Eleven University of Western Australia research projects have received a combined $15 million in funding, including a project aimed at enhancing the wellbeing of Aboriginal young people through activities with horses.

The National Health and Medical Research Council Ideas Grants were announced today by Minister for Health, the Hon. Greg Hunt MP.

UWA Professor Juli Coffin (who is also a researcher with The Kids Research Institute Australia) will lead a $2.5 million project working with horses and using Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) to promote the social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing of Aboriginal young people.

Through EAL, participants will learn important life skills such as building relationships, problem solving, communication, self-awareness, and regulation of emotions.

The program is already under way in Broome following a successful pilot in Geraldton, with the team planning to implement and evaluate it in multiple sites across the Kimberley.

“Our intervention delivery approach has been co-developed alongside Aboriginal communities and is underpinned by Aboriginal leadership, cultural governance, and the use of trauma-sensitive and culturally secure research methods,” Professor Coffin said.

“Findings will build an evidence base that informs policy and practice, by gaining a comprehensive understanding of key intervention elements of social and emotional wellbeing support for Aboriginal youth, how to incorporate Aboriginal worldviews across different stages of interventions, and how to best capture impact using culturally secure methodology.”

Full list of grant recipients

Chief investigator: Professor Julianne Coffin (UWA/The Kids Research Institute Australia)
Professor Donna Cross, Professor Helen Milroy, Professor Cheryl Kickett-Tucker, Mr Rob McPhee, Ms Lesley Nelson, Mr John Jacky, Ms Abby-Rose Cox
Project:  Working with horses to promote the wellbeing of Aboriginal youth: an experiential learning approach for the Kimberley
Funding: $2,516,797

Chief investigator: Professor Daniel Fatovich (UWA/Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research)
Doctor Jessamine Soderstrom, Professor Andrew Dawson, Associate Professor Sam Alfred, Associate Professor Shaun Greene, Doctor Katherine Isoardi, Doctor Laura Pulbrook, Doctor David McCutcheon, Doctor Francois Oosthuizen, Professor Nadine Ezard
Project: Drugs Network of Australia: a coordinated toxico-surveillance system of illicit drug use in Australia to enable rapid detection and harm reduction responses via an early warning system
Funding: $3,722,730

Chief investigator: Professor Ruth Ganss  (UWA/Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research)
Doctor Anna Johansson-Percival, Doctor Louise Winteringham, Doctor Jiulia Satiaputra
Project: Therapeutic induction of tertiary lymph nodes in cancer
Funding: $995 010

Chief investigator: Winthrop Professor Karol Miller (UWA)
Professor Toby Richards, Professor Paul Maria Parizel, Professor Adam Wittek, Doctor Nicola Gray, Doctor Luke Whiley, Associate Professor Jens Ritter
Project: Biomechanics meets Phenomics: towards understanding and predicting abdominal aortic aneurysm disease progression
Funding: $1,324,897

Chief investigator: Dr Gianina Ravenscroft (UWA/Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research)
Associate Professor Robert Bryson-Richardson, Professor Nigel Laing, Professor Sandra Cooper, Doctor Mark Davis,  Professor Monique Ryan, Professor Phillipa Lamont, Doctor Macarena Cabrera-Serrano
Project: Novel genomic approaches to identify the missing genetics underlying skeletal muscle disease
Funding: $1,935,964

Chief investigator: Professor Daniel Green (UWA)
Doctor Andrew Haynes, Associate Professor Joanne McVeigh, Doctor Louise Naylor, Professor Graham Hillis, Professor Keith George
Project: Identifying the optimal age to apply physical activity interventions to improve heart health
Funding: $852,000

Chief investigator: Dr Benjamin Mullin (UWA)
Associate Professor Elin Grundberg, Associate Professor Kun Zhu, Doctor Jordana Bell, Associate Professor Brent Richards
Project: Analysis of the osteoclast methylome for characterisation of epigenetic mechanisms underlying metabolic bone disease
Funding: $299,018

Chief investigator: Dr Lea-Ann Kirkham (UWA/The Kids Research Institute Australia)
Associate Professor Peter Richmond, Doctor Alma Fulurija
Project: First-in-human evaluation of a novel immunobiotic to prevent respiratory infection
Funding: $1,180,080

Chief investigator: Professor Livia Hool (UWA)
Professor Filip Van Petegem, Doctor Evan Ingley, Doctor Helena Viola
Project: Integrating biology and medicine to develop 3D-structure guided drug design for treatment of cardiovascular disease 
Funding: $978,832

Chief investigator: Dr Aron Chakera (UWA/Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research)
Associate Professor Timothy Inglis, Dr Kieran Mulroney, Ms Angela Jacques, Professor Suzanne Robinson
Project: Culture-independent microbiology: reducing delays in the diagnosis of severe infections and detection of antimicrobial resistance from days to hours
Funding: $949,589

Chief investigator: Associate Professor Kathy Fuller (UWA)
Professor Wendy Erber, Doctor Henry Hui, Professor Jan Dickinson
Project: Precision molecular diagnostics of single cells by imaging flow cytometry
Funding: $875,110