INDUSTRY & RESEARCH
campusreview. com. au
Set the money free
Stakeholders say proposed Medical Research Future Fund needs to remove hurdles separating clinical centres from research dollars.
By James Wells
Prominent figures from the Australian research sector say it’ s imperative that the proposed Medical Research Future Fund addresses legislative pitfalls in the research funding system.
Professor Joe Trapani, executive director of cancer research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, says that while Australia conducts world-class research, its public funding system is far from ideal, as legislation prevents public clinical centres that conduct research from accessing grants.
Trapani says this prevents researchers from being embedded in public hospitals, which he believes would be effective for encouraging translational research – work that leads to specific new innovations.
“ The best strategy for maximising translation would be to co-locate or even embed research with clinical care,” Trapani argues in a statement.“ We are yet to realise our world-class healthcare system as the perfect incubator for translation of research and exploit the potential benefits.”
Trapani says embedding research into healthcare allows clinicians to focus research directly on patient needs, and report new issues or unsolved problems directly to researchers.
Furthermore, while the MacCallum Centre has a specific research division, Trapani says it is frequently forced to pass up opportunities to participate in clinical trials due to funding hurdles. He hopes legislation behind the federal government’ s Medical Research Future Fund will not have the same flaws.
“ A languid option would be simply to use the MRFF in the same manner as other publicly funded research,” Trapani says.“ We believe it is imperative to remove the incapacitating structural impediments to performing research in the healthcare sector, and adopt a more strategic approach to the funding environment.”
The MacCallum Centre has also recently lodged a submission to a Senate committee investigating the MRFF, encouraging government to address the issue.
Elizabeth Foley, chief executive of Research Australia, says she welcomes the MacCallum Centre’ s submission, and reiterates basing researchers in healthcare centres is an effective way to produce practical research.
“ There is evidence that by embedding both teaching and research into the healthcare system, you lift the whole quality of the research system,” Foley says.“ For example, if somebody who’ s working in the public hospital system, who’ s a cardiologist, has an
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