Grants in key priority areas of cancer research awarded
Close to $1.8 million has been awarded to 14 Western Australian early-mid career cancer researchers to further their early-stage research projects.
The Cancer Research Project Grants are co-funded by the Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund and the Cancer Council WA.
The co-funding partnership has enabled Cancer Council WA to increase the number of grants and funding amounts provided and to offer grants in key priority areas of Aboriginal health, rural and remote health, clinical and public health.
The Cancer Research Project Grants provides funding for up to 1 year for early-stage research projects.
Further information is available on the Cancer Council WA website.
Recipients were assessed on merit by the Cancer Council WA Research Grants Advisory Committee.
The 2026 Cancer Research Project Grant recipients are shown below:
| Recipient | Responsible entity | Activity title | Funding awarded |
| Charles Bond | The University of Western Australia | Investigating a new pathway for targeted therapy for specific cancers | $138,538 |
| Leslie Calapre | Edith Cowan University | cEVsig: a blood test for predicting and enhancing response to immunotherapy | $139,840 |
| Laurence Cheung | Curtin University | Enhancing the effect of immunotherapy for children with high-risk leukaemia | $139,977 |
| Peter Franklin | The University of Western Australia | Cancer and welding fume exposure in the Western Australian mining industry | $118,553 |
| Ruth Ganss | The University of Western Australia | A study to assess the safety and benefits of new drug combinations in brain cancer | $140,000 |
| Georgia Halkett | Curtin University | Beyond Head and Neck Cancer: Supporting WA survivors to return to work and live well | $139,999 |
| Juliana Hamzah | The University of Western Australia | Detecting pancreatic cancer by its fat content - and exploring what happens when we remove it | $140,000 |
| Bo He | The University of Western Australia | Fighting pancreatic cancer by inducing lymph nodes within tumours | $139,995 |
| Chloe Maxwell-Smith | Curtin University | Understanding health behaviours and barriers related to early cancer diagnosis in regional and rural Western Australians using surveys and focus groups | $139,803 |
| Mariana Lizeth Orozco Morales | The University of Western Australia | Refuelling the immune system to eliminate cancer cells | $139,792 |
| Andrew Redfern | The University of Western Australia | New tests to find who will benefit from an exciting new group of cancer drugs | $139,781 |
| Kim Rice | Murdoch University | Empowering the immune system to fight acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) | $139,845 |
| Emma Taylor | The University of Western Australia | Getting it right: Improving cancer education and health messaging for Aboriginal people | $140,000 |
| Tao Wang | The University of Western Australia | Developing a new RNA-based cancer treatment | $139,679 |