Professor Sonj Hall been recruited as Director of the new Health Collaborative Research Network, which has $5.53 million in Commonwealth funding to develop partnerships between CQUniversity and the University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology and Curtin University.

 

Professor Hall will work as a catalyst to encourage CQUniversity academics to develop projects alongside larger, more mature research teams, and to harness CQUniversity's 'power of place', giving metropolitan researchers better access to health networks on the ground in rural and regional communities.

 

She's already helping to recruit professorial research fellows who will - depending on their strengths - focus on boosting research activity across health outcomes, medical and allied health, industrial and environmental health, and/or population health.

 

"The Health CRN will be a springboard for CQUniversity's research leading to delivery of better health outcomes for rural and regional areas. We're not directly funding research but we're acting as a catalyst to create activity and opportunities."

 

Professor Hall is keen for CQUniversity's early and mid-career academics to have access to research mentoring, exchanges and collaborative bids for nationally competitive grants. Research higher degree (RHD) students could also benefit from co-supervision.

 

The CRN program is designed to encourage less research-intensive smaller and regional institutions to develop their research capacity and adapt to a research system driven more strongly by performance outcomes by teaming up with other institutions in areas of common interest. The funding is based on a competitive selection process. The CQUniversity-led project will be housed in our Institute for Health and Social Science Research.