Last week we hosted our annual HTSA Stakeholder Forum where we presented a strategic overview of HTSA’s key activities in 2023 and also announced the recipients of the inaugural HTSA Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Catalyst Grant Scheme (the Scheme). 

The Scheme aimed to incentivise collaboration across health services, academic research organisations and the community as well as address health service and system challenges and was financially supported by The Hospital Research Foundation Group and the Women’s and Children’s Hospital Foundation.

We were impressed with the calibre of the applications and would like to extend our congratulations to the six successful projects:

• Empowering Carer andOlder People Dyads: Characteristics and Impacts on Quality of Care andUnplanned Hospitalisations (Lead: Dr Tesfahun Eshetie)
• Development of a Prototype for Automated Clinical Case note Generation (Lead: Associate Professor Johan Verjans)
• AI enhanced referral system to improve patient and provider agency in rural mental health (Lead: Professor Paul Worley)
• Developing a Roadmap or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Wellbeing in South Australia (Lead: Dr Tina Brodie)
• Caring for Caregivers: Implementing an evidence-informed program to support caregiver wellbeing (Lead: Dr Sarah Hunter)
• Online family-based group treatment for parents of children with an eating disorder as first line treatment: an economic evaluation (Lead: Professor Tracey Wade)

During the Forum the project leads engaged in a panel discussion, reflecting on how the requirements of the Scheme had very positively impacted their applications. While the key indicator of success is submitting a MRFF (or other) collaborative research proposal in 12 months’ time, it was really pleasing to hear that two of the project teams are already preparing proposals to external funding schemes based on the new collaborations and projects they have formed.

We are proud of the Scheme’s development, recognising that its success is attributed to the support, guidance, and input from numerous contributors. A big thank you to all involved.

It is great news that both of the Foundations have committed to further funding in 2024 and we are looking for other funders to join this collaborative funding model. 

If you are interested please get in touch with me wendy.keech@healthtranslationsa.org.au or download a copy of the information flyer today.  The 2024 Scheme will launch in May 2024.