A proposal for a SMART Ageing Cooperative Research Centre

Overview of the Stage One proposal

The University of Melbourne has joined a ten-year $133M Cooperative Research Centre Proposal led by Flinders University for a SMART Ageing Cooperative Research Centre. The Stage One proposal was lodged in July with 12 industry/government participants and 9 research participants. Shortlisting of proposal will be announced in September with a final proposal for Stage Two due in November. Outcomes will be announced in March 2018 for funding from July. The proposal requests $40M over ten years from the Federal Government matched with $93M cash and in-kind from participants across Australia.

The Australian Government has supported the Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Programme for 25 years to encourage industry-led collaboration. The Smart Ageing proposal aims to deliver community and aged care sector transformation through two integrated research streams—Ageing in Place and Ageing with Care.

The Ageing in Place program includes 1] achieving personal wellness at home, 2] community connections, 3] adverse event prevention and 4] smart-ageing precinct design. The Ageing with Care program includes 1] ageing health trajectories, 2] smart chronic disease management, 3] MyCareApp consumer portal and 4] transforming health business models.

Three University of Melbourne faculties (Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences (MDHS); Melbourne School of Engineering (MSE) and Architecture Building and Planning (ABP)) have committed to fund the proposal for ten years in partnership with Chancellery. We anticipate others will wish to participate including new partners from industry.

If you have questions or would like further information please contact Professor Andrea Maier from MDHS, Dr Jennifer Waycott from MSE, A/Professor Clare Newton from ABP or the RICs Major Initiatives team. Contact details are below.

Andrea Maier andrea.maier@mh.org.au;

Clare Newton c.newton@unimelb.edu.au;

Jenny Waycott jwaycott@unimelb.edu.au;

Michelle Kendall ric-majorinitiatives@unimelb.edu.au

[Source: Associate Professor Clare Newton, Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne]