Dear colleagues,

I am more committed than ever to the importance of high quality research to enhance our patient care and outcomes. The AH32: A vision for Allied Health 2032 reflects this and challenges us to deliver strategies to build on the sustained research and work of many dedicated health practitioners.

I am pleased to announce a new CAHRLI (Collaborative for Allied Health Research, Learning and Innovation) initiative to establish an Early Career Research Fellowship (ECRF). This fellowship signals the recognition for the need to provide support to our Clinician Researchers as they transition from PhD scholars to Early Career Researchers (ECR).

The intent of the scheme, which is directed towards allied health practitioners up to three years post PhD, is to provide support as they establish themselves as independent, self-directed health researchers, and allow them to become competitive for external ECR schemes.

This new Fellowship fits with other Metro North Allied Health Practitioner initiatives including the pre-RHD scholarship scheme and the RHD Grant scheme. These schemes signal our commitment to a “whole of organisation” approach to building research capacity for our allied health workforce of which I am so proud to represent and support (Matus et al., 2018).

Regards,

Mark

Matus, J., Walker, A., & Mickan, S. (2018). Research capacity building frameworks for allied health professionals – a systematic review, BMC Health Services Research

AH32: A vision for Allied Health 2032