, I congratulate all our researchers whose projects were successful in this funding round.”
Media: Professor Robyn Ward, dvc.research@uq.edu.au, +61 (7) 3365 9044; Ryan Sim, Faculty of Medicine + Biomedical Sciences, r.sim@uq.edu.au, +61 (7) 3346 5214.
