The Kidney*CRC Bid
A Cooperative Research Centre for Chronic Kidney Disease
and its Complications
Kidney Health Australia through its CEO Anne Wilson, has long been an advocate for the formation of a Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) to provide a quantum increase in funding for research on kidney disease. It is required to address the escalating costs to the community that will continue until a national coordinated approach to better detect, treat and manage CKD is introduced.
Following the lead set by Kidney Health Australia, Monash University and The University of Queensland have also committed funds to the CRC Bid initiative.
Our Vision and Mission
Our vision is to undertake world leading research that will result in new diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines and novel therapies through:
- Research & education about CKD & its co-morbidities (CVD & diabetes) that produces tangible outputs that drive changes to clinical practice leading to concrete benefits in health care that directly & indirectly benefit Australians.
It will be enacted through our Mission to:
- Strengthen existing programs and develop novel initiatives that result in a quantum reduction to the burden of CKD, its co-morbidities (CVD & diabetes) and its impact on Australians.
A working vision of ‘reducing the morbidity of CKD' has been adopted. We will deliver health priority outcomes for people with CKD derived from utilisation of our research outputs that will allow early detection, slowing of progression and improved care, the ultimate outcomes of the three Research Programs shown in the concept diagram below.
Although a challenging and competitive Bid Process is required, a CRC appears feasible judging by the interest in collaborative research shown by renal scientific leaders from more than 15 organisations and bodies across Australia. We are excited about the potential involvement by government and industry participants both within Australia and offshore.
Latest News
December 2009 - Key activity: recruiting partners to join the CRC venture
Members of the bid team are currently engaging in discussions with organisations who may be interested in joining the CRC. We seek:
- Companies who share our research interests and could tailor our offerings to suit commercial endpoints, capable of commercializing CRC IP. Relevant companies: pharmaceutical, biotech, diagnostics, imaging, stem cell sciences.
- Australian Biotechs with interests/IP in aspects of the research.
- Organisations, government departments and companies interested in the public good aspects of the program and capable of delivering public good benefits from the research outputs.
Read - Proposal to Join a Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) - here.
Please contact Robyn McLachlan for further information, or if you would like to arrange a meeting.
About CRCs and Bidding
What is a CRC? The CRC Program’s objective is to deliver significant economic, environmental and social benefits to Australia from its supported research. CRCs are end–user driven research partnerships between publicly funded researchers and end-users (such as companies and federal and state government departments) that can implement research outputs and achieve sustainable benefits. Funding for up to 10 years is available in the first instance with a further 5 years funding possible. The Bid process involves an online application followed by an interview for shortlisted applicants. For more info see Australian Government's CRC Program - Cooperative Research Centres.
What will a successful Bid mean for Kidney Research? The chronic under-funding by the Commonwealth into research on renal diseases was well documented in the lastest report by Access Economics - Exceptional Returns.The Value of Investing in Health R&D in Australia 11 Canberra, June 2008. Kidney diseases received only 1% of the available funds (~$16 M) in 2004/2005, yet the Australian Bureau of Statistics has just reported that for 2007, kidney disease has risen to 10th in the top ten causes of death in Australia. The top Health R&D areas funded were cancer research and cardiovascular disease, together receiving 26% (~$350) of the available funds. Growth in funding of kidney research is one of the lowest at ~$6.5M well below the mean for all disease categories (~$11%). A boost to funding is much needed, easily argued on equity grounds alone, but necessary to counteract the spiraling cost of kidney disease to the Australian community and to benefit all those world wide who are affected by it.
The CRC would comprise the single largest amount of funding ever provided in Australia for research and development in the field of kidney disease. The funds would provide the quantum increase in funding necessary over a prolonged period (up to 10 years) to:
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kick start and drive the ambitious and demanding research program proposed
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translate its outputs into medically valuable goods and services
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generate economic and societal benefit to Australians in return for investment of their taxpayers funds.
A CRC would collaboratively build on and better connect the Australian kidney community's many existing endeavours and would provide new opportunities to link academic and clinical researchers with organisations and governments who would deliver sustainable health solutions developed from the CRC’s discovery research.
