Lotto grant for veterans research
RESEARCH aiming to learn more about the health of New Zealand military veterans is among a wide range of University of Otago medical research projects boosted by $2.6 million in Lottery Grants Board funding.
Otago University was a big winner in the latest round of Lottery healthrelated funding, gaining the largest single share of about $3.5 million which was provided nationally, through 49 overall grants.
This is believed to be the largest Lottery healthrelated annual grant total received by Otago University to support studies aimed at improving the health of
New Zealanders.
The previous largest Otago grants amounted to $2.2 million, in 2012, a university spokesman said.
As well as providing research grants, the overall Otago grants will support buying research equipment, and providing research scholarships.
Researchers from Otago’s three main campuses, in Dun edin, Christchurch and Wellington, received 35 grants overall: 25 translational research grants, five equipment grants, one PhD scholarship and four postdoctoral fellowships.
The research on the health of veterans has been backed by a $102,020 grant, and will be undertaken by Associate Prof David McBride, of the preventive and social medicine department, at the university’s Dunedin School of Medicine.
Prof McBride said it was ‘‘very difficult to get funding for veterans health research’’ and the grant would help ‘‘strengthen support for veterans in the community’’.
The research would focus on identifying factors that promoted good health and wellbeing and were ‘‘risk factors for poor health’’.
The researchers would be looking at post traumatic stress injury and a condition called multisystem illness which had caused longterm problems in Australian and US vets.
‘‘We don’t know here,’’ he said.
The Otago research grants aim to improve health in a host of areas, ranging from sustainable workforce development for rural nurses, helping meet the growing antibiotic crisis through alternative therapeutic
targets, and investigating possible clusters of cancer occurrence.
Other Dunedin research grants went to: Prof Robert Walker, medicine, $22,888; Prof Sarah Hook, pharmacy, $34,960; Dr Fiona DoolanNoble, general practice and rural health, $37,889; Dr Tania Slatter, pathology, $46,000; Prof David Baxter, physiotherapy, $47,578; Prof Michael Eccles, pathology, $51,397; Dr Mary Jane Sneyd, preventive and social medicine, $53,544; Dr Erin Macaulay, pathology, $63,099; Associate Prof Brian Cox, preventive and social medicine, $64,318; Associate Prof Merilyn Hibma, pathology, $76,290; Associate Prof Roslyn Kemp, microbiology and immunology, $76,371; Prof Kurt Krause, biochemistry, $85,346; Dr Sherly Parackal, preventive and social medicine, $87,442; Associate Prof Rajesh Katare, physiology, $88,246; Dr Mele Taumoepeau, psychology, $112,851; Dr Nicholas Fleming, pathology, $119,965.
Lottery Health PhD Scholarship: Ramona Eiholzer, pathology, $118,982; Postdoctoral Fellowships, Dr Megan Leask, biochemistry, $75,000; Dr Antoinette Righarts, preventive and social medicine, $149,618; Dr Joon Kim, physiology, $150,000; Dr Karen Reader, anatomy, $150,000.