2009 June - Research Excellence Awards

The NICM Research Excellence Awards was established to encourage and reward work that exemplifies scientific rigour in advancing the evidence base for complementary medicine and employs novel approaches to addressing key issues and methodological challenges.  

2009 February - Complementary medicine research grants development support 

As part of its capacity building role, NICM invited complementary medicine researchers intending to lodge a grant application (e.g. to the NHMRC or ARC) to ‘pitch' their grant proposals to a panel of three mainstream health and medical researchers with a strong track record in securing competitive grant funds.  

The pitching forum was held on the morning of Monday 9 February 2009 with a number of complementary medicine researchers participating.

Rationale

While there has been some improvement in recent years, historically CM grant applicants have not been as successful in securing competitive grant funding as their mainstream research counterparts.

The purpose of the grants pitching program was to provide an opportunity for prospective applicants to test their proposals prior to application.

The panel did not necessarily have any knowledge or experience in complementary medicine as this is not the primary focus of their assistance, but have a sound understanding of and success in competitive grant processes.  The types of questions or issues the panel commented on include:

• The overall strength and clarity of the proposal
• Whether the scope / focus is too narrow or too broad
• The methodology
• Whether the optimal questions are being asked
• Whether there is sufficient baseline data to undertake the project
• Feasibility of undertaking the work and achieving stated outcomes within time and budget
• Appropriateness and strength of budget and team (skills, expertise, track record)
• Any other points the panel deems relevant to the rigour and potential success of the application.

August 2008 - ASMR Professional Development Program

In August 2008 NICM sponsored CM participants in the 2008 Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR) Professional Development Program.

As part of its ongoing commitment to support the career development of health and medical research scientists, ASMR provided a national professional development training day in each of the major cities.  The program, first run in 2007, is aimed at assisting the best and brightest of Australia's health and medical researchers to achieve their full potential.  The program reflects the needs of researchers, who may have excelled scientifically, but still need to develop the management skills that will enable them to successfully run their own laboratories, attract funding and progress in the NHMRC Fellowship scheme. 

While the general ASMR program is targeted at health and medical researchers who are 5-12 year post-Doctoral studies, the CM research field is at a much earlier stage of development, and hence NICM offered a series of places not only to post-doctoral candidates but also to individuals in their final year of Doctoral studies who are undertaking CM related research in 2008-09.

As well as funding places in the program, NICM paid for ASMR membership for the participants, making them eligible for the ASMR mentoring program.

NICM is currently conducting a survey of participants which will inform future initiatives.

Content Updated January 2009