Major funding boost for UTAS medical research

Major funding boost for UTAS medical research

The University of Tasmania is celebrating the receipt of $9.5 million in the annual national medical research funding round.

The University of Tasmania is celebrating the receipt of $9.5 million in the annual national medical research funding round.

"These project grants and fellowships collectively place UTAS ninth among Australian universities and are a substantial increase on previous years' funding," the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Paddy Nixon, said today.

Prof Nixon said that the funding success also created an excellent springboard for the new Director of the Menzies Research Institute Tasmania, Professor Tom Marwick, just arrived from the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

The grants support critical research led by Menzies in areas such as improved breathing in pre-term infants, high blood pressure and treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee.

UTAS' $9.5m covered 16 research projects including:

  • $1.3m for research on lowering central blood pressure in patients with hypertension;
  • $1.1m for a therapy trial for pre-term babies with breathing difficulties;
  • $954,597 for treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee;
  • $945,085 for research on factors in the progress of MS;
  • $652,772 for a 10-year follow-up of the Tasmanian Older Adult Cohort;
  • $490,419 for promoting adaptive plasticity, brain healing and functional recovery after traumatic brain injury.

The Federal Minister for Health, Tanya Plibersek, has announced a total of 1,141 grants nationally, worth $652 million, from the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Information released by:

The Media Office, University of Tasmania
Phone: (03) 6226 8518; 0429 336 328 (Peter Cochrane)
Email: Media.Office@utas.edu.au

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