2023 enAble Institute Award Winners
Thursday 16 November 2023
The enAble Institute recently hosted its annual Awards event which recognises the exceptional contributions of our research community.
These awards highlight excellence across six areas, including contributions to the enAble community, consumer and community involvement in research, research excellence, health and social impact, and mentoring/support for early career researchers.
Congratulations to all of our winners:
Consumer and Community Involvement in Research Award:
Associate Professor Sarah Egan: Worry and rumination as a trandiagnostic target in young people.
This research was co-produced with 10 young people 19-29 years old from Kenya, India, Australia and the UK, with young people involved as co-researchers throughout the project.
Dr Amity Campbell on behalf of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child.
The work of centre is based on consumer priorities and is informed by an expert by clinical experience advisory group, and expert by lived experience advisory group (parents of children 0-8 years old growing up in a digital world). These groups have informed project priorities and shaped the research questions and design of these projects.
Early Career Researcher Award: Dr David Preece
David leads the Perth Emotion & Psychopathology Lab within the Institute and is the ECR representative on the joint CHIRI-enable EMCR committee. He has an impressive publication track record for his career stage- with the quality of his work acknowledged via the 2022 Australian Psychological Society Early Career Research Award, the 2022 Australian Association for Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy Early Career Award, and being one of four finalists in the 2023 WA Premier’s Science Awards for Early Career Scientist of the Year.
Mid Career Researcher Award: Associate Professor Elissa Burton
Elissa’s work focuses on supporting older adults to age well. She has an impressive track record in this space, which includes an NHMRC investigator grant and over $6.8M in funding, and a long list of impactful publications. In recognition of her research excellence, she was awarded the prestigious Australia Association of Gerontology Fellowship in 2019 and is the Australian-lead for the International ReAble Network. Her work is highly impactful, and has informed 26 international policies on ageing and reablement. Apart from this, Elissa’s leadership and collaborative ways of working has been integral to the success and growth of the Institute’s ageing and dementia domain.
Research Supervisor and Mentor of the Year Award: Associate Professor Eleanor Quested
Eleanor was nominated for this award by her students and the early career researchers working in her research group. She supervises and mentors undergraduate students, research assistants, and currently supervises 7 PhD students- 5 as primary supervisor. Her mentees have won prizes and have gone on to postdoctoral positions. In her role as co-chair of the Institute’s diversity, inclusion and belonging working group, she routinely advocates for the needs of HDR students and early career researchers,
Spirit of enAble Award: Ms Bridget Clarke
Bridget is key member of Curtin Involve, the consumer and community involvement team at enAble. This award recognises Bridget’s commitment and contribution to growing consumer involvement in the Institute.
Research with Impact Award: Professor Catherine Elliott & the Kids Rehab WA team
Kids Rehab WA Research is a multidisciplinary team of researchers, consumers and other stakeholders and clinicians at Curtin University and the Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH) that has enabled earlier detection of Cerebral Palsy (CP), which has helped babies to be fast-tracked into evidence-based intervention and clinical trials. It has also developed new knowledge for new evidence-based interventions and has translated this knowledge into clinical guidelines, policy and practice at a national and state level.