In 2024, IHT expanded our awards to include a new EMCR Awards category for Values based Leadership and introduced a new whole of Institute (open category) Impact Award.
Now in its fifth year, the EMCR Awards were initiated in 2019 by the EMCR Committee to recognise excellence in academic achievement by our students and early-mid career researchers. The awards are also aimed at providing EMCRs the opportunity to cite this Award in their CV as testament to their achievements.
With 21 applications received this year, our IHT executive wish to thank everyone who took the time to apply and congratulate all applicants for your impressive work over the last three years – the calibre of all applicants was extremely high.
Presented by IHT Director Distinguished Deakin Professor Anna Peeters, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation, Alfred Deakin Professor Matthew Clarke, EMCR Award recipients received an award certificate and a $500 prize and the IHT Impact Award winners received an award certificate and a $1000 prize to be allocated for education or research.
Thank you to the 2024 judging panel: Steve Allender, Ana Hutchinson, Lisa Barnett, Elizabeth Holmes-Truscott, Claire Henderson Wilson, Lan Gao, Kathryn Backholer, Edith Holloway, Serene Yoong, Simone McCarthy, Erica Reeve and Navoda Liyana Pathirana.
Introducing our 2024 EMCR Award Winners
Individual Awards
Individual Awards for Research Excellence aims to recognise researchers with an excellent track record in terms of quality and contribution to science. There are three categories for individual awards:
Individual PhD Award
PhD Students – Current students or students’ one-year* post thesis PhD submission for research conducted between 2022-2024.
Jennifer Halliday, ACBRD
Jennifer has published 9 peer-reviewed journal publications: 3 as lead author and 6 as co-author. She has also completed 9 invited presentations (including webinars, lectures, expert panels, and symposia), demonstrating her reputation as an expert in the psychological aspects of diabetes.
Jennifer has been a co-investigator on research income totalling ~$7.09M. She has collaborated with fellow researchers from Deakin (e.g. Schools of Psychology and Nursing, Rural Health, Health Economics), universities (e.g. Melbourne), peak bodies (e.g. Diabetes Victoria, Diabetes Australia, ADEA), and health providers (e.g. Royal Melbourne Hospital, Steno Diabetes Centre Denmark, Behavioral Diabetes Institute USA).
In 2023, Jennifer was honoured with the Deakin University Vice Chancellor’s ‘Rising Star Award’ for People and Impact.
Individual ECR Award
This award is for emerging researchers with less than 5 years* post PhD or other research related employment for research conducted between 2022-2024.
Cindy Needham, GLOBE
As Chief Investigator, Cindy has recently been awarded $765,310 as part of her Medical Research Futures Fund ECR (Incubator) Grant titled: A spatial, systems and solution focused approach to understanding food environment factors that influence dietary risks of Australians living in rural and remote areas.
Cindy has demonstrated strong collaboration in this grant with associate investigators included from across two states and multiple organisations including the University of New England, Tamworth Regional Council, Colac Area Health, Hunter New England Primary Health Network, Colac Otway Shire Council and Charles Sturt University.
She has received extensive media coverage for her work both in print and radio and her publications and longitudinal food environment data are presented on the Australian Food Environment Dashboard and are utilised by local governments to compare food environments across local government areas; and how they have changed over time.
Cindy has published 14 papers with an additional two papers forthcoming that have been accepted for publication in Q1 journals.
Individual MCR Award
Awarded to experienced researchers 5-10 years* post PhD or other research related employment for research conducted between 2022-2024.
Victoria Brown, DHE
As a health economist, Vicki has provided health economic expertise on grants led by others. Since 2022, she has been a Chief Investigator on grants totalling >$4.9M. This includes $2.8M in category 1 grant funding; and >$2.1M in category 2-4 funding.
Since 2022, Vicki have published 31 times, comprising 30 academic papers (5 (17%) first author, 9 (30%) senior author) and one book chapter. The majority (97%) of these academic papers were published in Q1 journals like the International Journal of Obesity and International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity. Since 2022, she has also co-authored 3 reports to government or industry.
She have built strong and successful multi- and interdisciplinary collaborations, both in Australia and internationally. Her work has demonstrated impacts at the local, national and international levels. She has lead a strong collaboration between Deakin Health Economics and the Western Public Health Unit. This work has had an important local impact, with invited presentations to present to the Board, CEO’s of major Victorian hospital services, health promotion officers and the public.
In 2023, Vicki was awarded the Australian Institute of Policy and Science Victorian Young Tall Poppy of Science; and, was part of the team awarded the Deakin University Faculty of Health 2023 Influencing Policy and Practice Award and the Overall Faculty Partnership in Practice Award.
Group Awards
In the Group Awards category, the group could be made up of a combination of EMCRs and Senior Researchers, noting the role of the EMCRs needed to be moderate or extensive.
Impact
This Award recognises the importance of Research Impact to the Institute’s strategy.
Hannah Pitt, DoH
Hannah is one of four CI’s (the only EMCR) on an ARC Discovery Grant: Hannah is a leading qualitative researcher exploring the impact of gambling marketing on children, she leads this work within the Public Health Policy, Engagement and Advocacy stream of Determinants of Health. The broader group involved in this research includes IHT members Professor Samantha Thomas, Dr Simone McCarthy and Grace Arnot, with external collaborators Professor Melanie Randle (University of Wollongong) Emeritus Professor Mike Daube (Curtin University). Dr Pitt was involved in all aspects of the research, including the conceptualisation of the studies, and data collection and analysis, paper writing and dissemination.
