Connection and collaboration to progress research outcomes for Adelaide’s north

When NCHRF invests in research and community projects through our grant programs, we know we are investing in the future. Never has that investment been more important than now, as communities everywhere, and particularly in northern Adelaide, are facing complex health challenges.

In the last 27 years, NCHRF has contributed to projects that have resulted in seeding almost $11 million in research funding. We are strongly outcome-focused but we know delivery of real change can take time, and supporting early stage research, and researchers, to deepen their networks and collaborations is a critical contributor to practical outcomes for our communities. 

Why are we reflecting on this? Because serendipity always has a part to play, and it has come to the fore recently, when we realised 28 May is becoming a key date in our calendar. 

2025 - 2026: Research insights deepening in real time

Professor Rafael Perera-Salazar at the Managing Multimorbidity presentation

On 28 May this year, NCHRF hosted an expert round table discussion investigating emerging trends and insights in the management of multimorbidities. Joining us for this event was Professor Rafael Perera-Salazar, Director of Medical Statistics in Primary Care, University of Oxford, who has returned to Adelaide to progress projects and connections made during his visit as the NCHRF 2024 Visiting Professor. 

Together with a group of leaders in medical and health research, educators and senior health agency and council representatives, Professor Perera-Salazar discussed current data and emerging insights on Australian multimorbidities. Increasingly, Australians are presenting with multiple health conditions, yet our system of care is historically designed to treat conditions individually rather than together, lacking the context and insights available regarding how each condition can impact on another and on the overall health of the patient. Health outcomes can be improved when practitioners are able to support the patient holistically, rather than through disconnected care for each condition individually.

Exactly one year earlier, on 28 May 2025, NCHRF hosted a different gathering of researchers. This event reflected on our wider research impact and included a panel of Derek Frewin Early Career Researcher Award recipients with a discussion updating our audience on the progress of their research contributions in areas ranging from treatments for auto-immune and chronic diseases, to brain and gut health and beyond.

In the 12 months between these two events, NCHRF has launched and awarded grants for programs and projects including the School to Scholar program, which aims to inspire high school students from Adelaide’s northern suburbs to seek careers in medicine through interactions with senior medical students in a mentoring environment, grants for community wellbeing projects such as the Chatty Cafe for Walkerville’s senior citizens and a research project which could revolutionise diagnosis and treatment for snake bite.

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