Earlier this year Mater clinicians and health professionals were invited to apply for the Betty McGrath Fellowship scheme. The Fellowship enables practising Mater clinicians or other health professionals to increase their research activity by providing salary support to back-fill their positions.

Congratulations to this year’s successful applicants who have been awarded funding through the Fellowship:

• Dr Jessica Turner from the Mothers’, Babies and Women’s Health program for her research project entitled “Reducing the risk of fetal distress with sildenafil (RIDSTRESS Study).
• Dr Andrew Swayne from the Neurosciences and cognitive health program for his research project entitled “Diagnostics,  therapeutics and modelling in autoimmune encephalitis: from antibody binding to brain network dysfunction.

The Betty McGrath Fellowship Scheme is a joint initiative of Mater Health and Mater Research, funded by Mater Foundation and is designed to support improved evidence-based clinical practice at Mater.

The Fellowship aims to change the research culture within Mater and is designed for health professionals who wish to pursue research activity for a greater proportion of their normal working week.

The Betty McGrath Fellowships were created as an expression of appreciation to Betty McGrath OAM who was a Founding Member of Mater Foundation in the 1980s.

Betty served as a Board Member of Mater Foundation until 2014 by which time she had accumulated 25 years of outstanding service.