A comprehensive, experiential Technology Transfer Workshop will be delivered by local, national and international academic and industry experts, 20 – 24 November 2017 at Flinders Tonsley.

Flinders University are pleased to offer this FREE intensive workshop to selected participants to explore investment in, or commercial opportunities for, your research. We will then guide you in formulating a presentation for potential investors. Researchers at all career stages, including late-stage PhD students are encouraged to apply.

Are you passionate about making a difference with your research? Do you want to gain real business skills, professional networks and the confidence to give you a professional edge? Have you got an innovative program or product idea that needs some fine tuning to bring it to life? This workshop may be for you…

The five-day intensive program will focus on how to:

• articulate the business potential in their research
• choose a business model and identify funding alternatives
• build a business case for one of their current research projects
• map out their own commercialisation path from ‘concept’ to ‘commodity’
• formulate a persuasive business presentation for potential investors
• understand the patenting and licencing process

This practical intensive course will teach you everything you need to know about commercialisation by:

• Demystifying the commercialisation process;
• Exploring new investment markets;
• Presenting practical and interactive sessions on legal, IP, business model development, market identification, presentation skills and networking;
• Honing your skills using real time practical exercises relevant to your project;
• Providing you access through interactive mentoring sessions with business coaches, industry leaders and innovation mentors.

The workshop will focus on the background work required to build a strong business case. This includes developing a network, understanding intellectual property law, sourcing practical support, and choosing the funding option that is aligned with the prospects of the research.

Applications close 6 November 2017.

More information and applications can be accessed via the Workshop webpage.

This is a call out for expressions of interest from potential mentees and mentors to participate in the Flinders University Researcher Mentoring Scheme, February – December 2018. EOIs are due Monday 27 November 2017. This initiative is a strategy to support our researchers who are early-career and those transitioning to mid-career status, defined as one to ten years post PhD conferral. Each mentee is assisted in developing and maintaining a one-on-one mentoring partnership with a mentor, who is a senior Flinders academic and matched based on a mentee’s requirements.

The Flinders Scheme has positively impacted on ECRs’ well-being and research profile, including grant income, publications and engagement. Mentees have reported that the scheme has enhanced their ability to plan their research career, set goals, lead, manage and collaborate.

My mentor’s research area is very niche and she has built an international reputation in the area – so I have some great insights into strategy to get research noticed, build capacity, and identify strategic opportunities to take advantage of.  

I got some great mentoring on strategic networking both within and outside the university, which I had no idea about. I think the best part is having someone to talk to about whatever is going on… someone who can be objective.  

Scheme coordinator, Dr Marina Delpin, is available to discuss any questions that you may have about the mentoring scheme and can be contacted on 8201 3873 or marina.delpin@flinders.edu.au.

The eligibility criteria and application documents to participate as a mentee or mentor are available via RePortal, which can be accessed by Flinders staff via the Okta login page, or directly from Marina.

Education institutions worldwide are undergoing swift transformation under the influence of neoliberalism. These moves constitute a retreat from social justice, as equity agendas are being subsumed by discourses of excellence and entrepreneurism. This presents as socially and politically benign, yet the transformations we are witnessing within and beyond sites of education are neither neutral, nor benign, but give rise to raced consequences, among others. This has implications for how teaching for social justice plays out in schools and universities.

 

My work with pre-service Australian teachers and higher degree research candidates leads them to examine local and global relations of race, class and gender, and how these dynamics work through schools, teachers and of modes knowledge production. My research centres on the entwined phenomena of ‘race’ and whiteness, and asks how racism in its complex contemporary forms might be transformed through education. Racism in this sense operates at multiple sites, via sophisticated means. Areas I specifically pursue, include the contemporary phenomena of super-wealth, voluntourism, remote Indigenous Education, and ethical internationalism of higher education.

To read a recent publication that explores questions of race and whiteness, please see my paper published in the Journal Race, Ethnicity and Education.

 

Dr Sam Schultz

Dr Sam Schulz is a lecturer in the sociology of education, coordinator of the Graduate Diploma in Research Methods, former teacher in South Australia’s Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, and editor of the Journal Critical Race and Whiteness Studies. Sam's core teaching comprises qualitative research methodologies and critical approaches to education. Her research includes; race and whiteness studies, super-wealth, ethical internationalism of higher education, and teaching for social justice. As a core body of work, Sam has explored cultural reproductions of race using white governmentality as a conceptual lens, and is extending this work to explore intersections between neoliberalism, education, and the global phenomena of voluntourism and tertiary mobility encounters.

T: 8210 5459
E: samantha.schulz@flinders.edu.au
Campus: Bedford Park
College: Education, Psychology and Social Work
Role: Lecturer, Sociology of Education

 

This is a new feature for Inspiring Research where we profile Flinders’ Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in our ECR Spotlight. This initiative will appear regularly and aims to connect our research community and strengthen research communications within the University. You will get insight into who our ECRs are and how their research and achievements are making a difference.

