The Centre for Community Child Health (CCCH) at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) has received a $3 million grant from The Ian Potter Foundation to supercharge research impact for children and families across Australia.

The five-year grant forms part of The Foundation’s latest funding round and will help build the Centre’s innovation capacity.

CCCH and MCRI Population Health Theme Director Professor Sharon Goldfeld AM said the funding was a transformative opportunity for the Centre.

“This investment moves us beyond short-term projects only," she said. "This means we can focus on what it really takes to achieve equitable, real-life improvements in children’s health, development and wellbeing within a generation,”

Image: Professor Sharon Goldfeld AM

One in five Australian children start school developmentally vulnerable, often due to preventable social, economic or geographic circumstances. Therefore, CCCH initiatives focus on the earlier years, when rapid child development lays the foundation for lifelong health and wellbeing.

This grant will establish a new CCCH Impact Accelerator to bridge the research-to-impact gap, scale innovation, and strengthen financial sustainability to support long-term change.

The Impact Accelerator will be delivered through four integrated streams of work:

• Strengthening core organisational capability in knowledge translation, policy advocacy, business development and embedding lived experience
• Expanding CCCH’s Education and Learning programs in childhood development, mental health and relational practice
• Growing professional and consultancy offerings
• Building the Centre’s innovation capability to design, test and scale new approaches

“Too often, high-quality evidence struggles to make its way into everyday policy and practice,” Professor Goldfeld said. “This support from The Ian Potter Foundation enables us to embed the capability needed to translate and scale what works, so children and families benefit where it counts – in real-world settings.”

CCCH is a research group of MCRI and a department of The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH). It is recognised nationally and internationally for its leadership in prevention, early intervention and cross-sector collaboration.

The Ian Potter Foundation makes grants nationally to support charitable organisations working to benefit the community across a wide range of sectors and endeavours.

Read more about the Centre for Community Child Health (CCCH) and MCRI’s Population Health research.