Valuable support from the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation will enable The Kids Research Institute Australia researchers to commence projects on topics ranging from disability, mental health and lung disease to diabetes, Aboriginal leadership, and the development of child-focused pandemic policies.
The Stan Perron Charitable Foundation has a long tradition of funding Western Australian research that aims to solve problems and deliver tangible outcomes that will benefit children, adolescents or young people.
In its latest funding round, the Foundation has awarded a series of People and Platform grants designed to support outstanding health-related research.
The Kids Research Institute Australia Director Professor Jonathan Carapetis said the Foundation had been a longstanding and much-valued supporter of the Institute’s work.
“Over the past three decades the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation has made an incalculable contribution to child health research in Western Australia,” Professor Carapetis said.
These latest grants will help to give wings to some of our smartest scientists, who are leading a series of diverse, innovative and thoughtful projects that otherwise may not have been possible.
“The Kids Research Institute Australia remains deeply grateful for the Foundation’s continued commitment to nurturing home-grown research, and giving both our emerging and more experienced researchers the tools to help make a difference in the lives of kids and families.”
Researchers from The Kids Research Institute Australia to receive People grants in this round are:
- Dr Yael Perry – Co-Head, Youth Mental Health at The Kids Research Institute Australia
- Digital interventions to improve the mental health of West Australian LGBTQA+ young people – in affiliation with The University of Western Australia (UWA)
- Associate Professor Jenny Downs – Head, Child Disability at The Kids Research Institute Australia
- A knowledge-to-practice roadmap for improving quality of life in children with disability – in affiliation with UWA
- Associate Professor Ewan Cameron – Director of Malaria Risk Stratification within the Geospatial Health and Development team at The Kids Research Institute Australia and Associate Professor with Curtin University’s School of Population Health
- Designing equitable and effective, child-focused COVID-19 policies with a virtual WA – in affiliation with Curtin University
- Associate Professor Shannon Simpson – Co-Head, Children's Lung Health at the Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre and an Associate Professor with Curtin University’s School of Allied Health
- Arresting and reversing lung disease for the children of WA who were born too soon – in affiliation with Curtin University
Researchers from The Kids Research Institute Australia to receive Platform grants in this round are:
- Professor Tim Jones, Co-Director Rio Tinto Children’s Diabetes Centre, The Kids Research Institute Australia, Clinical Professor at UWA, and Director Research Child and Adolescent Health Services; with a team of researchers from The Kids Research Institute Australia, Perth Children’s Hospital, Macquarie University and Monash University
- DiabConnect: an innovative integrated diabetes data management platform for patients and families, researchers, and clinicians. Other researchers involved in this project include Professor Liz Davis, Dr Rad Aniba, Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite, Professor Sophie Zoungas, Associate Professor Yvonne Zurynski, Dr Anne Carrigan, Dr Craig Taplin, Helen Clapin and Leanne Cromb. This grant will be administered through UWA.
- Professor Chris Blyth, Director of the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines & Infectious Diseases at The Kids Research Institute Australia and Professor of Paediatrics at UWA; with Cheryl Bridge, Head of the Kulunga Aboriginal Unit at The Kids, and Mrs Valerie Swift, Aboriginal Cultural Guidance Advisor for the Wesfarmers Centre
- Aboriginal Leadership and Training Platform for the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases – in affiliation with UWA.