Who benefits? A question about the future of health & medical research

ICT for Life Sciences

Thursday 23rd May 5-7pm – free public forum in Melbourne

The community and governments here and around the world have increasing expectation that publicly funded research will reap benefits more quickly and fully.

Expectation are particularly high for health and medical research because if offers solutions for better health care, restraining costs of providing care, and building national prosperity through innovative industry growth.

This talk will discuss who benefits from health and medical research, including individuals, health consumers, policy makers, practicioners, business, governments and researchers themselves; and how.

It will outline the challenges that health and medical research faces in providing the benefits in 2013 and beyond, including the rapidly changing nature of health and medical research itself, international and local financial pressures, barriers to uptake of research findings, wider participation of the community in research, the role of the industry and private investors, ethical challenges, maintaining trust, and empowering researchers in health practice and policy development.

To improve the flow of the benefits from research, funding bodies such as the NHMRC need to address how the barriers to achieving benefits can be better oversome and ensure that its support evolves to meet these challenges.

Biography:

Professor Warwick Anderson is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NHMRC, Australia’s major governmental funding body for health and medical research. Previously, he was Head of School of Biomedical Sciences at Monash University and Deputy Director of the Baker Medical Research Institute, following research fellowships at the University of Sydney and Harvard Medical School.

Professor Anderson obtained his PhD from the University of Adelaide. His research has focused on renal causes of hypertension, including the roles of renal vascular remodeling, renal innervation and the renin-angiotensin system. He has published over 170 peer review articles.

Professor Anderson is a member of the Prime Minister’s Science Engineering and Innovation Council, a Board member of the Global Alliance for Chronic Disease, a member of Heads of International (Biomedical) Research Organizations and of the National Lead Clinicians Group. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia and an International Fellow of the American Heart Foundation. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2005.

Details

When:

5pm – 6pm Refreshments
6pm – 7pm Lecture

Where:
Charles Pearson Theatre,
Eastern Resource Centre (Bldg 171), The University of Melbourne VIC 3010