Partnerships

CIIDIR is a partnership between Deakin University and Barwon Health.

The Centre will provide a focal point for responding to infectious diseases in regional Victoria and beyond, and thus we will aim to build partnerships and strong collaborations not only within the Centre but also across Barwon Health departments, to Deakin faculties, schools and institutes and to external partners. The Centre will also enhance and leverage partnerships focusing on microbiome research and immune-mediated diseases such as asthma and allergy. The availability of Deakin HDR scholarships for jointly- supervised projects with research partners will be used as a key strategy to establish and support collaborations, leading to joint research grants and publications.

The Centre will integrate with and leverage established programs within Deakin University including IMPACT, the Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM), the Institute for Intelligent Systems Research and Innovation (IISRI), the Institute for Health Transformation (IHT), the School of Medicine (SoM), the School of Health & Social Development (SHSD), the School of Life and Environmental Sciences (LES); and Barwon Health including the Department of Infectious Diseases, the BSW Public Health Unit, and the Adrian Costa Clinical Trials Centre. In addition, CIIDIR will partner with the Australian Rickettsial Reference Laboratory on synergistic research areas, which will be facilitated should ARRL move into the BH Research Laboratories.

The Centre will be an initiative of the Deakin University-Barwon Health Partnership and aims to bring together research, clinical and public health groups working in infectious diseases, microbiome, immunology and population health research and health services across the two organisations. The broad technical expertise available within the centre will benefit both organisations significantly, providing opportunities for training and establishing new research projects in other disease domains as knowledge gaps and needs arise.