MRFF grant to transform preventive child health through GenV

A project led by the to incorporate statewide health data into a national research platform has received significant funding support.

Professor Melissa Wake and her GenV (Generation Victoria) team were awarded a $7 million from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) to test and scale different treatments and early-life interventions in a group of nearly 50,000 children and 75,000 families.

Professor Wake said the funding represented both a significant investment in the long-term health of Australian children and the next step in the GenV journey.

“Until now, Australia has lacked an accessible research tool to help solve common health and wellbeing challenges from asthma to obesity,” she said. “This funding will allow us to track the development of children around the country, understand the impact of their environment and assess the effectiveness of different treatments in the long-term using a new, centralised platform.”

Image: GenV Scientific Director Professor Melissa Wake

Professor Wake said the Intervention Hub platform would enable biological samples such as saliva and breastmilk and data on children’s locality and routine health assessments to start being securely accessed for randomised trials, studies and advanced data modelling.

“We aim to expand GenV’s function as not only a place to collect data, but a way to embed that information into studies and services through a single, secure pipeline,” she said. “The real-world evidence generated by GenV will be transformative with the potential for global impact.”

GenV is supported by the Paul Ramsay Foundation, which has provided $3.5 million in co-funding, the federal and state governments and The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation.

Read more about GenV.