Universities
Western Australia is home to world-class universities with strengths in health and medical research. These institutions excel in fields such as cancer research, cardiovascular health, neuroscience, public health, mental health, and chronic disease management. They feature innovative facilities that advance personalized medicine, disease modelling, and synthetic therapeutics.
The universities also contribute to biomedical research, biotechnology, infectious diseases and immunology. Research efforts have a strong emphasis on translational research that directly benefits community health. This collaborative and well-supported ecosystem drives innovation and positions Western Australia as a leader in medical research and healthcare advancements.
Curtin University is recognised for its vibrant research culture within the Faculty of Health Sciences, focusing on practical solutions to health challenges globally. Its research spans cross-disciplinary collaborations, with notable projects like deep freeze techniques to combat global warming and a focus on public health innovation.
Collaboration for Evidence, Research and Impact in Public Health
The Collaboration for Evidence, Research and Impact in Public Health (CERIPH) is located in the Curtin School of Population Health, in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia.
Recognising the complexity of health and its determinants, the collaboration generates evidence to support action across educational, organisational, socio-economic, environmental and political domains to improve population health.
Curtin Autism Research Group
The Curtin Autism Research Group (CARG) is a multi-disciplinary team of people on the autism spectrum, researchers, students, and volunteers from Curtin University, with an extensive network of industry and research partners throughout Australia and internationally. This also includes many researchers affiliated with the Autism Cooperative Research Centre.
Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute
The Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute (CHIRI) is a university-owned medical research centre of excellence that hosts medical researchers from diverse disciplines. Its research investigates causes, prevention and treatment of vascular, respiratory and metabolic diseases; inflammatory disorders including injury and wounds; brain degenerative disorders and neurological conditions such as pain; and in poor prognostic cancers.
enAble Institute
The Curtin enAble Institute is a collaborative venture at Curtin University focused on conducting research that addresses the physical and mental health needs of people across their entire lifespan. Using a holistic approach—from maternity to palliative care—and considering the whole person (body, mind, and place), the institute aims to help individuals stay well, remain in their communities, and lead personally meaningful lives.
National Drug Research Institute
The National Drug Research Institute (NDRI) is one of the largest centres of alcohol and other drug research expertise in Australia. NDRI is based at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia.
NDRI is supported by core funding from the Australian Government under the Drug and Alcohol Program and also receives significant funding from Curtin University.
WHO Collaborating Centre for Climate Change and Health Impact Assessment
The centre seeks to address climate change as a major human health risk and to empower scientific-oriented decision-making for sustainable transitions. Its mission is to build capacity at the country and regional levels to assess the future and monitor the current impacts of climate change on human health by integrating research excellence, learning opportunities and policy partnerships.
Edith Cowan University's (ECU) School of Medical and Health Sciences has over 100 researchers, addressing real-world problems with a direct impact on individual and community health. The university is also known for its partnerships with elite sporting organisations and health service providers, contributing to significant advancements in exercise and sports science research.
Centre for People, Place and Planet
The Centre for People, Place and Planet is an ECU Strategic Research Centre) established in January 2021. Its vision is to reconnect people, ecosystems, and place-based knowledges for universal well-being. Through transdisciplinary research using participatory methodologies, the centre addresses the challenges posed by global environmental change.
Centre for Precision Health
The Centre for Precision Health is an ECU Strategic Research Centre that brings together a multidisciplinary group of researchers. Their expertise spans Genomics, Glycomics, and Proteomics. The Centre’s research focuses on applying a precision health model to key health priorities, including Cancer, Neurological conditions, and Chronic and metabolic conditions. By developing tailored interventions that predict disease risk, progression rate, and treatment response, the Centre aims to improve patient outcomes and quality of life.
Exercise Medicine Research Institute
The Exercise Medicine Research Institute is an ECU Strategic Research Centre that pioneers prescribing exercise to manage chronic disease. Through world-leading research, they create knowledge that shifts existing paradigms of medical care, ultimately improving patient outcomes. Their focus includes clinical management of patients with cancer and neurological disorders.
Nutrition and Health Innovation Research Institute
The Nutrition and Health Innovation Research Institute (NHIRI), located within Edith Cowan University’s School of Medical and Health Sciences, comprises a team of world-leading, multi-disciplinary researchers. Their common purpose is to discover and share real-world solutions that enhance health and improve quality of life. NHIRI focuses on reducing the burden of cardiometabolic, neurodegenerative, and musculoskeletal diseases, aiming to promote overall health and enable healthy aging.
Murdoch University's School of Medical, Molecular and Forensic Sciences aims to improve human and animal health, food quality, and forensic investigation. With a strong emphasis on multidisciplinary research, Murdoch University collaborates with various institutions to address antimicrobial resistance, infectious diseases, and innovative forensic approaches.
Health Futures Institute
The Health Futures Institute at Murdoch University is dedicated to understanding health trajectories, from the genome to the biome. This interdisciplinary institute breaks down traditional silos to deliver revolutionary research that aims to transform how long and how well people live, not just in Australia but around the world.
Ngangk Yira Institute for Change
The Ngangk Yira Institute for Change, based at Murdoch University, is dedicated to transformative and collaborative research that benefits Aboriginal people and communities. It emphasizes self-determination and aims to leave a lasting legacy. The institute works closely with the Western Australian government, providing expertise to projects ensuring culturally safe maternity care for Aboriginal families. Its research is guided by partnerships between Elders, community stakeholders, and both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal researchers, focusing on complex issues in Aboriginal health and social equity.
