The $280m Translational Science Hub (TNS) is a partnership between vaccine supplier Sanofi, the Queensland Government, Griffith University and the University of Queensland, and its technology and resources can be accessed by researchers based on the Gold Coast.

Students will focus first on creating mRNA vaccines, that teach our immune systems which proteins it needs to produce to defend against certain diseases.

Managing director of the hub and Sanofi Australian medical lead Dr Iris Depaz said the international healthcare company is interested in Queensland's scientific talent.

"[The hub] provides a space for our scientists to be physically located close to our collaborators at Griffith University to facilitate engagement and exchange," she said.

"We want to play a major role in growing the scientific ecosystem in Queensland because there is a strong talent pool of some of the brightest medical minds right here in the Sunshine State."

Sanofi also has TNS sites in France and the US, which researchers in Queensland will collaborate with to innovate mRNA technology.

Vice Chancellor of Griffith Carolyn Evans said this investment will put the Gold Coast on the map of biotech science.

"This partnership sees Griffith University as a burgeoning biotech hub on the Gold Coast, paving the way for research and discoveries that can change people’s lives for the better," she said.

"Griffith is already producing innovative research, and a partnership of this ilk is a sign the Gold Coast is at the epicentre of groundbreaking science."

Students holding higher degree by research scholarships will see their stipend rise to $35,000 next year, 17.2 per cent higher than the $29,863 figure that would otherwise apply in 2023.

The UNSW decision follows a similar move by the Australian National University, which announced a 17.8 per cent rise in research scholarship stipends in September.

UNSW deputy vice-chancellor (research) Nicholas Fisk said the university decided to make a step change in research scholarship stipends because the current figure was “increasingly not tenable” in a time of high inflation.

UNSW will increase the stipend again in 2024 to $37,684, which is intended to align with the living wage — essentially the minimum wage set by the Fair Work Commission after adjustment for tax.

Professor Fisk said the increase was justified on equity grounds, for moral reasons, for student satisfaction and for research productivity.

He said many PhD students found it necessary to take other jobs that kept them away from their research.

Professor Fisk said UNSW had been losing research higher degree students to other universities that paid higher stipends but, from 2023, its stipends would be among the highest in Australia.

“I think this now sets the benchmark across the country,” he said.

He said the higher stipend would benefit about 1300 UNSW students next year who were beginning a higher degree by research or already doing a degree with a scholarship worth less than $35,000.

Numbers would later increase as more new students started. He said UNSW would continue to offer the same number of scholarships.

Students doing higher degrees by research – such as PhDs and masters by research – in Australian universities commonly hold research training program scholarships supported by the federal government.

These scholarships will have a government-funded base rate of $29,863 a year in 2023, but universities have the option of topping them up with their own money.

To offer a higher amount next year, UNSW will have to fund the difference.

Other research-intensive universities are already offering more than the base rate. The University of Sydney is the most generous, paying RTP scholarship holders $35,950 this year, rising to $37,207 next year.

Next year the University of Melbourne will be offering $34,400, and the Australian National University paid $34,000 from October this year after vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt announced an increase from this year’s base rate of $28,854.

He said if Australia wanted its “best and brightest” to do research the government needed to increase the base stipend.

Earlier this year Monash University increased its research scholarship stipend from $30,000 to $33,000.

However, most universities offer only the base rate on their RTP scholarships, declining to top up the federal government funded figure from their own money.

Professor Fisk said the government should reconsider the amount. “There are cogent arguments for revisiting that,” he said.

UNSW Postgraduate Council president Joshua Karras said the increase in the stipend was “most welcome”.

The current stipend was below the poverty line, many students were unable to afford rent, food and other necessities, Mr Karras said. The council had worked constructively and productively with UNSW to reach the outcome, he said.

Announced on Thursday, the new changes aim to "significantly reduce the administrative burden for researchers and universities."

“It will now be much easier for researchers to show how their research will improve the lives of Australians,” ARC CEO Ms Judi Zielke PSM said.

The changes, which came into effect December 1st, will require researchers to specify how they will promote their research findings to facilitate understanding and mainstream usage.

Applicants will then need a signature from their respective deputy vice chancellors research to certify the NIT statement provided is complete and addresses research questions.

