Future Leaders
Fostering talented researchers and clinicians to increase Australia's paediatric oncology workforce.
Fostering talented researchers and clinicians to increase Australia's paediatric oncology workforce.
Childhood cancers are unique and often more aggressive than adult cancers; dedicated professionals with specialised knowledge and expertise are critical to improving outcomes for our youngest cancer patients. Unlike adult oncology, few opportunities exist for paediatric clinicians to pursue childhood cancer research in Australia.
The Future Leaders Impact Program aims to support a skilled Australian workforce of paediatric cancer researchers, enabling them to make significant discoveries and apply these in clinical settings to benefit young cancer patients. By creating a sustainable Australian workforce of clinicians and researchers, a critical mass of expertise will develop to tackle the challenges of childhood cancer.
The Children’s Cancer CoLab has already united eight of Victoria’s leading research, clinical and academic institutions working in childhood cancer, facilitating multidisciplinary collaborative research and innovation. With a vision that every child with cancer will survive and thrive, the Children's Cancer CoLab is working towards an Australia-wide and global impact.
This program primarily focuses on postgraduate education positions, in addition to opportunities for early- and mid-career development for clinicians and researchers engaged in emerging themes in childhood cancer research.
Recognising the importance of sustaining progress and fostering collaboration, the Children’s Cancer CoLab will host regular meetings, roundtables, and annual scientific symposiums to build connections among professionals in paediatric oncology and related fields. These events aim to create an engaged community, enabling knowledge exchange and relationship-building that strengthens the network of experts and drives innovative approaches to childhood cancer research and care.
To ensure synergistic outcomes, the Future Leaders Program will underpin all Children’s Cancer CoLab Impact Programs, from translational or clinical research in Next-Generation Therapies and Safer Therapies programs, to patient-centred studies aimed at improving service delivery and quality of care in the Survivorship and Living Well program, as well as the operational know-how to establish research infrastructure with the Innovation Accelerators program.
Children’s Cancer CoLab is guided by scientific rigour across all our Impact Programs, and our comprehensive evaluation framework sets clear objectives to measure the impact of our funding. The potential impact resulting from our Future Leaders Impact Program is:
Attract and retain the brightest minds and enhancing our reputation as a leader in childhood cancer research and care
Our program funding is allocated through a competitive process underpinned by robust expert review. We adopt scientific rigour to evaluate each proposal’s potential for impact and alignment with identified childhood cancer research and care priorities.
