Research awards

We offer an annual Asthma and Airways Career Development Fellowship in partnership with the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ).

The aim of the fellowship is to enable mid-career investigators to establish themselves as independent, self-directed researchers and foster the development of research in respiratory medicine in Australia and New Zealand. The fellowship is to the value of $60,000 for one year.

The fellowship is announced at the TSANZ Annual Scientific Meeting in April each year.

We are very pleased to contribute to respiratory research in this way and to assist with the career development of an emerging respiratory expert. This is a small way in which the National Asthma Council Australia can acknowledge the ongoing assistance of the many respiratory experts who provide advice and expertise to us for our resources and educational programs for primary care health professionals and people with asthma.

Further details, including eligibility and assessment criteria, are available from the TSANZ website.

2024 recipient

Associate Professor Rachel Peters has been announced as the recipient of the 2024 Asthma and Airways Career Development Fellowship.

Associate Professor Peters plans to use the Fellowship to develop an innovative asthma risk prediction tool for children that extends beyond traditional asthma predictors by integrating comprehensive data on food allergies.

Associate Professor Peters said that this will be the first prediction model to integrate food allergy, a key driver of adverse respiratory outcomes.

“Development of an asthma prediction model that integrates food allergy is of critical importance to help identify young children at high risk of developing asthma, especially with the high prevalence of food allergy in Australia.

“I am delighted that the 2024 Asthma and Airways Career Development Fellowship will allow me to develop and validate a novel prediction model for asthma risk in children,” she said.

Associate Professor Peters is the Principal Investigator of HealthNuts* and EarlyNuts*, two population-based longitudinal studies of food allergy and asthma recruited with identical methods and is ideally placed to establish a new paradigm for more precise asthma risk assessment.

“The HealthNuts study showed that infants with food allergy, even if their food allergy resolves, are four times more likely to have asthma at six years of age, compared to children who never had food allergy.

“My aim is to develop a prediction model that will greatly assist clinicians to provide early asthma diagnoses and management and promote prevention strategies in high-risk children,” she said.

Past recipients

2023 - Dr Bronwyn Brew, Senior Research Fellow at the National Perinatal Epidemiology and Statistics Unit at the Centre for Big Data Research in Health and School of Clinical Medicine, Discipline of Women’s Health, University of NSW. Read more

(Please note there was no 2021 fellowship awarded.)

2020 - Dr Simon Craig, Emergency Physician, Monash Medical Centre and Adjunct Clinical Professor, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Monash University. The fellowship will support research into seeking a global agreement on core outcome measures relevant to acute severe paediatric asthma. Read more

2019 - Dr Kimberley Wang, Research Fellow, The University of Western Australia, for 'The effect of intrauterine growth restriction on allergy-induced airway hyper-responsiveness'. Read more about Kimberley here.

2018 - Dr Hayley Scott, University of Newcastle. Her research topic is: Exercise, diet and obesity for asthma management: it’s time to weigh up our options.

2017 - Dr Adam Collison, University of Newcastle. The research topic is: The impact of improved asthma management in pregnancy on immunological education and programming in the first year of life.

2016 - Dr Miranda Ween, University of Adelaide and Royal Adelaide Hospital. Her research topic is e-cigarettes cause airway macrophage dysfunction: role in airway inflammation and steroid resistance in severe asthma.

2015 - Adjunct Associate Professor Brad Zhang, Associate Professor (asthma genetics research) in the School of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Western Australia. The research topic is “to compare genome-wide transcriptional and methylation profiles in CD4+ cells in ‘newly arrived’ and ‘long term’ Chinese immigrants living in Western environments”.

2014 - Dr Katie Baines, post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Newcastle. Her research topic is identifying biomarkers that predict severe asthma exacerbations during pregnancy.

The Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) and National Asthma Council Australia (NAC) Asthma Research Award was created to encourage research into asthma.

This $1000 prize is awarded to the best abstract or poster presentation on asthma at the ASCIA Annual Scientific Meeting.

A panel invited by ASCIA judge the award, which is presented during the ASCIA Annual Scientific Meeting.

Further details, including eligibility and judging criteria, are available from the ASCIA website.