While previously analysed by ARC officers and the chief executive who could ask for resubmission, the new system can’t ask researchers to modify their NIT once submitted.

In 2022 grant rounds more than 300 applications were asked to revise their statement, according to government data.

The new NIT statement will then be assessed by peers during the grant process before being presented to the education minister.

Introduced in 2018 by former Education Minister Dan Tehan to “improve the public’s confidence”, the NIT statement has faced criticism for delaying funding rounds and prompting ministerial vetoes.

In 2021, former acting Education Minister Stuart Robert vetoed six ARC-approved humanities research grants from their NIT statement.

Robert's spawned sector backlash when almost 1,500 academics signed a petition to reinstate the vetoed grants and called for a complete independence of the ARC.

It also prompted the current Education Minister Jason Clare to conduct the first review of the ARC since it was established in 2001 (event didn't drive that entirely, word it a bit differently)

In a letter of expectation sent to the ARC review panel in August, Clare asked for the introduction of a clearer, simpler and easier-to-understand NIT statement.

"There may be better ways to communicate the possible outcomes in a way that the language is more easily understood by the community," consultation papers read.

The ARC review, lead by Queensland University of Technology Vice-Chancellor Professor Margaret Sheil AO, is set to deliver its final report next March.

Universities Australia Chief Executive Catriona Jackson welcomed the changes and said she's looking forward to "further information of the exact nature of the revised National Interest."

“Changes to the National Interest Test, announced by the Australian Research Council, re-establish a system that assesses grants according to merit, judged by experts,” Ms Jackson said.

“We thank the government and the Australian Research Council for backing our researchers and the vital work they undertake on behalf of the nation.”

The study, authored by Edith Cowan University professor Ken Nosaka, found that eccentric muscle contractions – the contractions that occur when a muscle is lengthened as the weight is lower – are more effective at building size.

Further, the study, which was published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, found that muscle gains could be made doing half the number of repetitions.

In the study, groups of people performed three different curl exercises twice a week for five weeks as well as another group who did no exercise.

One group performed eccentric-only or lowering exercises, a second group performed concentric or lifting exercises and the third group performed both concentric and eccentric exercises – but the eccentric group did half the amount of repetitions as the other groups.

The study, which involved researchers from Niigata University, Nishikyushu University and Londrina University in Brazil.

Researchers found that the group that performed the eccentric-only exercises achieved strength gains that equalled the other groups despite performing half the amount of repetitions, while the muscles grew more in thickness than the other groups.

“This latest study shows we can be far more efficient in the time we spend exercising and still see significant results by focusing on eccentric muscle contractions,” Nosaka said.

“In the case of a dumbbell curl, many people may believe the lifting action provides the most benefit, or at least some benefit, but we found concentric muscle contractions contributed little to the training effects,” he said.

Nosaka suggested the relationship between our muscles and brain activation might be the key behind the findings.

“Recruitment of the motor unit in the brain is important for increasing our strength,” he said.

“Eccentric contractions can activate the brain more,” he said, adding it takes greater concentration in focusing on lowering weights.

“We already know one eccentric muscle contraction a day can increase muscle strength if it’s performed five days a week – even if it’s only three seconds a day – but concentric (lifting a weight) or isometric muscle contractions (holding a weight) does not provide such an effect,” Nosaka said.

Bringing it back to the gym, Nosaka recommends using two hands to perform the concentric element of the movement and one hand lowering – the eccentric element – in the following exercises: bicep curls, overhead extensions, front raises and shoulder press.

Heading down to the legs, Nosaka said the same technique could be applied to knee extensions, leg curls, and calf raises.

The new initiative was announced by health minister Mark Butler last week, and will see the National Health and Medical Research Council introduce new measures under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 to address disadvantage faced by female and non-binary grant applicants.

Butler said setting targets had been proven as an efficient way to counter gender inequities in grant funding at a junior level but had not yet been tested at a senior level. 

“The structural barriers that prevent women from contributing fully and advancing careers in medical research are many,” he said.

“A 50:50 funding target for senior researchers will directly tackle this loss of talent and give more women the opportunity to take their research forward for the benefit of us all.”

