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Brain and Mind Centre partnership program

21 June 2023

Collaborating with industry partners is key to the Brain and Mind Centre's patient-centred research strategy.

Now in its third year, the Brain and Mind Centre is calling for applications to its ongoing partnership program. So far, the scheme has awarded 8 partnership grants.

"Developing serious and sustained partnerships with industry is critical to our work at BMC. Genuine partnerships bring together not just common purpose, but often complementary capabilities to have the greatest impacts in the communities we serve," said Professor Ian Hickie, Co-Director of the Brain and Mind Centre.

3 projects launched by the BMC grant

Connect Promote and Protect Program (CP3)

Dr Alyssa Milton of the Youth Mental Health and Technology research team, partnered with Uniting to create the wellbeing focused CP3 model in an afterschool setting for primary school-aged children.

The CP3 model is the first Australian co-designed evidence-based wellbeing program of its kind for children in Out of School Hours Care (OSHC).

It was first trialled in 5 diverse OSHC communities and due to its success, the program expanded in 2023 to 12 OSHC sites in Australia with a special focus on areas in recovery such as from floods.

One of the key objectives of the CP3 model is to raise the standard of care in the sector, and for CP3 and OSCH to play a critical role in early mental health prevention by laying a foundation in a non-traditional/non-stigmatised settings for children.

"As both an academic and a mother...I consider our research to be of great significance, as it highlights the potential for OSHC to move beyond its role as merely a convenient form of babysitting while parents are at work, and instead, become a meaningful contributor to the social connectedness and wellbeing of our children," said Doctor Milton.

Kinoxis

Established in 2018, this University spinout company collaborated with the Translational Psychopharmacology research team lead by Associate Professor Michael Bowen, Professor Kevin Keay and Professor Luke Henderson. The objective was to create a custom platform for investigating therapeutics for social dysfunction and substance abuse in rats.

Their most recent success, was the announcement that Kinoxis Therapeutics, have partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim to develop oxytocin-targeting precision treatments aimed at improving the quality of life for people living with psychiatric disorders. They also received significant funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse in America.

The partnership, worth up to $US181 million ($A273 million) in payments – plus royalties on any future sales – establishes Kinoxis as a global player in their objective to develop precision drugs for the treatment of conditions including, dementia, depression and schizophrenia.

Bowen Laboratory — *Associate Professor Michael Bowen*

SNAC, St Vincent's Hospital and General Electric

The Computational Neuroimaging research team partnered with Sydney Neuroimaging Analysis Centre (SNAC), St Vincent’s Hospital and GE Healthcare in working towards the identification and validation of new imaging biomarkers derived from MRIs, structural connectomes relating to movement disorders.

One of their recent studies, helped show a promising pathway to curing essential tremor using Magnetic Resonance-guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS).

*Professor Michael Barnett and Dr Chenyu Wang of the Computational Neuroimaging team*

The BMC Partnership Grant

The Brain and Mind Centre Partnership Grant Scheme promotes the establishment of meaningful, long-lasting strategic collaborations to generate research impact.

This scheme permits applicants to apply at any time during the year to allow researchers and partner organisations to consider the viability of the research product, program or intervention for implementation, and to develop collaborative relationships.

This program provides up to $100,000 per calendar year, with $50,000 awarded to successful applicants to work in neuroscience and mental health across child, youth and ageing domains. The partner organisation must commit to, at minimum, match funding requested from the Brain and Mind Centre. The lead applicant must be a member of an endorsed Brain and Mind Centre team.

Submit a completed BMC partnership grant scheme expression of interest form (login required).