This research has attracted significant media attention including newspaper and radio. For example, she was interviewed for an article about the impact of gambling marketing and children for Australian Community Media which was republished across more than 90 regional titles.
This research has significantly contributed to raising community awareness around the impact of gambling marketing, particularly novel strategies such as celebrity and social media influencer endorsements, as well as how young people want to be engaged in responses related to gambling marketing.
Coinciding with a Parliamentary inquiry into online gambling, the team’s submission was the most cited in the final report, which recommended a tobacco style ban of gambling marketing and a public health focus to addressing gambling harm. Based on this submission Dr Pitt, Dr McCarthy and Prof Thomas were invited to provide expert testimony to the inquiry.
Partnerships
This Award recognises the importance that IHT researchers play in the process of initiating, developing, enhancing and managing IHT’s research partnerships.
Carolina Venegas Hargous, GLOBE
As a co-lead early career researcher within a team that includes Professor Kathryn Backholer and Dr. Erica Reeve, Carolina has played a key role in several projects that have been critical to developing our partnership with UNICEF’s East Asia-Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO).
Throughout the projects, the team have maintained close consultation with UNICEF and government departments and worked to co-design the projects to ensure they align with their needs and goals. Regular feedback has been a key aspect of our collaboration, with partners consistently seeking and acting on our advice for critical policy decisions.
The partnership has brought significant benefits to the Institute for Health Transformation, our partners, and the communities we serve. For the Institute, it has brought valuable research funding, and has also elevated GLOBE’s international profile, positioning us as experts in food environment policies for overweight and obesity prevention and trusted leaders in the field. The team has worked closely with UNICEF to help them navigate complex, real-world policy challenges, and have helped them overcome significant barriers to policy development and implementation.
This partnership holds great potential, with significant opportunities to expand its research scope and impact across the East Asia-Pacific region. The work has the potential to drive meaningful change in food environments throughout the region, shaping policies that can support not only local but global efforts to combat overweight and obesity and diet-related chronic diseases.
Values Based Leadership
This award is to recognise EMCR researchers who exemplify behaviour consistent with IHT’s values: Collaborative, Integrity, Equity, Inclusive (also Deakin value), Excellent (also Deakin value) and Dynamic (also Deakin value).
Equal Winners – Renee Fiolet, QPS and Stephanie Bennetts, GLOBE
Renee Fiolet – EQUITY
Renee application demonstrated her deep commitment to promoting equity in health care, focusing on First Nations peoples and women’s rights. Her research prioritises the health of First Nations peoples among whom I have fostered strong relationships with key organisations and individuals. She advocates for a health care system that leverages strengths-based approaches, acknowledges Indigenous knowledges, and listens to these communities. In her teaching, she emphasisse culturally safe care for marginalised populations, and ensures her research is ethically sound, respectful, and centres on the voices of First Nations peoples. This is reflected in the trust and relationships she has built, particularly on Wadawurrung Dja (Country). She was recently nominated for the Human Rights Award in Geelong for my work with the Wadawurrung community.
Stephanie Bennetts – INTEGRITY
Stephanie is currently completing her PhD, titled Mental Healthcare Reform: Systems Thinking Co-design for Restrictive Practice Elimination. Throughout her study, she has demonstrated, integrity through her commitment to ethical principles in the design and implementation of her studies.
Restrictive practices often involve vulnerable populations, and ensuring their voices are heard ethically and respectfully has been a core focus. By integrating co-design as a methodology, she has prioritised genuine, inclusive engagement with patients, families, and mental healthcare staff, ensuring that all participants’ rights and perspectives are respected throughout the process.
She demonstrates transparency in methods by maintaining open communication with all stakeholders, ensuring that they are fully informed about the research process, findings, and any implications for practice.
Stephanie’s work was recently featured in Geelong Advertiser citing that her ‘groundbreaking ‘research is finding alternatives to restrictive mental health care which can be traumatising for patient’.
Introducing our 2024 IHT Impact Award Winners
This Award recognises research with significant impact and is open to all academic levels across the Institute.
Winners – Navoda Liyana Pathirana, Kathryn Backholer and Florentine Martino, GLOBE
The team’s Digital Youth study is the first to comprehensively measure children and young people’s exposure to harmful digital marketing globally. They have pioneered data collection methods to record participants’ digital activities, which is then automatically sent to a cloud for analysis using SCANNER, an AI-enabled system we developed to detects unhealthy advertising. This approach respects the sensitive nature of the data by minimising human involvement and speeds up analysis by over 20 times.
Digital Youth is a unique interdisciplinary collaborative project between the GLOBE and the IISRI at Deakin University. This innovative partnership combines the expertise of public health policy researchers from GLOBE with AI researchers from IISRI in the development and application of a system that facilitates governments to monitor accountability and compliance of existing regulations related to the marketing of harmful products in a low-resource, novel manner.
The methodology is being adopted globally, with collaborations in Chile, Denmark, Canada, and South Asia to develop funding proposals (under review) for studying harmful marketing exposure.
Findings from the pilot study were presented at Parliament House in June 2024 and cited in various government submissions, including the Online Safety Act, an open letter to the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader, endorsed by over 75 individuals, called for action on gambling marketing, along with letters urging state MPs to address digital alcohol marketing.
Internationally, the SCANNER tool is being used to evaluate national online food marketing laws in the UK and Ireland as part of a baseline analysis. A report detailing the system and findings will be submitted to the UK government.
