The new grants will fund innovative projects developing new treatments or diagnostics for cancers and infectious diseases, including brain, bone, pancreatic and breast cancer as well as tuberculosis and sepsis.
The grants are funded through the Leading Innovations Through New Collaborations (LINC) scheme, which provides up to $50,000 in seed funding for new research partnerships between an early or mid-career (EMC) scientist based at TRI and an EMC clinician at one of the partnering hospitals.
TRI CEO, Professor Scott Bell said the LINC grant scheme attracted good applications, with the seven successful 2022 grant applications including clinical teams from a diverse range of clinical fields such as palliative care, respiratory, intensive care, oncology and infectious diseases.
“TRI is delighted to award the LINC grants to these highly talented early and mid-career researchers and clinicians who are planning to collaborate on projects, which have promising potential for improving patient outcomes,” said Professor Bell.
“Through the LINC grants, TRI and our partners also hope to foster long-term, transformative research collaborations between young clinicians and academic researchers.”
Metro South Health executive director of research Professor John Upham said the LINC grants were specifically developed to help address the significant shortage of funding available to young researchers and also to encourage junior clinicians to lead a research project.
“We strongly believe that research partnerships between clinicians and researchers are invaluable for future improvements in healthcare,” Professor Upham said.
“We were impressed by the quality and breadth of the projects awarded LINC grants this year and congratulate the five Metro South Health clinicians who received grants,” he said.
Mater Research and CHQ each awarded one LINC grant to collaborations involving their clinicians.
Mater Research executive director and director of clinical research Professor Maher Gandhi said the LINC grants played an important role in supporting new research collaborations between mater hospital clinicians and researchers at TRI.
Children’s Health Queensland director of research Associate Professor Andrew Moore said the LINC grant program provided an exciting opportunity for early-career paediatric clinicians to investigate critical areas in caring for critically unwell children.