Funding for collaborative research

Measuring the impact of music on mood and depression, research into honeybees, biomarkers for melanoma and the next generation ‘microscope in a needle’ to find cancer are among more than 50 collaborative research projects to receive funding by the University of Western Australia (UWA).

With the aim of expanding UWA’s research collaborations, both nationally and internationally, the annual UWA Research Collaboration Awards provide individual grants of up to $20,000 to support new and existing initiatives.

This year almost $775,000 was given to collaborative projects spanning diverse areas from physics, plant biology, engineering and evolutionary biology to population health, law, the earth and environment, and paediatric, women’s and infants’ health - and involving researchers from a wide range of UWA schools and centres.

UWA researchers will work with researchers from universities and research centres across Australia, Europe, the UK and the US, and other countries including Singapore, Korea, China, Japan, South Africa, Canada and Saudi Arabia.

“Such ongoing collaborations lead to enhanced institutional ties and increased publishing, papers in better quality journals, grants and training opportunities for UWA researchers,” Winthrop Professor Peter Davies, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, said.

Since the RCA scheme began in 2009, collaborative research projects have received a total of $2,753,659. This year’s funding round sees an increase in the total amount awarded, with researchers last year receiving a total of $663,561.

A full list of the 2014 RCA recipients is available.