$1.4 million in funding to lead project helping those with spinal cord injuries
A project led by Associate Professor Camila Quel De Oliveira from the School of Health Sciences has been awarded more than $1.4 million through the Medical Research Future Fund’s (MRFF) 2024 MRFF Maternal Health and Healthy Lifestyles grant.
Associate Professor Quel De Oliveira secured $1,432,326 to lead the project, ‘Increasing access to physical activity for people with spinal cord injuries: The Train the Trainer model.’
Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research, Enterprise and Global) Professor Deborah Sweeney welcomed the funding.
“I congratulate Associate Professor Camila Quel De Oliveira and her team for their research excellence and engagement with partners and the community to produce research that will have life changing impacts on some of our most vulnerable,” said Professor Sweeney.
In partnership with Spinal Cord Injuries Australia (SCIA) and consumers, the project will implement and evaluate SCIPACom – an intervention program focused on improving the physical activity levels and overall health of individuals with spinal cord injuries. The aim of the project will be to increase individual access to physical activity by upskilling the exercise workforce in the community to deliver safe exercise at low cost for people with spinal cord injury, that could later be scaled to other physical disabilities.
The research project will also be supported by investigators from institutions across Australia including, Swinburne University of Technology; University of Melbourne; University of New South Wales; University of Sydney; The University of Queensland; University of Technology Sydney and Curtin University.
The 2024 Maternal Health and Healthy Lifestyles grant opportunity will provide funding for research that improves the development of children in the first 2,000 days of life and the health of adolescents and young adults reduces the incidence of cardiometabolic diseases after pregnancy and chronic conditions in Priority Populations.
ENDS
10 April 2025
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