Global Alliance for Chronic Disease (GACD) Funding Success for The George Institute

The George Institute for Global Health has been awarded $3.5 million from the GACD NHMRC Research Grants to tackle diabetes and hypertension.

Each of the four successful projects will build on existing work by The George Institute in the Pacific Islands, Indonesia and China.

Professor Robyn Norton, AO, Principal Director of The George Institute, said the funding success was testament to the Institute’s track record in delivering world-class research. “We had a funding success rate of 100% which is an incredible achievement. Our strengths lie in producing evidence-based research that delivers real impact in the community and that importantly can be scaled up to deliver much greater impact and change.”

The four trials will be led by Professor Bruce Neal, Professor Anushka Patel, Professor David Peiris and Associate Professor Jacqui Webster.

·         Associate Professor Webster and colleagues will lead a five-year collaborative project in the Pacific Islands to examine the best fiscal and regulatory policies to reducing sugar and salt consumption. The team will monitor the process, impact and the cost-effectiveness of a number of strategies designed to tackle the high rates of diabetes and hypertension.

·         Professor Patel and colleagues will scale-up the SMARThealth platform in Malang in Indonesia which has already resulted in improved cardiovascular outcomes in the Malang district in Indonesia. The programme will expand from four villages to 100.

·         Professor Peiris and colleagues will work with the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention to improve diabetes and hypertension care quality by strengthening the government’s essential primary health care services package in three rural regions in China.

·         Professor Neal and colleagues will lead an evaluation of the Resolve to Save Lives program which is seeking to reduce salt consumption globally and protect one billion people. Researchers will conduct an independent evaluation of the sodium reduction program in China, where Resolve will commence activities.

There have been five rounds of funding for GACD - hypertension (2015), diabetes (2016), lung health (2017), mental health (2018) and now the scaling up of hypertension and diabetes (2019)

Professosr Neal, Peiris, Patel and Assoc Professor Webster were all funded as chief investigators in the original 2015 hypertension round and have received funding as CIAs in every round except 2017.

For more information about GACD click here: https://www.gacd.org/