HARC Scholarship Program

The HARC Scholarship program is available to employees of the HARC partner organisations: the Clinical Excellence Commission; the Agency for Clinical Innovation; the Bureau of Health Information; Cancer Institute NSW; and the Sax Institute.

It aims to build future leaders who:

  • Are skilled in using research in policy and program development
  • Work to close evidence practice gaps in NSW
  • Are connected to national and international experts in health services research.

Scholarship details

Recipients receive up to $10,000 to investigate an issue of interest with guidance from a local mentor. The project must be based on a challenge facing their agency and should include a literature review, a description of solutions implemented internationally and recommendations for future approaches.

The scholarship includes a visit to a national or international agency with expertise in the relevant field. Recipients seek the agency’s input to their project and develop collaborative links.

Applications for 2017 scholarships now open

An information session for people who are considering applying will be held on Wednesday 15 February 2017 from 9:00-10:00am at the Sax Institute, Level 12, 235 Jones St Ultimo.

Applications will close on Monday 13 March 2017.

To register for the information session, email donna.davenport@saxinstitute.org.au or telephone Donna Davenport on 02 9188 9547.

For enquiries about the scholarship program please contact Cathy Kellick on kellick@saxinstitute.org.au or 02 9188 9546.

Scholarship forum

The first HARC Scholars Forum was held on 16 April 2015. Six former scholars presented on their research projects and the impact that the scholarship had on their organisations and their own career development. For more information, watch the scholars’ presentations.

Past scholarship recipients

2016 recipients

  • Bernadette Aliprandi-Costa (CINSW)
    Developing a state-wide cancer clinical trials operational and quality reporting framework to address regional variation in cancer clinical trial performance
  • Kim Sutherland (BHI)
    Measuring and reporting of unwarranted clinical variation to support system improvement: how can European countries’ experience be applied to the NSW context?
  • Malcolm Green (CEC)
    lmproving the usability and safety of the electronic health record using human factors design and clinical decision support tools to reduce alert fatigue
  • Vladimir Williams (NSW Kids and Families)
    Testing a pilot methodology to authentically represent Aboriginal community voices in health system design and delivery

2015 recipients

2014 recipients

  • Bernadette King (CEC) – Improving end of life experience for patients and their families in NSW public health facilities. Read Bernadette’s HARC Scholarship Report
  • Kerrin Bleicher (BHI) – Data Matters: Linked Data – improving healthcare quality with integrated information. Read Kerrin’s HARC Scholarship Report
  • Matthew Murray (ACI) – Current practice in risk management in emergency departments including the evaluation of incidents and the application to practice. Read Matthew’s HARC Scholarship Report 
  • Diane Hindmarsh (BHI) – Using Patient Surveys to measure, inform and improve hospital performance: investigating international best practice”. Read Dianes’ HARC Scholarship Report
  • Wilson Yeung (CEC) – Improving teamwork and communication in healthcare teams to improve the system. Read Wilson’s HARC Scholarship Report

2013 recipients

  • Alison Lee (CEC) – Using the evidence from the business case for Patient Based Care to drive practice changes in health services
  • Bea Brown (Sax Institute) – Implementation research: Complementing evidence-based medicine with evidence-based implementation
  • Gai Moore (Sax Institute) – How can we effectively present evidence from research for policymakers?

2011 recipients

  • Paula Cheng (CEC) – Best practices in managing surgical and anaesthetic mortality audits
  • Anne Darton (ACI) – Achieving international best practice in post acute care and inpatient rehabilitation for severe burn injured people; what are the gaps in care for NSW burn injured people?
  • Bronwyn Shumack (CEC) – Bridging the gulf between human factors theory and everyday practice at the clinical frontline

2010 recipients

  • Carolyn Der Vartanian (CEC) – From Facebook to blogs: the role of social marketing and social media to engage clinicians and fast-track evidence into practice
  • Barbara Strettles (ACI) – Achieving international best practice in systems for the collection and analysis of a state-wide clinical data set and the integration of results into clinical practice within the NSW Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program
  • Fidye Westgarth (ACI) – Building sustainability into clinical innovation