The featured ECRs welcome dialogue, debate, and conversation and we hope that it may shape future intra-, inter- and/or trans-disciplinary collaboration with Flinders’ colleagues. Please feel free to comment on their spotlight, and/or contact them directly. Also, you can contact the ECR Spotlight coordinator, Dr Marina Delpin, with your queries and comments.

The Stronger Systems for Health Security call for research has been developed under the Australian Government's Health Security Initiative for the Indo-Pacific region. The program will be managed by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security.

Under this new research program, up to $16 million will be invested over three years, commencing 2017-18. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) invites proposals from eligible applicants for proposals to a maximum value of $3 million over a maximum of three years.

DFAT invites proposals from eligible applicants for health policy and / or systems research in relation to health security. The call will close at 5 pm AEDT 6 December 2017. The objectives of this call for research are:

• To support high quality and collaborative health systems and / or policy research that contributes evidence to strengthen regional health security, in particular in Southeast Asia and the Pacific;
• To promote translation of that research into health policy and / or practice in the region;
• To increase the capacity and expertise of research institutions in the region in health systems and / or policy research related to health security; and
• To contribute to the growth of Australian researchers' experience of, and expertise in, health security issues in the region, for the benefit of Australia and the region.

DFAT has established an arrangement with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to manage an application and assessment process that will enable applicants to apply for funding. Applications must be submitted through NHMRC's Research Grants Management System (RGMS). Supporting documentation including NHMRC Advice and Instructions 2017, NHMRC Funding Rules 2017, and Guide to Peer Review 2017 are available on the NHMRC website.

If you have any queries regarding this opportunity, please contact Research Development and Support on nhmrc@flinders.edu.au.

Research into identifying muscle activity that can stabilise breathing by Laura Gell, Medical Device Research Institute, and Katherine Morel's, Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer, research into protecting healthy tissue from radiotherapy has ensured that both have been named as 2017 Fresh Scientists from South Australia. Fresh Science is a national competition helping early-career researchers find, and then share, their stories of discovery. The program takes up-and-coming researchers with no media experience and turns them into spokespeople for science, giving them a taste of life in the limelight, with a day of media training and then the opportunity to showcase these new skills to school kids and the general public via two events.

About 200 SA school students will be invited to a free, one-hour forum at the South Australian Museum on 8 November to hear from the Fresh Scientists. Pub night will be held at the Lion Hotel in North Adelaide on 8 November. A crowd of around 90 science enthusiasts will be able to enjoy a beer and hear the 2017 Fresh Scientists reveal their discoveries, presenting their work in the time it takes a sparkler to burn down. Tickets are free, but bookings are essential – get yours here.

Over a million Australians suffer from sleep apnoea, repeatedly stopping breathing during sleep. Laura has found that by studying breathing effort and muscle activity around airway collapse and reopening, there is evidence of key changes in upper airway muscle activity that is considered to be important in stabilising breathing. "Understanding these mechanisms is vital in creating new, desperately needed treatment options for Obstructive Sleep Apnoea," said Laura.

Katherine is working on ways to limit the radiation-induced damage to near-by healthy tissues, which can result in significant side effects, for patients undergoing radiotherapy cancer treatment. "My work shows that a naturally occurring compound can protect healthy tissues from radiation-induced damage, while at the same time, doubling the cancer killing ability of radiotherapy," said Katherine.

Past Flinders scientists who have been selected include Dr Mona Awadalla and Stephanie Shepheard in 2016, and Dr Justin Chalker in 2015.

The Royal Society and the National Research Foundation Singapore (NSF) have established a Post-doctoral International Collaborative Fellowship for Commonwealth citizens. Up to ten Post-doctoral Fellowships will be awarded up to S$250,000 for salary support from one to three years to do research in either Oceans or Sustainable Cities at a Singapore institution.

Find out more about the Fellowship and how to apply here. Read more about potential supervisors and projects for Oceans and potential supervisors for Sustainable cities at the links. Applications close at the NSF on 30 November 2017 with the RDS closing date of 16 November 2017.

Are you ready for the future of healthcare in Australia? Do you have an innovative idea for an inter- and/or multidisciplinary solution? The InnoHealth Australia initiative 2017-2019, from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany) and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, is looking for innovative proposals and solutions for the challenges of the Australian and German healthcare sectors. Australian researchers, postdocs and entrepreneurs are invited to apply to attend a 2-day InnovationPlatform in Melbourne, and/or a 1-week InnovationTour through Germany visiting top research institutions and SMEs in the healthcare sector.

