A leading researcher from Bond University has been awarded a prestigious $2.7m grant to grow his studies into major neglected problems in health care.
Professor Paul Glasziou, the Director of Bond University’s Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare, was recently named as a recipient of an Investigator Grant from the federal government’s National Health and Medical Research Council.
Prof Glasziou said he was “very pleased” to receive the five-year award, which will go towards project costs and supporting the broader research team, as well as covering most of his salary.
The research support component of the package was awarded at the highest-possible tier, in recognition of Prof Glasziou’s position as a leading international authority in his field.
The new Investigator grants are designed to provide researchers with the flexibility to pursue important new research directions as they arise and to form collaborations as needed, rather than being restricted to the scope of a specific research project.
The funding will go towards Prof Glasziou’s research project, Working on Neglected Problems in Healthcare, which he said addressed four main issues: antibiotic resistance, particularly in general practice and the community; understanding and reducing overdiagnosis and overtreatment; the use of simpler and effective non-drug treatments; and reducing research waste, which Prof Glasziou said worldwide was costing more than $100 billion a year.
He said the NHMRC funding would allow his team’s work to go to the next stages and begin implementing solutions they have been developing.
“For most of this work we already have a track record, but there’s a lot of new innovations we’re looking at within those streams of work.
“This gives us a very solid, secure base over the next five years to work on those four neglected problems.
“We’ve done a lot of basic research in understanding what the problems are and looking at the potential solutions. What we now want to do over the next five years is also helping to implement some of those solutions to actually change the way that health care and research operates in Australia and internationally.”
Professor Nick Zwar, Executive Dean of Bond University’s Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine said the “prestigious and highly competitive award” recognized the world-leading research Prof Glasziou and his team were doing on key issues for improving the quality and sustainability of healthcare.Â