Our 2019 winner

Dr Therese Boyle
Evaluation of fluorescence enzyme immunoassay for diagnosis of allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis

Past winners

2018 - Professor Jo Douglass

2017 - Dr Kanishka Rangamuwa
Eastern Health, Melbourne
Ethnicity and atopy: the prevalence of rhinitis and other allergy amongst patients with epidemic thunderstorm asthma
Download the abstract

2016 - Dr Joy Lee
Allergy, Immunology, Respiratory Medicine Department, Alfred Hospital, Sydney
Risk factors for vocal cord dysfunction in patients with difficult asthma
Download the abstract

2015 - Mr Alexander S. Zhang, St Vincent's Centre for Applied Medical Research, University of New South Wales, Sydney
Acute radiology rarely confirms sinus disease in suspected recurrent acute rhinosinusitis
Download the abstract

2014 – Ms Melisa Lau, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne
Farm exposure in early life modifies the association between TLR6 polymorphisms on asthma.
Download the abstract

2013 – Dr Euan Tovey, Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, Sydney
House dust mite aeroallergen exposure occurs during the day, not in bed.
Download the abstract

2012 – Associate Professor Efren Rael, The Pennsylvania State University,USA
Asthma Phenotype Triggers Correlate with Clinical Outcome
Download the abstract

2011 – Ms Bianca Angelica, University of Melbourne, Melbourne
The association between onset and persistence of eczema and the risk of other allergic diseases

2010 – Ms Bronwyn Brew, Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, Sydney
Systematic review and meta-analysis investigating breast-feeding and childhood asthma
Download the abstract

2009 – Dr Peter Vuillermin, Geelong Hospital, Geelong
Parent-initiated oral prednisolone for episodes of acute asthma in children aged 5-13 years.

2008 – Ms Kate Campbell, Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, Sydney
Local and systemic effects of multiple nasal allergen challenges with dust mite extract.

2007 – Dr Peter Vuillermin, Geelong Hospital, Geelong
A cross-sectional comparison of anxiety symptoms among primary school children with and without asthma.

2002 – Ms Leanne Gardner, CRC for Asthma scholar, Melbourne
Mechanism for skewing atopic donor allergen-specific T-cell cytokine production from IL-4 to IGN-γ predominant.

The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) and National Asthma Council Australia (NAC) Asthma Research Award was created to encourage research into asthma.

The PSA and NAC Asthma Research Award is presented to the best respiratory related abstract presented at the PSA annual conference. The $1,000 prize was awarded for the first time in 2015.

A panel nominated by the PSA judge the award, which is presented during the PSA annual conference.

Our 2019 winner

Congratulations to Jennifer Culverson from Orange Health Service for receiving the 2019 award for Winter is Coming - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Management on the Medical Ward.

Past winners

2015 – Professor Sinthia Bosnic-Anticevich, Woolcock Institute of Medical Research
Respiratory status of patients in primary care: the opportunities for pharmacy

Congratulations to Prof. Bosnic-Anticevich and her team, the Quality Use of Medicines in Respiratory Illness research group, for their research to identify opportunities for pharmacists to intervene in the management of respiratory illness in the community.

The Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ) and National Asthma Council Australia (NAC) Asthma Prize was created to encourage research into asthma.

This $1000 prize has been awarded annually since 2002. The TSANZ and NAC Asthma Prize is awarded to the best presentation (oral or poster) on asthma presented at the TSANZ Annual Scientific Meeting.

A panel nominated by the Convenors of the TSANZ Asthma Special Interest Group judge the prize, which is presented during the TSANZ Annual Scientific Meeting.

Further details, including eligibility and judging criteria, are available from the TSANZ website.

Our 2019 recipient

Cherry Thompson

Past recipients

2017 - Joy Lee, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne Medication adherence in difficult asthma population.

2016 - Esther Cheah, The University of Western Australia A novel ex vivo perfusion system for investigating mucous metaplasia in mouse airways.

Download the abstract

2015 – Mr Zhixuan (Ken) Loh, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland

Interferon regulatory factor 7 protects against pneumovirus-induced airway smooth muscle growth in early life.
Z Loh, A Ullah, V Zhang, J Lynch, R Werder, J Simpson, J Upham, S Mazzone, K Spann, S Phipps

2014 – Ms Courtney Kidd, Student Researcher at Lung Institute of Western Australia
Aberrant splicing of histone modification genes affects asthma pathogenesis and severity.
C Kidd, S Baltic, P Thompson
Download the abstract

2013 – Mr Luke Hatchwell, School of Biomedical Science, University of Newscastle
Salmeterol attenuates chemotaxis in Rhinovirus-induced exacerbation of asthma via modulation of PP2A.
L Hatchwell, J Girkin, PS Foster, SL Johnstone, A Collison, J Mattes.
Download the abstract