Up to 30 experienced researchers will be selected for the InnovationTour, in November 2018 and the InnovationPlatform, which will be held in Melbourne during April 2018. The Australian Call for Ideas & Innovation entry deadline is 28 February 2018. The Application form which covers both is available here Call for Ideas & Innovation Australia | Application form (interactive) - or can be downloaded from the InnoHealth Australia 2017-2019 website.

The topics ro be considered in this call are: eHealth and integrated care models, precision healthcare/individual health, antibiotic resistance and antimicrobial research, nutrition.

Questions can be directed to the InnoHealth Australia Project Team at Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft on inno-health@fraunhofer.de. Further information is also available in the Call for Ideas & Innovation Australia | Guidelines.

Research Development and Support can also provide advice on this new opportunity.

The ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) is holding an upcoming ‘Galaxy Convention’ with an emphasis on women in STEM. Over two days in December 2017 in Sydney, students will be able to meet STEM graduates from all over Australia who have taken their ideas out of the lab and into the market.

STEM Women Branching Out is sponsoring the flight tickets and registration fee for two student members of their group to attend this event and they are seeking expressions of interest from undergraduate and postgraduate students for the sponsorship. If you have a student that might benefit from this opportunity, forward this opportunity to them. Selection will be based on first come-first served rule as they only have a limited time; E-mail them at stemwomen@flinders.edu.au

More details on the convention are available at Galaxy Convention.

Spaces are limited and registration online is required asap if intending to attend.

Closing date for student applications: 31 October 2017.

The STEM Women Branching Out is a group is for women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) at Flinders University. It aims to:

• Support the choice of studying STEM through role model workshops and networking opportunities.
• Provide a greater awareness of what STEM study and work involves, and improve self-confidence.
• Provide Leadership skills to help researchers, staff, and students in the STEM area continue and succeed in STEM related careers through programs like Thinkers in Residence.

More information on STEM Women Branching Out can be found at their Flinders webpages.

The Clunies Ross Awards have a proud 25-year tradition of recognising Australia’s commercialisation and innovation heroes who apply technology for the benefit of Australia.

The Awards provide a great opportunity for Flinders University to showcase, and be recognised for, its research-industry engagement and commercialisation impact. These Awards provide high impact value towards the ARC’s new impact and engagement evaluation metrics being introduced in 2018.

In 2018 the Clunies Ross Awards will be awarded in three categories, with a single winner in each category:

• Entrepreneur of the Year award
• Knowledge Commercialisation award
• Innovation award

For more information the Clunies Ross Award Online Nomination Portal Information and Nomination Guidelines are available at www.atse.org.au/cluniesrossawards Any additional queries please contact the Clunies Ross Awards coordinator via email Clunies.ross@atse.org.au.

Dr Brodie Beales, Research Development and Support, can provide assistance in preparing the award application.

Nominations close by 2.00pm AEDT Friday 27 October 2017.

 

The ARC is calling out for grant assessors and is encouraging every active researcher to become involved. "The process provides unequalled opportunity to strengthen your own future ARC proposals by exposing you to grant writing examples, and providing an in-depth understanding of the ARC peer review process." ¹

The ARC states that "as an assessor, you will have the chance to familiarise yourself with new cutting edge research, in confidence, within your field of expertise. You will have the opportunity to see the breadth and depth of what the best researchers in the country are working on and become familiar with their research agendas and scholarly priorities… Being an ARC assessor furthers your professional development, while providing an invaluable contribution to Australian research and innovation." ¹

Further information is available at the ARC website and applications are being accepted now.

TEDxAdelaide 2017 brings together a stellar line-up as the event zooms out and showcases the power of Adelaide’s big ideas on the famous red dot. One of those big ideas is from Flinders Master in Archaeology and Heritage Management student Jacinta Koolmatrie.

Jacinta will be exploring Indigenous knowledge systems and why they are not just something that is specific for Indigenous communities, but rather the world. “Doing this means a lot to me because TEDxAdelaide has a global platform and Indigenous knowledge has always been viewed as something solely for Indigenous people. I want to show people that our stories aren't simply stories,” said Jacinta.

Her research at Flinders has focused on yura malka (rock-face drawings), working with the Adnyamathanha elders and community to add their perspectives to her research. Jacinta is an Adnyamathanha and Ngarrindjeri person, (Adnyamathanha hail from the Flinders Ranges, Ngarrindjeri from The Coorong). Yura malka do more than describe events or places – they are part of a system of complex signs that map a cultural landscape.

As 2016 Ken Wanganeen medallist at Flinders, awarded to the Indigenous student with the highest Grade Point Average in the final two years of their undergraduate degree, and a recent cadetship with the South Australian Museum, this selection as a speaker at TEDxAdelaide 2017 is another feather in the cap of Jacinta’s achievements. The event will be held on Thursday 2 November at Adelaide Town Hall.

