Population Health Research Net

Wednesday, 1 June 2011

Future directions for the PHRN have been the focus of many months of workshops, meetings, discussions and consultations culminating with the delivery of a key Investment Plan to the Australian Government's Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR) in May 2011.

PHRN participants have been busy preparing proposals as part of the Department's Education Investment Fund (EIF) Super Science Initiative, which will see the Commonwealth contribute $1.1 billion to priority areas of Australian research until 2013, including $901 million for research infrastructure. $10 million of these funds have been allocated for PHRN related infrastructure.

PHRN participants have been working in conjunction with facilitator Dr Ron Sandland for some months and held a series of workshops and meetings across all mainland state capitals in February 2011 to assist with developing investment proposals for funding consideration under the EIF Super Science Initiative.

Funding allocations have been finalised and it is expected that the PHRN will receive a further $9m in cash and in-kind contributions from participants and partners already involved in the PHRN.

The funds will be distributed to most network participants to be spent on infrastructure related projects and will also see the inclusion of some new PHRN members with funded initiatives under the leadership of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), the Centre for Health Record Linkage in NSW (CHeReL) and the Western Australian Department of Health (WADOH).

A new funding agreement between DIISR and The University of Western Australia (Lead Agent in the current PHRN Funding Agreement) is expected to be progressed shortly to enable funds to flow.

The PHRN is an initiative of the Australian Government's National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) and we are also pleased to say that an extension of this funding program until 30 June 2012 has also been formally agreed.