2012 – Mr Md Ashik Ullah, School of Biomedical Science, University of Queensland
The activation of the receptor for advanced glycation end products (rage) contributes to the induction of HDM-specific TH2 responses
Md. Ashik Ullah, Wan J. Gan, Zhixuan Loh, Vivian Zhang, J. Margaret Hughes, Carol L Armour, Simon Phipps, Maria B. Sukkar
Download the abstract

2011 – Dr Jay Horvat, Priority Research Centre for Asthma & Respiratory Diseases, University of Newcastle
Investigation of infection-induced steroid-resistant asthma.
JC Horvat, A-T Essilfie, RY Kim, JL Simpson, ML Dunkley, KW Beagley, PG Gibson, PS Foster, PM Hansbro
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2010 – Dr Lisa Wood, School of Biomedical Science and Pharmacy, University of Newcastle
Dietary fat enhances airway inflammation in asthma.
Lisa Wood, Manohar Garg, Amber Wood, Peter Gibson
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2009 – Dr Douglas Cowan, Dunedin, New Zealand
Steroid responsiveness in relation to histological phenotype in asthma.
Douglas C Cowan, Jan O Cowan, Rochelle Palmay, C Erik Landhuis and D Robin Taylor.
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2008 – Dr Cristan Herbert, Sydney, Australia
Enhanced expression of cytokines by CD4+ T cells in an acute exacerbation of chronic asthma.
Cristan Herbert, Kim Hoa Scruton, Kenneth Hsu, Jessica S Siegle, Paul S Foster, Nicodemus Tedla and Rakesh K Kumar.
Download the abstract

2007 – Associate Professor Stuart Hirst, London, UK
Requirement of vascular endothelial growth factor for induction of pro-angiogenic changes by asthmatic human airway smooth muscle.
Stuart Hirst, Varsha Kanabar, Charlotta Karner, Tak Lee and David Simcock.
Download the abstract

2006 – Dr Joerg Mattes, Newcastle, Australia
TRAIL is a key regulator of Th2 cell responses and allergic disease of the lung.
Joerg Mattes, Markus Weckmann, Matthias Kopp, Mark J Smyth, Hideo Yagita, Klaus I Matthaei and Paul S Foster.
Download the abstract

2005 – Dr Robert Hancox, Dunedin, New Zealand
Sex differences in the relation between body mass index and asthma and atopy in a birth cohort study.
Robert J Hancox, Barry Milne, Richie Poulton, D Robin Taylor, Justina M Greene, Christene R McLachlan, Jan O Cowan, Erin M Flannery, G Peter Herbison and Malcolm R Sears.
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2004 – Dr Jane Ward, Melbourne, Australia
Prostaglandin D2 inhibits proliferation of human cultured airway smooth muscle.
Jane E Ward, Trudi Harris and Alastair G Stewart.
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2003 – Mr Nathan Brown, Sydney, Australia
Relationship between childhood asthma and plethysmographic lung volume in adult life.
Nathan Brown, Greg King, Wei Xuan, Kitty Ng, Brett Toelle, Cheryl Salome and Guy Marks.
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2002 – Ms Ingrid Laing, Perth, Australia
Association of the CC16 A386 polymorphism with PC40 and IgE in a longitudinal cohort; 1 month to 12 years.
Ingrid A Laing, Stephen W Turner, Parveenjeet K Judge, Jack Goldblatt and Peter N Le Souef.
Download the abstract

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and National Asthma Council Australia (NAC) Asthma Research Award was created to encourage research into asthma.

This $1000 prize has been offered annually since 2002, although it has not been awarded every year. The RACGP and NAC Asthma Research Award is awarded to the best presenter of an asthma-related abstract or poster at the RACGP Annual Scientific Convention.

Independent representatives from the RACGP National Standing Committee–Research and the NAC GP Asthma Group judge the award, which is presented during the RACGP Annual Scientific Convention.

Further details, including eligibility and judging criteria, are available from the RACGP website.

Past winners

2009 – Dr James Turton, Australian National University, Canberra
Can the inhaled mannitol challenge test be successfully used to improve asthma management in the general practice setting?
Download the abstract

2005 - Dr Fay Johnston, Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin
Is the tropical dry season smoke haze a health hazard for people with asthma?

2004 - Dr Nabil Sulaiman, University of Melbourne, Melbourne
Breathe with ease – an interactive asthma CD for GPs and trainees.

2002 – Professor Les Toop, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
A major increase in the doses of inhaled steroids used in New Zealand accompanying the introduction of fluticasone – largely to do with inhaler sizes?