The NHMRC will provide an equal number of leadership grants for women, non-binary and men in the Investigator Grant scheme, its largest funding scheme and investment in Australia’s health and medical research workforce.

Non-binary researchers will be explicitly included in the NHMRC funding scheme alongside women for the first time.

At the Emerging Leadership levels (EL1 and EL2) non-binary lead investigators will now be eligible for structural priority funding along female lead investigators.

For the Leadership category (L1, L2, L3 combined), a spokesperson told Campus Review the NHMRC will adopt a new intervention to achieve equal numbers of grants by gender. 

NHMRC will create two separate ranked lists in the leadership category, a male list and a female and non-binary list.

Funds will be allocated from the top of each list with a target to award equal numbers of grants.

The decision to introduce the new measures comes after the review of the previous grants attribution which showed that in three years, male applicants received about 35 per cent more grants and 67 per cent more total funding - about $95 million extra per year than women applicants.

“Existing gender equity initiatives are working but progress is slow,” a NHMRC spokesperson told Campus Review.

“The pandemic has exacerbated the insecure employment of many researchers, especially women, who are more likely to be on short-term contracts and we are already seeing their  publication rates reduced.

“We cannot afford to continue wasting a large part of our talent pool in health and medical research if we are to maintain and improve the health of our community.” 

Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia Medical School Kathryn Ramsey has welcomed the announcement. 

The researcher and mother of two said she believes the new funding scheme will allow her to reach a leadership position when the time comes. 

“Once you enter this mid-career phase and start having a family, you have career disruptions and long periods of time for maternity leave and it can be difficult to have the confidence to balance it all,” Ramsey told Campus Review.

“Having the same number of grants funded by women in these leadership levels actually gives you hope that maybe it's achievable, that maybe it's worth your time as applying and submitting for these grants is a lot of work.  

“I thought I was reaching the end. Maybe the leadership levels are now a possibility," she said.

The Investigator Grant scheme is NHMRC’s largest scheme awarding around $370 million funding in health and medical research each year. 

The grants provide a 5-year fellowship and research support for researchers at all career stages. 

This year, the scheme funded 225 projects for $375 million, with UNSW claiming 36 grants for more than $64.6 million.

UNSW deputy vice-chancellor of research professor Nicholas Fisk said he was pleased to see twice as many women as men at UNSW being successful.

”In response to the concerning gender imbalance that has beset this scheme in both submissions and awards, UNSW recently upscaled its institutional and individual support for women investigators, in particular encouraging researchers who may not have otherwise applied, to step up," he said.

"Of course, this is only one round, and there is no room for complacency."

The tablets – infused with tiny doses of grass pollens – have been found to provide long-term protection against allergic reactions, including thunderstorm asthma.

Monash University Allergy and Clinical Immunology Laboratory head Menno van Zelm said the prescription tablets could help retrain the immune system to reduce an allergic reaction.

“It is a very important tablet,” Professor van Zelm told 3AW radio station.

“It’s actually used to retrain the immune system.”

The tablet must be put under the tongue each day for four months in the lead-up to the pollen season.

It contains a small amount of grass pollen that illicits a response that can retrain the immune system.

“In that environment it doesn‘t cause a very strong reaction, but it’s actually used to retrain the immune system and make sure it doesn’t cause a severe allergic reaction,” Professor van Zelm said.

However, Professor van Zelm warned that it didn’t work equally for all allergy sufferers.

“It works in many people but not in everyone,” he said.

“It really depends on how severe it is. If it‘s really mild I would at this stage recommend using antihistamine, but you should talk to your GP,” he said.

Melbourne in particular has been described as the hay fever capital of Australia and Professor van Zelm has helped explain why.

“With the winds coming from the north in the morning, they take up the pollen over the ocean and the wind them turns around bringing this sort of wet moist air with pollen in it,” Professor van Zelm said.

“It makes a very high dose of pollen that makes many people sensitised.”

Boase and his team from QuT have been given the green light to develop a new technology that stops emerging viruses from developing and spreading through human cells during future pandemics. 

The team hopes that by ‘attacking’ the envelope of the viruses, they'll be able to block viral particles from merging with the human’s cells and stop their ability to replicate.

