Cerebral palsy research awarded NHMRC Investigator Grant

13 October 2022

By Rob Clancy, staff writer

Head of The Ritchie Centre, Professor Suzanne Miller, has been awarded more than $2.3 million to continue her groundbreaking work on targeted neuroprotective treatments for fetal and neonatal brain injury, primarily cerebral palsy.

Professor Suzanne Miller's cerebral palsy research awarded 2022 NHMRC Investigator Grant. — *Professor Suzanne Miller*

The prestigious NHMRC Investigator grants provide a five-year fellowship and research support for outstanding researchers at all career stages.

Prof Miller is among 225 emerging and established leaders in health and medical research across Australia sharing in more than $375 million to tackle our greatest health challenges.

Prof Miller is now looking forward to putting the NHMRC funding to good use in her work on neonatal brain injury in infants born preterm, with fetal growth restriction, or who suffer a severe lack of oxygen at birth.

New therapies to reduce cerebral palsy

“The results of my preclinical studies will inform clinical trials offering new therapies to reduce neonatal brain injury and prevent life-long neurodevelopment deficits,” she said.

She also paid tribute to many of her colleagues who were unsuccessful in this round.

“I am incredibly grateful for this funding and what it will allow us to do; it will be a huge benefit for research studies on the fetal and neonatal brain development. But it’s unfortunate that so many of our brilliant early and mid-career researchers missed out.

“If we had enough funding each of them would be doing so much more…and what could we be achieving then?”

NHMRC’s largest funding scheme

The Investigator Grant scheme is NHMRC’s largest funding scheme and a major investment in Australia’s health and medical research workforce. The scheme awards around $370 million in research funding each year.

From 2023, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) will award equal numbers of Investigator Grants to women and men in a new intervention to address gender inequities in research funding.

Funders | NHMRC