Is a CRC feasible? The author of a Feasibility Study that was commissioned by Kidney Health Australia’s Board in 2008 found that a CRC Bid would have a good prospect of success. Amongst the 60 or more experts (nephrologists and scientists) interviewed, there is a keen awareness that funding levels drive outcomes – these have historically been low in Australia for kidney research as described above. There is a strong consensus that the timing and environment are aligning to make a Kidney*CRC Bid attractive. Recent developments include:
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Revised CRC Program now embraces public benefit research; and
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Strong support by the Australian Government to ‘close the gap’ in Indigenous health.
There is a high level of support and optimism for a major renal research collaboration with most of those originally consulted having signaled their commitment and new players continue to join.
Governance of the Bid A Bid Leadership Team was formally established in 2008 to direct and drive Bid activities. The Leadership Team provides advocacy and strategic direction, guiding the Bid application in choice of research activities, stakeholder engagement and resources available to the CRC. It also provides fiduciary accountability and drives the bid application process, facilitating the successful engagement of the many stakeholders. It will guarantee that the proposed research tackles major challenges in kidney disease facing Australia and that Australians will benefit from the outputs from its funding of world class scientists using new, novel, leading edge research technologies and unique sets of capabilities to achieve significant outcomes.
Dr Tim Mathew in addition to his role as Medical Director of Kidney Health Australia, is Chair of the CKD Monitoring Advisory Committee of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, and continues to practice as a nephrologist in Adelaide.
Professor John Bertram is Head of the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology at Monash University; his research on kidney development, nephron endowment and kidney disease has resulted in more than 160 publications and research support from NHMRC, NIH (US), KHA and industry. He is a member of the editorial board of Kidney International.
Ms Robyn McLachlan was Chief Operations Officer and Company Secretary of the CRC for Chronic Inflammatory Diseases for its 7-year lifespan; previously she was engaged in medical research and research management roles at CSL and formerly at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute.
The team has been joined by Professor Wendy Hoy and Associate Professors David Nikolic-Patterson, Sharon Ricardo, Merlin Thomas and Chris Reid to provide expertise in designing and optimising the necessary research activities to deliver benefits that will have major impact on renal disease in Australia.
Timeline for the Bid Process The Bid Application will now be submitted in the 13th CRC Program Selection Round. Actual dates have not been released by the CRC Program yet. The putative timeline is as follows:
- June - December 2009 - Essential participants engaged
- January - June 2009 - Stage 1 Application prepared
- July 2010 - Stage 1 Application submitted
- August - November 2010 - Stage 2 of application process
- December 2010 - Outcome announced
- 1 July 2011 - New CRC commences
Research Concept
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Translational medicine turning bench to bedside discoveries into new policies & guidelines to combat kidney disease across all Australian populations
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Frontier research using stem cell technology to repair & regenerate kidneys, developing new, sophisticated imaging techniques for diagnosing kidney disease and monitoring the effects of therapies, bioinformatics to deliver new biomarkers and new targets for therapies.
Research programs will be continually assessed and funded only if demonstrably able to provide a positive return on investment to the CRC.
Significance of the Research The significance of this project lies in its potential to reduce the burden of kidney disease in the community with consequent improvement in the quality and length of life of those affected. Importantly, any reduction in the number of people acquiring end stage kidney failure would also reduce the health care costs directly attributable to kidney disease that have grown exponentially in the last 2 decades. In addition, the indirect costs related to loss of income, reduced socio-economic status and treatment of co- morbidities would be favorably impacted.
A secondary benefit of the project is the positive effect on recruitment and retention in the kidney research sector of top quality graduates in science and medicine who otherwise tend to be attracted to other investigative fields. This benefit has the potential to be long lasting given the nature of medical research and will provide an immeasurable boost to the quantity and quality of kidney research in Australia.
The Opportunity Commercial participants, research users & research providers are welcome to join us in the battle against this silent killer.
Further information:
Robyn McLachlan, Executive Director
KIDNEY*CRC Bid
robyn.mclachlan@kidney.org.au
Phone 61 (0) 3 9674 4324 61 (0) 3 9674 4324
The Kidney*CRC Bid Sponsors