“If we can do that, then your immune system will eventually catch up and then kick off the rest of the viruses on the outside of the cells,” Boase told Campus Review.

“What we're trying to do is reduce the amount of infection, reduce the infection chance and more, by targeting the virus rather than necessarily training the immune system.” 

According to the researcher, most viruses need to fuse with the human cell to be able to develop further and propagate. 

The team will try to use polymer and long chain molecules to target the viral envelope that usually merges with the cell and, in doing so, deactivate the viruses. 

“As long as the virus has an envelope we're hoping that our polymers will be effective against them,” Boase said. 

“We are looking at it on the molecular scale. How can we get these polymer molecules to do this deactivation of the viruses, and how does that work?"

According to Boase, this new technique could target any viruses dangerous to the human race as long as they have a ‘casing’.

“We're targeting the really specific strain areas, it won't just target Influenza, COVID, or Monkeypox. 

“It is an exciting new project. Nobody really looked at this with polymers, and I think there's a natural ability for them to be very effective in this area,” he added.

For as long as he can remember, Boase turned to science to find answers about how the world around him worked. 

It was through university summer research project schemes that he found his niche. By the time he graduated, he had already participated in multiple projects that each contributed to his career.

“The research scheme got me into nanoscience and polymers, and then it gave me the opportunity to participate in a nanomedicine focused project – it has just fascinated me ever since.”

Before venturing into viruses research, Boase had focused on nanomedicines for cancer and antibacterial coatings for infections. 

During the pandemic he rethought his career trajectory and developed the idea to use polymers and nanomedicine to target the viruses envelope. 

Funded by the US Department of Defense via a $US200,000 Discovery grant scheme, the team will have two years to investigate their hypothesis. 

It’s a blessing for Boase, who couldn’t have dreamed of getting that much funding while being in the early stages of his career. 

“All the department is interested in is completely new research ideas, you don't need a track record and you're not competing with people that have 20, 30 years’ worth of papers behind them.

“They're really just interested in getting new ideas back into the scientific literature that might benefit their personnel or their veterans,” Boase said. 

“Which means, this is a brand new area for us too.”

Over the long run, Boase hopes that the research will ‘revolutionise’ antiviral therapeutics goods and prevent future pandemics by helping people that are already affected or even prophylaxis in an area likely to be infected.

“We're hoping it will be like a rapid therapeutic that can be deployed directly and that it'll provide some relief early on when a new viral pandemic emerges that we have no therapy or vaccine for.”

In Australia, the interaction between polymers and virus membranes is a new research area that Boase believes will be beneficial in other medicine and drug delivery, as well as therapeutics and testing. 

In addition to looking at how polymers can deactivate emerging viruses, the QuT team will also have a background focus around inflammation and immune response to viral infections, which will also have a benefit outside of this project directly, Boase said. 

With help from his professor, Jeewantha developed a hybrid shape memory polymer 'smart plaster' which wraps around a fractured limb more efficiently than the traditional Paris (POP) and fibreglass casts.

“The smart plaster is lightweight, has less setting time, is easy to apply, and the process is cleaner and quicker," Jeewantha, who studies at the University of Southern Queensland, told Campus Review.

“A major benefit is that it allows multiple alterations, which is not possible with a traditional cast.”

Most hospitals in Australia still use the 19th-century POP and fibreglass casts, which can be be unhygienic, heavy and cumbersome. 

“POP and fibreglass casts often report pressure sores, create compartment syndrome, and limit blood flow to arteries and muscles during swelling,” Jeewantha said.

“Therefore, cell damage may occur sooner when temperature and pressure are coupled, leading to ulcers, nerve damage, or permanent loss of body parts.”

The new plaster allows doctors or nurses to control the pressure between the fabric and skin, reducing the chance of nerve damage.

The process also takes less than 10 minutes, whereas POP requires around 45 minutes to set completely.

“We included a secondary locking mechanism, which makes it easy to remove and doesn’t require a saw that can scare kids,” Jeewantha said.

Proper cast care is important in lowering the risk of complications after the cast is removed.

Jeewantha says his creation can greatly assist nurses in rural areas who often lack staff or medical equipment.

