

For over 45 years, CRF has been supporting children’s research in South Australia.
Healthy Development Adelaide
HDA and CRF PhD Excellence Award
Funded by the Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation since 2008, the PhD Excellence Awards program is designed to build research excellence and career development in children’s health and development in South Australia.
The program provides PhD top-up scholarships for South Australian-based scholars who are undertaking projects in the area of healthy development. The successful applicants will each be receiving $5,000 per annum for 3 years to augment their scholarships.
It’s also an inspiring platform for the Foundation to continue its 45+ year-dedication to fostering opportunities for early career researchers where grant funding is rarely unavailable.
The 11th Cohort 2022 recipients of the CRF PhD Excellence Award are …
Demi Georgiou is a PhD candidate within Medical Biochemistry, College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University.
Demi’s research project ‘Elucidating the biological importance of Pregnancy Zone Protein (PZP)’ will provide much needed insight regarding the functions of PZP, a major pregnancy-associated protein, and increase our understanding of the role of damaged proteins in Preeclampsia a leading cause of pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality. “I am incredibly honoured and grateful to receive a 2022 HDA and Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation PhD Excellence Award, thank you so much! This award will support me in my research and the knowledge gained from my project has the potential to be used as the foundation for developing novel therapeutic strategies for preeclampsia”, said Demi.
Joshua Robinson is a PhD candidate within the Adelaide Medical School, Robinson Research Institute at the University of Adelaide.
Joshua’s research project ‘Assessing and treating the impacts of maternal asthma on newborn lung function’ aims at exploring the impact of asthma during pregnancy on babies, specifically looking at lung disease. “If we can improve lung health outcomes at this early stage, we can reduce the risk of other lung diseases later in life e.g. childhood asthma”, said Joshua Robinson.
For full information on the PhD Excellence Award, including past PhD Scholars and the application and eligibility criteria, please visit Healthy Development Adelaide.
HDA and CRF Schools Communicators Award
Healthy Development Adelaide and the Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation has combined to launched the Schools Communicator Award as a way to help South Australia’s emerging researchers showcase their research to high school students with the aim of getting them excited about the amazing opportunities open to them in health science or science career pathways.
2021 Awardee : Dr Anya Arthurs
College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University
Dr Anya Arthurs is a postdoctoral researcher within the Pregnancy, Health and Beyond Lab with Professor Claire Roberts (HDA Co-Convenor) at Flinders University.
Anya’s research focuses on molecular mechanisms driving pregnancy complications by altering the placental transcriptome. She is very interested in non-coding RNAs and splicing mechanisms. Ultimately, Anya hopes that she can elucidate mechanisms contributing to placental damage in stillbirth and other pregnancy complications.
Anya plans to show high school students the amazing opportunities a career in science can bring and to showcase her research in an engaging and understandable format.
Australian Society for Medical Research, South Australia
We support the Australian Society for Medical Research in South Australia (ASMR) as a proud sponsor of the Annual Medical Research Week®.
This partnership is based on a shared vision to foster excellence in Australian health and medical research.
We applaud the forum it provides for early career researchers, including graduate students and postdoctoral scientists, to establish collaborations and present their work among peers in a professional environment.