HDA and CRF PhD Excellence Award
Funded by the Foundation since 2008, the PhD Excellence 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 10th Cohort 2021 recipients of the CRF PhD Excellence Award are …
Jessica Judd, PhD candidate within the BetterStart Child Health and Development Research Group in the School of Public Health at the University of Adelaide.
Jessica’s research project ‘Mental health and related service and support use among children experiencing different adversities’ focuses on mental health related service and support use among children experiencing different adversities, homelessness and contact with the child protection system.
Ultimately, Jessica hopes to inform policy decision makers and improve access to mental health services and supports for children and adolescents experiencing adversities. Her project uses the Better Evidence Better Outcomes Linked Data (BEBOLD) platform to examine groups of children in South Australia who have a higher prevalence of poor mental health.
Carl Campugan, PhD candidate within the Robinson Research Institute, University of Adelaide and Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham.
Carl’s research project ‘Utilizing light and sound in Assisted Reproductive Technologies’ aims to focus on investigating how light and sound trapping techniques can be used in current Assisted Reproductive Technologies.
Ultimately, Carl hopes that with this research, a better understanding of optimal in vitro culture conditions can be achieved, conditions that can hopefully assist families in achieving successful pregnancies when using Assisted Reproductive Technologies.
For full information on the Award, including 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.
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.