Diabetics to help design medical research, while PhDs get a funding injection

Posted on 19 Aug 2025

By Nick Place, journalist, Institute of Community Directors Australia

Diabetes research pic for aug20 — The new strategy aims to make real-world change faster for people living with diabetes. Pic: Diabetes Australia

Diabetes Australia has launched an ambitious five-year plan to transform its research strategy, inviting people living with diabetes to co-design $40 million worth of planned research.

“More than two million Australians are living with all types of diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes,” said Diabetes Australia group CEO Justine Cain. “Every five minutes, another person is diagnosed with diabetes.”

The disease is one of the leading causes of kidney failure, blindness, amputations, heart attacks and congenital malformations, she said.

“The scale and impact of the condition demands a bold and future-focused response. We need to drive innovation and accelerate research that really improves lives.”

To that end, Diabetes Australia’s new Research Strategy 2025–30 outlines plans to take a collaborative approach to research funding that increases the direct involvement of people living with diabetes, with funding allocation priority based on feedback and involvement from the diabetes community.

The strategy aims to foster three-way partnerships between academia, industry and people living with diabetes to undertake research with “real world impact”.

“Our goal is for people with diabetes to live longer, healthier and more productive lives enabled by the latest scientific discoveries,” Cain said.

“More than two million Australians are living with all types of diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes. Every five minutes, another person is diagnosed with diabetes.”

Diabetes Australia group CEO Justine Cain

A key component of the strategy is an online platform, the Hub, which will bring together training, engagement tools and potential funding sources. It will be available to local and international partners, to encourage collaboration.

The Hub will include a portal dedicated to ‘lived experience research’, by which people living with diabetes will be invited to participate in and shape research, and learn about breakthroughs and research updates.

“We have listened to the research community, to industry partners and people living with diabetes to design an approach that ensures our significant investment, made possible by the generous support of our donors, achieves maximum impact,” said Diabetes Australia’s director of research, Professor Grant Brinkworth.

The strategy also looks to nurture early- to mid-career researchers to ensure Australia’s pipeline of research talent, by funding PhD scholarships and fellowships, the first of which is being co-funded by Western Sydney University.

Driving that work will be a $1.4 million bequest from the late Sheila Woodcock, which will fund a PhD program named in her honour. Woodcock, from Newcastle, NSW, passed away in 2018, leaving an unexpected $14 million in bequests to be shared between 15 Australian charities.