Breakthrough funding to fuel future NHMRC success
$4.57 million in funding was recently awarded to 23 early and mid-career researchers under the WA Near Miss Awards: Emerging Leaders 2022 (WANMA) Program.
The WANMA Program is designed to support Western Australian researchers who have narrowly missed out on a highly competitive National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigators grant.
WANMA funding is provided through one-year Emerging Leaders (EL) Grants and 2 to 3-year EL Fellowships. The EL Grants are to be used by recipients to enhance areas of the NHMRC application which were identified by the NHMRC peer review process as being improvable, while the EL Fellowships allow the recipients to do the work proposed in their NHMRC application over 2 or 3 years. This year, the program awarded 19 one-year EL Grants of $100,000 and 4 EL Fellowships of up to $393,090 for early-career and up to $945,834 for mid-career researchers, provided over a two- or three-year period.
Recipients of EL Grants will submit an improved application to the NHMRC, increasing their chances of winning a grant in a future selection round. The EL Fellowships provide NHMRC equivalent funding for 4 eligible WANMA applicants, enabling them to conduct work proposed in their NHMRC application, providing the benefits of that research while also building the recipients’ track records, making them more competitive for future grants.
This program is funded by the Future Health Research and Innovation Fund, which provides a secure source of funding to drive health and medical research, innovation and commercialisation.
Below is the full list of recipients for the WA Near Miss Awards: Emerging Leaders 2022 program. Congratulations to this year’s recipients.
Recipient |
Administering Institution |
Project Title |
Funding Awarded |
| Fellowship Recipients | |||
| Dr Liezhou Zhong | Edith Cowan University | Emerging technologies and approaches to enhance health for people on texture modified diets | Up to $393,090 |
| Dr Haruo Usuda | Women and Infants Research Foundation | Artificial placenta development | Up to $393,090 |
| Prof Sam Abraham | Murdoch University | Tackling antimicrobial resistance human-animal interface: A One Health approach | Up to $945,834 |
| Dr Daniel Knight | University of Western Australia | Combating Clostridium difficile infection through One Health-focused genomics | Up to $945,834 |
| Near-Miss Recipients | |||
| A/Prof Lucinda Black | Curtin University | Targeted approaches for understanding and promoting optimal nutrition across the lifespan |
$100,000 |
| Dr Amanuel Gebremedhin |
Curtin University |
Development of a new phenotype maternal epigenetic age estimator as a risk factor for perinatal morbidity |
$100,000 |
| A/Prof Richard Norman |
Curtin University |
Improving how we measure the value of health care outcomes |
$100,000 |
| Dr Carrington Shepherd |
Curtin University |
Increasing the pace of change to equity in Aboriginal perinatal health: Evidence for advocacy and intervention |
$100,000 |
| Dr Myles Murphy |
Edith Cowan University |
Improving quality of life in people with lower limb osteoarthritis |
$100,000 |
| Dr Emmanuel Adewuyi |
Edith Cowan University |
Genetic analysis of Alzheimer’s disease and comorbidities |
$100,000 |
| Dr Catherine Bondonno |
Edith Cowan University |
Nitrate: The Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of human health? |
$100,000 |
| Dr Ann-Maree Vallence | Murdoch University |
Strengthening functional connectivity to reduce tremor in Parkinson's disease |
$100,000 |
| A/Prof Belinda Brown |
Murdoch University |
Physical activity and dementia prevention: Establishing evidence for impact and translation |
$100,000 |
| Dr Yvonne Learmonth |
Murdoch University |
Positive health behaviour in neurological populations |
$100,000 |
| Dr Andrew Gibson |
Murdoch University |
An immunogenomic roadmap to define tissue-relevant genetic-, cellular-, and epitope-risk signatures of Stevens-Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis towards personalised prevention and treatment |
$100,000 |
| Dr Paul Cohen |
North Metropolitan Health Service |
Eliciting sexual health concerns in survivors of breast and gynaecological cancer |
$100,000 |
| Dr Emma Hamilton |
South Metropolitan Health Service |
Improving outcomes for patients with diabetes-related foot ulceration |
$100,000 |
| Dr Debra Palmer |
Telethon Kids Institute* |
Maternal nutritional strategies for child allergy prevention |
$100,000 |
| Dr Sarah Ward |
University of Western Australia |
Interrogating the genetic architecture of melanoma |
$100,000 |
| Dr Kimberley Wang |
University of Western Australia |
Prevention or cure? Mitigating respiratory disease after intrauterine growth restriction |
$100,000 |
| Dr Amy Page |
University of Western Australia |
Enhancing medicines safety in older people through Quality Use of Medicines (QUM) interventions |
$100,000 |
| Dr Wai Yan Yau |
University of Western Australia |
Improving health outcomes of dystonia through genetics |
$100,000 |
| Dr Dona Jayakody |
University of Western Australia |
Listen up! Your memory may depend on it. Impact of Hearing Rehabilitation on Cognitive Functions, Mental & Psychosocial Well-being of Indigenous Older Adults |
$100,000 |
*On behalf of the Centre for Child Health Research, The University of Western Australia