A 50 percent increase of Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students and 23 percent increase in research and consultancy income over the past year has kept Bond University’s Professor Chris Del Mar busy in his role of Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research).
Concluding his term as Dean of Health Sciences and Medicine at the end of last year, Professor Del Mar is now dedicated to the PVCR role in response to the University’s expanding research portfolio.
“Bond University is maintaining a healthily increasing trajectory of research productivity,” Professor Del Mar said.
“The last two years have been very successful, with research and consultancy income increasing by more than 40 percent from 2007 to 2008 and by a further 23 percent in 2009.
“This pleasing growth is a combination of several factors. These include a huge effort by academics in the University to focus on research; the expansion of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine over the past five years; increasing internal research funding by the University to encourage academics; the establishment of several University Research Centres to promote cross-disciplinary collaboration; and an active Office of Research Services to support researchers through the grant application process.
“A significant increase in the number of HDR students is also driving many academics’ research. In 2008 we had 75 HDR students and now we have 158, so the number has more than doubled in two years,” said Professor Del Mar.
Bond University Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Stable acknowledged Professor Chris Del Mar for his outstanding contribution during his term as Dean.
“Professor Del Mar’s leadership of Bond University’s Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine has ensured many successes, which include producing our inaugural medical graduates, developing our Masters of High Performance Science and establishing Bond University’s Doctor of Physiotherapy programs," Professor Stable said.
“Professor Del Mar continues in his position as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) and as an integral member of our academic community.”
A fact sheet on recent research projects and grants received over the past 12 months.
• Professor Paul Glasziou received $4.2million NHMRC Australia Fellowship over five years, to continue his Evidence Based Medicine research in Australia. He joins Bond from Oxford University in July.
• Professor Paul Glasziou has recently received an additional $8.2 million NHMRC for Bond University to work with the University of Sydney collaboratively on research into whether, when, and how to use medical tests.
• Assistant Professor Sonya Marshall and Professor Mieke van Driel received $533,000 Smart State grant for their work into finding a diagnostic tool for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Professor Russ Chess Williams received $433,800 from the NHMRC to continue research into investigating how the bladder signals to the brain “go wrong”.
• Professor Sudhir Kale has received $85,000 from the Victorian Government to investigate gambling in the teenage population.
• Professor Craig Langston is leading a $300,000 ARC Linkage project in the strategic assessment of Building Adaptive reuse opportunities.
• Dr William van Caenegem is involved in an ARC Discovery project with Monash and Melbourne Universities titled “Nothing can be created out of nothing: Workers, their know-how and the employment relationships that support them”.
• Professor Patrick Keyser, with help from the QLD LPITAF funding, is looking at processes to improve the legal services for older Australian carers.
• Professor Angela van Daal is a member of a 17-partner collaboration – Australian Future Forensic Network (AFFIN) – that was successfully granted $4 million from the QLD Smart Futures Funds.
• Professor Chris Del Mar won an NHMRC grant for research into the Avian Flu Pandemic.
• PhD students Elizabeth Scott, Christian Moro, Michael Kakanis and Brookes Folmli received Smart Futures scholarships, each worth $24,000 over three years, to aid their research into health and social issues that impact society as a whole.
• Dr Scott Wearing received a $150,000 Smart Futures Fund Fellowship under a three-year fellowship to undertake research in sports medicine, rehabilitation and injury management. Dr Wearing joins Bond from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow later this year.
• Dr Clarence Tan received a $25,000 Smart Futures Fund Fellowship to continue his research as part of his Entrepreneur-in-Residence fellowship.