Media Release

January 28 2009

UniSA secures lead role in population health research for SA

NHMRC underpins population health research at UniSA with $4 million One of the University of South Australia’s newest professorial appointments, John Lynch, has just been awarded a prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council Australia Fellowship.

The Australia Fellowship is the highest level of individual funding awarded by the NHMRC and will provide $4 million over the next five years for the development of an advanced research program in population health.

An internationally recognised scholar, Professor Lynch joined the Population Health Cluster in UniSA’s Division of Health Sciences in 2008.

Pro Vice Chancellor UniSA Division of Health, Professor Robyn McDermott says the Fellowship will help to spearhead significant population health research at the University and in South Australia and build on a developing specialisation in this field.

“In the past 18 months we have recruited some of the top researchers in this field and we are increasing our PhD level research in a range of areas related to population health and developing a multidisciplinary approach to that research,” Prof McDermott said.

“We have excellent networks across state and federal government to ensure that our research is relevant and will have long term benefits for health planning both locally and for populations around the world.”

Prof Lynch says he was drawn to return to Australia after a 20-year research career overseas because of a powerful alignment of factors set to build South Australia’s profile as a unique location for population health research.

“South Australia has the right elements in place to create an incredibly valuable environment for population health research as it moves from being a science of observation to becoming intervention-focused and more powerful in solving health problems across the life course,” Prof Lynch said.

“There is a potentially unique situation in this state with the coming together of highest-level political support (such as the Health in All Policies initiative). There has been tremendous leadership from government agencies in backing population-wide data links and innovative service delivery in health, early life intervention and education, a wide spectrum of local academic expertise across the state’s three universities, and a climate of goodwill and honest collaboration across sectors – it all makes South Australia a very desirable place to lead significant population health research,” he said.

Prof Lynch’s research will build on strong collaborative research-policy partnerships with government agencies such as SA Health to help build better evidence for improving the health of the population in South Australia and nationally.

A particular focus for Prof Lynch is the importance of early life interventions for improved population health.

“One of the key research questions we must answer is how does a good start in life help to ensure better social, emotional, educational, workforce and health outcomes in later life?” he said.

“As research in this field evolves, the opportunity to work in an environment with strong government support and excellent levels of collaboration across health, education, social services, and the research community is rare. We will be focussed on the development and evaluation of effective interventions, and integrating that research evidence into the way services and programs are delivered.”

Professor Lynch believes South Australia will evolve as one of a handful of places in the world where health researchers can work with program and service providers to develop scientifically innovative population health research platforms.

UniSA Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Høj says the announcement of the prestigious and generous NHMRC Australia Fellowship follows a strong growth in NHMRC and NCRIS funding to UniSA for research and new fellowships in health and biomedical sciences.

“I am delighted with the achievement because it reflects what the nation really needs – support for and growth in internationally competitive research concentrations such as this one at UniSA in the important area of health.

“For UniSA it is another sign of growth in our research capacity with our annual research income, now in excess of $50m. It is a credit to Professor Lynch and a significant honour for the University.”

Professor John Lynch, PhD, MPH, MEd, Dr. Med Sci (Hon)
Short Biography

UniSA Professor John Lynch - NHMRC Australia Research Fellow John Lynch is Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health in the Division of Health Sciences at the University of South Australia. He received his PhD in epidemiology from the University of California at Berkeley and has spent 20 years working in North America.

Prior to joining UniSA he was at University of Michigan’s Department of Epidemiology and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McGill University in Montreal.

An internationally recognised scholar in epidemiology and population health, he has wide-ranging research collaborations in Brazil, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Korea, Sweden and the US. He has received research funding from the US National Institutes of Health, Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.

He has served on international and national advisory and review boards including the WHO, European Science Foundation, NIH, Wellcome Trust, the UK Medical Research Council and the NHMRC. His research interests include early life determinants of health, lifecourse processes regulating health and behaviours, population health monitoring and improving the public health research-policy nexus.

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