Research programs

In 2018, we were refunded until 2023. Our Funding Partners are NHMRC, Australian Government Department of Health, ACT Health, Cancer Council Australia, NSW Ministry of Health, Wellbeing SA, Tasmanian Department of Health, and VicHealth. 

For more detailed information about the current projects that fall under this funding arrangement, click on the links below:

• Liveable cities: Benchmarking, monitoring, modelling and valuing the healthy liveable city
• Implementation and scale up: Methods and metrics for moving from best practice prevention to implementation and scale up of chronic disease prevention initiatives
• Resources and funding models for prevention: An examination of the mechanisms for prevention funding at local, state, and national levels and the consequences for building prevention capacity
• Compelling case for prevention: Dynamic simulation modelling to support investment decisions across the common risk factors for lifestyle-related chronic disease
• Whole of healthcare systems: Improving connection and engagement by maternity services in the prevention and better control of risk factors for chronic disease, including smoking, alcohol consumption and unhealthy weight gain in pregnancy
• Systems case studies: Addressing complexity in prevention research using systems approaches (systems case studies)
• Tobacco control: Identifying and assessing options for reducing tobacco-related harms for high prevalence smoking groups
• Public health law: Developing codes of practice as a means of activating new non-communicable disease (NCD)-prevention provisions embedded within the South Australian Public Health Act 2011
• Multi-sector action for community health (MACHI): Determining how intersectoral collaboration for prevention of chronic diseases can effectively be institutionalised into government decision making processes
• Public engagement and prevention: Engaging the public in the wider conversation about prevention in Australia
• Australian Perceptions Of Prevention (AUSPOPS): Understanding community attitudes in Australia about prevention 
• Preventing liver cancer: Obesity and alcohol consumption (This project is currently in development.)

PhD projects

• A systems approach for enabling community driven change to improve health and wellbeing (PhD)
• Development and evaluation of a data collection method, and resultant policy recommendations, in relation to the price and affordability of healthy (recommended) and current (unhealthy) diets in low socioeconomic groups in Australia (PhD)

In 2017, the Australian Government, through the Department of Health, provided us with $10 million for 10 specific research projects under the Boosting Prevention program, which is funded from the Medical Research Future Fund. Download a list of our projects funded by the Australian Government, through the Department of Health’s Medical Research Future Fund here (PDF 275KB).

For more detailed information about each MRFF-funded project, click on the links below:

• Harnessing big data and dynamic simulation modelling to tackle child and adolescent overweight and obesity and unsustainable healthcare expenditure in Australia
• Generating and translating knowledge in health promotion and lifestyle improvement prior to and during pregnancy to reduce the burden of maternal obesity
• Diet and chronic disease prevention: Supporting implementation of priority actions in the food and nutrition system
• Harnessing the power of physical activity for improving the Australian prevention system
• Strengthening the role of Primary Health Networks in the prevention of chronic disease
• Community managed organisations: A potential role in addressing the chronic disease burden among people with a mental illness
• Improving Aboriginal food security and dietary intake: Approaches for remote and urban communities
• Strategies and models for preventing or reducing the risk of the development of chronic pain in primary care
• Prudent advice on the prevention of dementia: Translating best evidence, using the 45 and up study cohort data, on the proportion of dementia that might be preventable in the Australian population
• Reducing injury-related hospitalisations of vulnerable children through improved health literacy