The Douglas and Lola Douglas Scholarship in Medical Science

Details

The Douglas and Lola Douglas Scholarship in Medical Science was made possible through a generous bequest made by Lola Rachel Maude Douglas, a philanthropist with a keen interest in medical research. Her main charity was the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney but one of her great wishes was to support young researchers and this bequest enables the Academy to help to fulfil this wish.

The scholarship is offered as a ‘top up’ scholarship to PhD candidates awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Postgraduate Scholarship in one of the areas of Indigenous or primary health care, with preference given by the Academy to the area of Indigenous health research. It is awarded initially for one year (currently $7,000 per annum) with funding available for a maximum of two years. It is awarded on condition that the scholar continues to hold the NHMRC scholarship and is enrolled in a PhD program, and the Academy receives a satisfactory annual report. The scholarship’s purpose is to cover costs of small items of equipment, research materials, travel, or research assistance. The funding may not cover bench fees, managerial, insurance or visa costs or go towards stipends.

Supporting institutes and awardees are required to ensure that any research they undertake that is funded by the Australian Academy of Science adheres to the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of research. Breach of these codes may result in the withdrawal of current and refusal of future funding support. Research involving Indigenous Australians must comply with the Guidelines for Ethical Research in Australian Indigenous Studies.

Awardees

• 2024—J Birrell: Epidemiology and equity of kidney failure in Australasia.
  R Kha: Prevalence, risk factors and impact of visual impairment in Australia
• 2023—A Clarke: Improving dementia care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• 2022—L Holland: To help design a culturally appropriate model of care so that disability, social disadvantages and trauma are no longer criminalised offences.
• 2020—R Jones: To understand the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children admitted to paediatric intensive care units.
  E Papadimos: Understanding the impact of in-utero diabetes exposure on early childhood growth outcomes and cardio-metabolic risk
• 2019—M Hare: Intergenerational metabolic health in Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians – Understanding trends, determinants and outcomes.
• 2018—S Cooray: A co-designed patient-centred model-of-care for gestational diabetes
• 2017—B Middleton: Strategies to reduce the burden of gastroenteritis in Aboriginal children
• 2016—A Pisaniello: The impact of omega-3 fatty acids on the inflammatory mediators of heart disease.
• 2015—G Diplock: Alice Springs Hospital Readmission Prevention Project
• 2014—D Tsai: Improving antibiotic dosing of Piperacillin-Tazobactam, Meropenem, Ceftriaxone and Vancomycin in critically ill Australian Indigenous patients
• 2013—E Grant: Understanding the immune response to infleuenza in the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations
• 2012—K Hare: Study on bacteriology of bronchiectasis in Australian Indigenous children
• 2011—M Bunks: Vitamin D and acute lower respiratory tract infection in Indigenous children
• 2010—A Bowen: Randomised controlled trial of co-trimazole versus intramuscular penicillin for impetigo in Aboriginal children
• 2009—T Kearnes: Beating Scabies and strongyloidiasis in a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory
• 2008—J Hughes: The relationship of obesity, insulin resistance and inflammation in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders with diabetes mellitus and renal impairments
• 2007—N Bar-Zeev: Burden of severe disease due to influenza and other respiratory viruses in Aboriginal children in the Northern territory
• 2006—J Boyle: Polycystic ovary syndrome in Indigenous women
• 2005—K O'Grady: Pneumonia in children territory-wide using radiological endpoints, and the impact of pneumococcal vaccine strategies