Three of the five research programs in the School of Dentistry will benefit from a total of $31.6M funding over 7 years for a new Oral Health Cooperative Research Centre. The successful CRC bid was announced by the Federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, the Hon Kim Carr, on August 7th., 2009.
The Cooperative Research Centre will have its major node outside Melbourne based at UQ. The research teams led by Associate Professors Camile Farah and Kim Seow, and Professor Laurie Walsh from the UQ School of Dentistry will work with those led by Professor Eric Reynolds and other staff based at the University of Melbourne and at Monash University, in the discovery and development of new preventive products and treatments for oral diseases including dental caries, periodontitis and oral cancer. These conditions currently cost Australians some $6 billion per annum.
The new CRC incorporates major industry engagements with industry partners from Australia and overseas who will be involved in the development and commercialization of research findings. Major industry collaborators in the new CRC include the Colgate Palmolive Pty Ltd, GC Australasia Dental Pty Ltd, Cadbury Enterprises PTE Ltd, Melbourne, CSL Limited, and Murray Goulburn Cooperative Limited.
Planning for UQ involvement in the successful CRC bid had been underway for several years leading up to a formal submission in March 2009. Collaborations between the research groups had been established in the areas of oral cancer and caries prevention for the past 5 years, with a number of jointly authored publications.