Grant Program
In line with its mission, Bellberry is running a grant program in 2025 to support participant engagement at scientific meetings.
Conference organisers can apply to Bellberry for funding to create and/or enhance participant-centric programs to enable the participant voice to be represented and heard at their meetings with the ultimate aim of improving the research by embracing participant perspectives. Bellberry encourages conference organisers to be inclusive and innovative in their approach to creating and/or enhancing participant-centric programs.
The competitiveness of an application depends on the extent to which:
• Participants are truly involved in the scientific meeting program.
• Learnings from the participant-centric program will be disseminated to the public and used to improve the quality of research.
Applicants can apply for a minimum amount of $1,000 and up to a maximum of $20,000 (ex GST) for a participant-centric program as part of their scientific meetings.
Further details about the program and the application from can be found here
Applications for 2025 have now closed.
2024 Travel Grant Recipients
Professor James Ward, a Pitjantjatjara and Nukunu man, was named the inaugural winner of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS) Outstanding First Nations Researcher Medal at the Academy’s 2024 annual meeting.
Bellberry was proud to support the Medal by providing a $10,000 travel grant to allow Professor James Ward to undertake travel to support his valuable research.
Professor Ward, Director of The University of Queensland’s Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, has led groundbreaking work that has made a difference to adolescent health outcomes in the areas of sexual health, HIV, alcohol and other drugs through programs, research, community-led interventions and advocacy.
Nathan Higgins was awarded the Bellberry Travel Grant Award at the 2024 Australasian Association of Bioethics & Health Law (AAHBL) conference.
Nathan is a 4th-year PhD candidate at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health at Monash University. His work focuses on the responsible research and innovation of neurotechnologies, with a specific emphasis on ethical issues related to post-trial access to implantable neural devices.
Nathan has made significant contributions to bioethical research, including a Wellcome Trust-funded project exploring mental health. The travel grant will enable Nathan to travel for research related activities.
New Investigator Award
Dr Elizabeth Johnstone, Lecturer University of Western Australia and Postdoctoral Researcher Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, received the Bellberry New Investigator Award at the ASCEPT, APFP & APSA Joint Congress in 2024.