The University of Notre Dame Australia's Institute for Health Research offers expertise in complex health research design and analysis, with a focus on improving community health and wellbeing through collaborative studies and post-graduate student involvement.
Nulungu Research Institute
Located in Broome, Western Australia, Nulungu provides an Indigenous research and academic focus for the Notre Dame University – including the Notre Dame Fremantle and Sydney Campuses – and operates at local, regional, national, and international levels. Nulungu encourages the pursuit of excellence in research through valuing community-based Indigenous knowledge.
Institute for Health Research
The Institute for Health Research (IHR), based on the Fremantle Campus in Perth Western Australia, is one of three research institutes established by The University of Notre Dame Australia to provide leadership in collaborative research initiatives.
The IHR provides expertise in the design and analysis of complex health research with university researchers and those in the wider healthcare system. Through supervision of post-graduate research students and involvement in collaborative studies with other academic and clinical researchers, the IHR has a vibrant research focus with strong industry links that seeks to improve the health and wellbeing of the community.
Home2Health
Home2Health, hosted by the University of Notre Dame, is a multi-disciplinary research team committed to reducing health inequalities among people experiencing homelessness. Their work spans public health, economics, criminology, biostatistics, and clinical health expertise. Collaborating closely with health and homelessness services, as well as individuals with lived experiences of homelessness, Home2Health conducts research, evaluation, and evidence-informed advocacy policy work. Their focus extends from Western Australia to national and international contexts, addressing critical issues related to homelessness and health disparities.
The University of Western Australia's Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences is at the forefront of medical research, addressing health priorities with a focus on translating discoveries into clinical practice. Interdisciplinary collaboration is central to their research success, covering areas such as cancer control, cardiovascular health, and Indigenous health.
Centre for Clinical Research in Neuropsychiatry
The Centre for Clinical Research in Neuropsychiatry (CCRN) is an academic centre of excellence for multidisciplinary research into psychiatry and the neurosciences. The major focus of research is on psychotic disorders and their goal is to unlock the complexity of schizophrenia and related disorders by listening to experience, challenging existing ideas, and exploring new approaches to assessment and treatment.
Centre for Evolutionary Biology
The Centre for Evolutionary Biology at The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a Centre of Excellence dedicated to research and research training. Their multidisciplinary approach explores selective processes that impact the morphological and life-history traits of entire organisms and their gametes. The centre’s expertise spans various areas, including acoustic signalling, predator-prey interactions, visual ecology, sperm competition, chemical ecology, and genetic mapping of complex traits.
Centre for the Built Environment and Health
The Centre for the Built Environment and Health (CBEH) at The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a collaborative hub within the School of Population Health. Its mission is to explore the intricate relationship between urban design and public health. The centre collaborates with various schools and centres both within and outside of UWA, fostering interdisciplinary research and knowledge exchange.
Marshall Centre
The Marshall Centre is a world-class research centre at The University of Western Australia. Founded in 2007 to celebrate the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to Professor Barry Marshall and Emeritus Professor Robin Warren, the center focuses on infectious diseases research. Their mission includes conducting world-class medical research for the prevention of infectious diseases.
Poche Centre for Indigenous Health
The Poche Centre for Indigenous Health at the University of Western Australia brings together the university’s expertise, programs and resources in a strong collaborative partnership focused on a central theme for Aboriginal people and communities - Healthy Minds, Healthy Lives.
The centre aims to drive a transformative intergenerational Aboriginal health research agenda, which delivers tangible, measurable health outcomes and services directly to Aboriginal people and communities.
Population Health Research Network
The Population Health Research Network (PHRN) is a national collaboration that enables existing data from around Australia to be brought together and made available for important research. The PHRN was established in 2009 and implemented through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy framework, an initiative of the Australian Government. State and territory governments and academic institutions have made significant cash and in-kind contributions to PHRN activities.
The Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention
The Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention (CBPATSISP) was established in 2017 to develop and share evidence about effective suicide prevention approaches for Indigenous people and communities.
Building on the foundation of the earlier Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project (ATSISPEP), the CBPATSISP influences Indigenous suicide prevention policy, practice, and research by promoting access to evidence and resources and through advocacy.
The National Centre for Asbestos-Related Diseases
The National Centre for Asbestos-Related Diseases (NCARD), NCARD is part of the University of Western Australia (UWA) and Institute for Respiratory Health (IRH). It is located at the University of Western Australia, is a national cooperative research centre with a strategic focus on asbestos-related diseases and cancers. Their mission is to enable the best scientists, clinicians, and researchers to work together in preventing, monitoring, treating, and ultimately curing asbestos cancers.
WA Centre for Health and Ageing
The WA Centre for Health and Ageing (WACHA) is a leading education and clinical studies centre that has redefined ageing research in Western Australia. Launched in 2000 with the goal of improving the health of people in midlife and beyond, WACHA brings together experts, researchers, clinicians, and students, empowering them to identify and solve the most critical challenges in health research.
WA Centre for Rural Health
The WA Centre for Rural Health (WACRH) at The University of Western Australia is one of 19 Commonwealth-funded University Departments of Rural Health (UDRH) in Australia.
WACRH aims to improve rural, remote, and Aboriginal health through education, student placement support, research and community service activities, as well as to facilitate quality allied health, nursing and pharmacy clinical placements for students from all Australian universities.