For over 45 years, CRF has been supporting children’s research in South Australia.
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 12th Cohort 2023 recipients of the CRF PhD Excellence Award are …
Zahra Ali Padhani, PhD candidate within the Adelaide Medical School and the Robinson Research Institute at the University of Adelaide.
Zahra’s PhD research project is on ‘Preconception health interventions and risk factors among adolescents and young adults and its impact on maternal, perinatal, and child health’. In this project she aims to prepare an evidence gap map to comprehensively identify, map, and describe existing empirical evidence on interventions implemented to improve the health and wellbeing of adolescents and young adults (10 to <25 years of age) before pregnancy. She plans also to use the Global Burden of Disease data to assess the burden and identify causes and risk factors of morbidity and mortality among Australian adolescents and young adults, followed by a secondary data analysis of Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health to explore demographic, maternal and obstetric factors associated with poor maternal, perinatal, and child health outcomes. Lastly, she plans to conduct a research priority exercise involving subject experts and policymakers to recommend preconception interventions to improve maternal and child health outcomes.
“I feel privileged and honoured upon receiving the HDA and Channel 7 PhD Excellence Award 2023. I would like to generously thank HDA and CRF not only for the award funds, but also for providing me the opportunity/platform for my professional growth and development. I would also like to thank my supervisor (Zohra Lassi) and co-supervisors (Gizachew Tessema and Jodie Avery) for their continued support and motivation. I hope that through this research, together we can improve the preconception health of adolescent and young adults and prevent maternal and child mortality and adverse health outcomes.”
Jamal Giri, PhD candidate within the Craniofacial Biology Research Group, Adelaide Dental School at the University of Adelaide.
Jamal’s research project ‘Development of dental occlusion and facial profiles of monozygotic and dizygotic Australian twins, from the primary to the permanent dentition’ aims to provide evidence of the relative contribution of genes and environment in the development of malocclusion by evaluating the timing and progression of occlusal and facial development in serial dental casts and facial photographs of monozygotic and dizygotic twins from the primary to the permanent dentition.
“I am humbled to be one of the recipients of the PhD Excellence Award 2023 and would like to thank Healthy Development Adelaide and Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation for this professional development opportunity during my PhD candidature. My project will serve as a basis for incorporating early anatomical biomarkers in interceptive treatment planning, reducing the need for orthodontic treatment in adolescence and thereby minimizing the personal and financial burden of the treatment.”
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.
2023 AWARDEE: Professor Zohra Lassi, Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow within the Robinson Research Institute and School of Public Health at the University of Adelaide.
Zohra will be delivering her interactive session on Sustainable Development Goals and Global Health to a number of South Australian schools this year.
Zohra’s research focus is on identifying and implementing interventions for improving sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition in disadvantaged settings by advancing knowledge in public health practice and translation into global health policies and guidelines.
The opportunity for Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation to fund HDA’s Schools Communicator Award provides yet another platform to expand our commitment to fostering children’s research careers in South Australia, and provides yet another opportunity to inspire young people to consider a career in research, and importantly, in children’s health and development.
Congratulations Zohra on receiving the 2023 HDA Schools Communicator Award. We encourage your dedication to inspire younger generations to consider a future that will ultimately lead to improving the lives of children.
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.