The Murdoch Children's Research Institute welcomes the additional funding commitment from the Victorian Government of $14 million AUD to support its innovative Generation Victoria (GenV) research project.

GenV is one of the world's largest-ever birth and parent cohort studies. The opt-in project will follow babies and their parents to help solve problems like asthma, food allergies, obesity and mental illness; mostly using data that is already routinely collected. Around 100 new jobs will be created in clinical settings across the state over the life of the GenV project.

Murdoch Children's Director Professor Kathryn North said that by 2035, GenV's vision is to have helped create a happier and healthier future for Victorian children and parents.

"This additional funding will help us realise the full potential of the GenV project, enabling our researchers to involve participants from across the state to help solve pressing problems like asthma, food allergies, obesity, and mental illness.

"We know that large whole-of-state research projects such as GenV will speed up answers to the major issues facing children and adults and improve population health outcomes. Given the timing of the launch of GenV, we will also be in a unique position to investigate, understand and mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the next generation of Victorian children.

"We thank the Victorian Government for this additional investment to help us to create a healthier future for all children and their families," she said.

GenV is led by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, is supported by The Royal Children's Hospital and The University of Melbourne and is funded by the Paul Ramsay Foundation (PRF), the Victorian Government and The Royal Children's Hospital Foundation.

GenV is working with partners and collaborators including all 65 birthing hospitals across Victoria.

Other Murdoch Children's partnered projects funded in the state budget include:

  • The expansion of a mental health pilot program to reach 100 primary schools. The program embeds a child mental health and wellbeing coordinator within schools to help identify and manage emerging mental health issues in students and provide connections between education, social and health services.
  • A further 245 million to develop an Australian Institute for Infectious Disease that will be built at Parkville's biomedical precinct to lead the fight against future pandemics
  • A $45 million funding package to boost services and decrease treatment wait times for transgender adolescents and children

About Murdoch Children's

The Murdoch Children's Research Institute is the largest child health research institute in Australia committed to making discoveries and developing treatments to improve child and adolescent health in Australia and around the world. Murdoch Children's pioneers new treatments, trials better vaccines and improves ways of diagnosing and helping sick babies, children and adolescents.