Two major research projects at the Australian National University which are hoping to improve health outcomes for indigenous Australians are among those to receive a major boost in the latest round of funding.
The ANU has received more than $16 million from the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Among those receiving funding is a $1.9 million project led by Dr Raymond Lovett from the ANU Research School of Population Health. His project aims to better understand how cultural factors affect health outcomes in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
"The project involves a series of surveys that will allow us to quantify the relationships between cultural factors like Indigenous language use, connection to country, and strength of identity with health outcomes," said Dr Lovett, from the ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment.
The project aims to reframe the discourse around the effect that culture has on Indigenous health.
"At the moment the dominating view is that connection to culture diminishes health outcomes, but those of us who live and breathe it know that the opposite is true," he said.
Other major projects to win funding include a $2.8 million project by Professor Emily Banks at RSPH, to find ways to improve the health of Aboriginal children and adolescents living in urban areas.
"This new funding will allow the Study of Environment on Aboriginal Resilience and Child Health to continue to follow the 1600 children in the study into adolescence and early adulthood as well as develop new programs to tackle major health issues such as chronic disease, asthma and mental illness," Professor Banks said.
ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt said the NHMRC funding supported the University's commitment to outstanding research in health and medical sciences.
"The NHMRC funding is a great outcome for ANU and will help support our researchers as they try to solve some of the major problems and health issues facing Australia and the world," Professor Schmidt said.
Other projects to receive funding look at cardiac health, liver cancer prevention, autoimmune diseases, herpes and brain plasticity, among others.