Our Story So Far

The Central Australia Academic Health Science Centre (CAAHSC) was formally established in 2014 to promote collaboration between Aboriginal community controlled and government-run health services, universities and medical research institutes working to improve health outcomes for people living in central Australia.

 

In 2017:

The Central Australia Academic Health Science Centre was recognised as a Centre for Innovation in Regional Health (CIRH) by Australia’s peak funding body for medical research, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

At the same time, the Centre was awarded $222,000 in seed funding from the Medical Research Future Fund’s Rapid Applied Research Translation program. This funding contributed to funding the establishment of CA AHSN as well as small projects led by the Baker Institute and Central Australian Aboriginal Congress.

 

In 2018:

The Centre formally changed its name to Researcherenye Wappayalawangka-Central Australia Academic Health Science Network (CA AHSN), a name which reflects our place in central Australia and better describes our operational structure as a network.

Also in 2018 the Turnbull government announced that the network would receive $6.1 million funding over three years (2018-2021) from the Medical Research Future Fund, to support research and translation activities to promote better treatment and diagnosis of health challenges experienced by Indigenous Australians.

In May, following planning and application processes, the Governing Council of CAAHSN accepted 11 project proposals to be funded through MRFF funds. In late 2018 the first tranche of funding was approved by the MRFF to part-fund these projects.

 

In 2019:

In early 2019, three new members were welcomed into the Network: Anyinginyi Health Aboriginal Corporation, Tangentyere Council and Western Desert Dialysis (Purple House).

A second round of 9 funding proposals, led by community partners, was accepted by the Network’s Governing Council in April 2019.

 

The aim of the Centre for Innovation in Regional Health initiative is “to encourage leadership in health research and translation of direct relevance and benefit to regional and remote areas of Australia.”

To achieve recognition as a CIRH, our Centre was assessed as demonstrating competiveness at the highest international levels across all relevant areas of health care, with specific evaluation criteria including:

  1. Outstanding leadership in research- and evidence-based clinical care that enhances the quality of health care in regional and remote Australia
  2. Excellence in innovative biomedical, clinical, public health and/or health services research that addresses the challenges and opportunities of health care provision in regional and remote Australia
  3. Programs and activities to accelerate translation of research findings into health care and ways of bringing health care problems to the researchers
  4. Research-infused education and training
  5. Health professional leaders who ensure that research knowledge is translated into policies and practices locally, nationally and internationally
  6. Strong collaboration amongst the research, translation, patient care and education programs.

 

In 2024:

In 2024, CAAHSN became a registered Health Promotion Charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). For more information, please refer to our profile here.