Directors Report

There are times when writing a Director’s report can be a pleasure, and I am pleased to say that this is one of them. This last year has been SASVRC’s best for many in a long while. We now have an unprecedented level of infrastructure support allowing stability among key staff, the lack of which has hitherto bedevilled SASVRC. We have made several new cornerstone appointments (see below), the budget projections are favourable for the next couple of years, and the elevation in the level of enthusiasm around the Centre if palpable.
While SASVRC is steady, research administration at the national level continues (nay, worsens) in the unsteadiness we have come to expect in recent times. As the hero in Thomas Mann’s novel ‘Magic Mountain’ remarks, we are “……getting used to not getting used to it”. While Federal Government increases in funding for research are welcome, the proposed new governance structures of NHMRC and the yet-to-be-felt impact of the Research Quality Framework are likely to bring all sorts of delights to at-the-coal-face scientists trying to make sense of their world. Furthermore, the current climate of administrative compliance taking precedence over the realities of research science is, alas, likely to persist, with its perpetrators blind to detriment to outcomes.
The recent State Government decision that the proposed Royal Children’s Medical Research Institute initiative not be funded in the current round clearly has implications for SASVRC’S immediate administrative future. The decision is linked to the proposed merging of the Royal Children’s Hospital into a new Queensland Children’s Hospital in South Brisbane. It is within the research milieu of that institution that SASVRC presently sees its future. In parallel, SASVRC continues its partnership with the University of Queensland as the Clinical Medical Virology Centre.
During the last year, two further research groups have been incorporated into SASVRC. Dr Kirsten Spann recruited from the National Institutes of Health, USA, has set up the Respiratory Virus Research Unit. Dr Nicholas Davis-Poynter, joined by Dr Helen Farrell, recruited from the Animal Health Trust UK has set up a Herpesvirus Molecular Pathogenesis Research Unit. The respective expertises of these Units will contribute greatly to SASVRC’s drive for excellence in paediatric virology. A further landmark during the last year has been the setting up by Associate Professor Michael Nissen of a Clinical Trials Unit of the Department of Infectious Diseases located within SASVRC.
SASVRC had a moderately successful year in the grant funding arenas, winning NHMRC, Golden Casket and other funding. Congratulations are extended to Dr Ian Mackay of the Queensland Paediatric Infectious Diseases (QPID) Laboratory at SASVRC on taking out the post-doctoral category in the Queensland Premier’s Awards for Health and Medical Research 2006. Congratulations too to Mr David Whiley, also of QPID on receiving the inaugural John Pope SASVRC Scientist Award. And to Oscar Haigh for his 1st class Honours at the University of Queensland for work conducted at SASVRC.
Awards and accolades aside, many of SASVRC’s achievers go unsung; research assistants and technical staff who work beyond the call of duty, and a dedicated administrative team. The Offices of the Director of Corporate Services (RCH & HSD) and the District Manager are seminal to SASVRC’s ongoing success.
We bid fond farewell to Yvonne Woo who has moved on to greener pastures and welcome Claire Straub, Lisa McHugh, Snehal Chandeu, and Dr Rashmi Dixit. We also extend congratulations to Karen-Lee Spillane on her appointment as CEO of the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation, with whom we look forward to continuing to work collaboratively.