According to federal health statistics, people living in rural and regional areas are more likely to obtain an injury and have poorer access to medical services compared to those living in metropolitan areas.

“Smart plaster is ideal for first aid and emergencies in remote or isolated locations where required medical facilities and assistance are not available or accessible,” Jeewantha said.

Jeewantha's plaster is also made of biocompatible material, which releases less environmentally unfriendly chemicals in the air than POP plasters.

“Shape memory polymers can recover their original shape after being deformed, which means our smart plaster can also be reused," he said.

“Well-known biocompatible polymers are expensive and not freely available in the commercial market.

“Therefore, we were careful to use commercially available low-cost biocompatible epoxy polymers during the smart plaster synthesis process.”

Associate Professor Jayantha Epaarachchi, who supervised the development of the plaster, said the new plaster could be the new standard of injury care in the years to come.

“We have done our part to produce a material that can provide comfort to patients, flexibility to doctors for frequent observation, easy and less time-consuming application for nurses and is relatively cheap and recyclable,” Epaarachchi said. 

“This would be a turning point in the orthopaedic treatment process."

Gathered for the 2022 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Young People the data revealed that Australian children scored a D- in overall physical activity; a grade that has remained the same since the report card launched in 2014.

Lead researcher from Deakin University's Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition Kylie Hesketh said “these findings are really concerning because the guidelines provide a minimum amount of physical activity that is needed for health and wellbeing”.

Currently government guidelines recommend at least 180 minutes of physical activity for preschoolers with a minimum of 60 minutes of energetic activity. 

Children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 should accumulate at least 60 minutes of intensive physical activity daily with an extra activity that strengthens bones and muscles three times per week. 

According to Hesketh, physical activity is “a cornerstone to health, wellbeing and achievement”.

By being active, children and young people have not only better physical and mental health, but they also reach better concentration and academic achievement.

“We also know that those who are active when they are younger are more likely to be active as adults – with all those benefits of physical activity flowing through to adulthood.

“If we don’t improve we will see our next generation becoming less healthy adults, putting more of a strain on our already stretched health system." 

The 2022 Report Card was created by 10 academics and grades factors that support children's physical activity.

Some factors such as Community and Environment, which takes into consideration the children’s’ access to parks, playgrounds and sports grounds in their neighbourhood scored the highest with A- , as well as Organised Sport which scored a B-.

"A number of states have invested in initiatives that provide financial support for children to engage in organised sport, but organised sport alone is not enough to increase physical activity levels," said Hesketh.

At the opposite end, the government scored a C-, schools scored a C+ and the worst grade went to screen time with a D-.

According to Hesketh, some schools do not provide enough time for children to exercise.

“NSW and Vic show that less than 1/3 of schools are implementing the respective state-mandated time in planned physical activity at school, national data showing less than 2/3 of secondary school students have access to a specialist PE teacher.

“We are also unlikely to see Australia improve its slide down the league tables for educational achievement without putting some focus on how we can incorporate more movement into the school day to help with attention and concentration,” she said.

Hesketh is pushing for a National Physical Activity Plan.

"The lack of improvement in nearly a decade tells us that what we are doing is not working and this needs to change.

“Given we know overall physical activity declined during the pandemic, particularly in states that experienced lockdown,

"We can’t expect these levels will miraculously increase without a major ‘reboot’ and rethink on how we are doing things,” added Hesketh.

The study analysed data collected between 2016 and 2020 from the longitudinal, population-based Healthy Brain Project from the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health incorporating 4656 participants aged between 40 and 70 years without dementia.

The study found that higher neighbourhood-level socio-economic status (n-SES) was associated with superior memory and lower dementia risk scores.

With dementia the second leading cause of death among Australians and up to 40 per cent of dementia cases potentially preventable, the study identifies that more research, resource and efforts are needed for the lower n-SES to have a preventive impact.

Dementia Australia says the term dementia is used to describe the symptoms of a large group of illnesses that cause a progressive decline in a person’s functioning. Dementia can happen to anybody but is more common after the age of 65 and there is no cure.

“With dementia predicted to cost Australia more than $18.7 billion in 2025, it is important that everyone has the same opportunity to take ownership of their health,” lead author Associate Professor Matthew Pase said.