Scientists: funding to help bring your ideas to clinical trials

Call for expressions of interest for up to $100,000 per project

Next year, the Foundation will provide up to four $100,000 research grants as part of its Matched Funding Program.

Expressions of interest will open in February, so now is the time to think about applying or encouraging researchers developing promising treatments to do so.

Under the Program, the Foundation will match money it receives from approved donors up to a maximum of $50,000, potentially providing a total of $100,000 for a successful research project.

To be eligible the project must:

• Use stem cell technology
• Take place predominantly in Australia
• Be at the late pre-clinical trial stage in readiness for clinical trials OR ready to conduct a clinical trial.

Ideally, the lead researcher would find and introduce the donor to the Foundation, but if this does not occur the Foundation will use its communication channels to try to source an appropriate one.

The projects selected in 2020 are already fully funded, taking a variety of different approaches to finding donors:

• Dr Tom Edwards from the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) and the University of Melbourne is working on gene therapy for inherited retinal diseases. CERA raised the entire amount by holding a special fundraising campaign on World Sight Day.
• Professor John Bateman from Murdoch Children's Research Institute is researching genetic disorders of bone and cartilage. Family members and business associates donated to his research, delighted the Foundation would match their contribution.
• Professor Mark Shackleton from the Alfred Hospital and Monash University is developing new treatments for the skin pigment disorder vitiligo and for melanoma, a deadly type of skin cancer. He received funds from two major contributors: a corporate donor and a vitiligo foundation.
• Associate Professor Mike Doran (pictured) from Queensland University of Technology and the Translational Research Institute is working with the departments of orthopaedic surgery at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital and the Princess Alexandra Hospital. Mike is exploring the potential of stem cells to promote healing in long bones. His project was fully funded through support from Inner Wheel Australia.

Applications will open on Monday 8 February, and close on Monday 8 March. For more information and to download the Expression of Interest form, visit the Foundation’s website.