Encouraging a different view of the world around us, the ‘Zoom Out’ themed event also welcomes artist Sarah K Reece on what we can learn from a chronic over sharer, surgeon Tarik Sammour reveals solutions for a healthcare system already under pressure and trainer and coach Annie Harvey teaches us to laugh ourselves happy.

“This year we introduce the most diverse set of ideas and their speakers to the TEDxAdelaide stage”, TEDxAdelaide Licencee Robin Freeth said. “This event is for those who care about our future, to help spread ideas and encourage them to grow. It’s also an opportunity to meet others and to share your own ideas for Adelaide and beyond.”

TEDxAdelaide is also excited to introduce ‘The Business Hive’, an interactive breakout space, brought to by their partner BankSA, giving South Australian businesses the opportunity to showcase a unique product or service.

Tickets to TEDxAdelaide 2017 are selling fast. To purchase visit the eventbrite page. For the latest news and information visit tedxadelaide.com.au. For updates visit TEDxAdelaide.com.au or to follow TEDxAdelaide on Twitter at @TEDxAdelaide, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TEDxAdelaide.

Flinders University's Medical Device Partnering Program (MDPP), is inviting interested attendees to the following free networking event:  The Future of Surgery - new developments and innovations. Speaking at the event will be Kathy Connell, Senior Director, New Ventures - Johnson & Johnson Innovation, and Professor Guy Maddern, RP Jepson Professor of Surgery, University of Adelaide and Clinical Director Surgical Services, Central Adelaide Local Health Network.

When:  5.30pm-7pm, Monday 23 October 2017
Where: Level 2, Flinders at Victoria Square, 182 Victoria Square (the old Reserve Bank Building), Adelaide  SA  5000
RSVP:   Register by Thursday 19 October 2017. 

Learn from Kathy Connell as she provides insight into Johnson & Johnson's priorities for partnering, outlining the process involved and sharing examples of successful medical device collaborations. Professor Maddern will provide an insight into the future of surgery - outlining new developments and innovations in surgery. The presentations will be followed by opportunity to network with fellow industry colleagues.

The ACSPRI 2018 Summer Program courses are up on the ACSPRI website ready for researchers to get a head start in 2018. They have an array of qualitative and quantitative courses, including a new Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis course developed in consultation with staff from the National Centre for Longitudinal Data, Department of Social Services.

Early bird registration will be open until November 29, book by this day and get a significant discount if you belong to a member organisation, (which Flinders University is). This discount is very beneficial for full time students.

• Week 1 will be held at the Australian National University from January 15 to 19.
• Week 2 will be held at the University of Melbourne from January 29 to February 2
• Week 3 will be at the University of Melbourne from February 5 to 9.

ACSPRI's courses are small group intensives, with no more than 20 in each class. They are hands on, held in a classroom or computer lab and in the more advanced courses attendees are encouraged to bring their project or research data with them.

For more details about the courses on offer, visit the Summerprogram course page on the ACSPRI website or contact them on 03 8376 6496 or email: info@acspri.org.au for more information.

The Australian Research Council (ARC) have updated their Medical Research Policy to provide a number of clarifications to the policy to better articulate the types of research supported by the ARC. While the ARC does not normally fund laboratory-based studies, clinical studies, treatment and/or prevention of human diseases and/or the maintenance of human health, the ARC may, however, fund related research to address specific Australian Government medical and health research priorities, either solely or in concert with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

The ARC worked closely with the NHMRC to produce a policy that provides greater clarity, and complement the NHMRC eligibility requirements. As a result the ARC will no longer seek further justification from institutions regarding the eligibility of applications that may be perceived to be in an area of ineligible research.

Research Development and Support will work with researchers to check their projects eligibility for ARC grants. If you have any queries, please contact Maya Roberts on maya.roberts@flinders.edu.au or extn 17698. The updated policy can be downloaded in pdf or word document from the link above.

How to reduce the prevalence and severity of drug and alcohol use in Australian communities? On the back of $1.7 million in funding awarded to NCETA, the team based at Flinders University aims to investigate this key question. Additionally, the project aims to enhance the sector’s capacity to undertake research to inform national efforts to address substance use and to enhance knowledge on treatment approaches, including innovative models, for emerging drugs of concern.

The funding, from the Australian Government Drug and Alcohol Program, continues to place Flinders University at the forefront of Australia Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) research.

Director of NCETA, Professor Ann Roche, said that their centre will “use its well established relationships and co-designed research activities to support greater linkages between AOD treatment, mental health services and the Primary Health Networks to develop and disseminate high-quality AOD research… these links will assist the Centre to undertake its program of work and assist Flinders to continue to build its local, national and international profile.”

The Drug and Alcohol Program supports the Australian Government’s continued commitment to building safe and healthy communities by reducing the impact of drug and alcohol use to individuals, families and communities. NCETA was established more than 25 years ago. Details on the Centre’s research impact, research activities and highlights can be accessed at NCETA.