Research Grant Program

Research that’s changing lives.

Since 1976, DRWA has awarded $26m in funding to over 80 research projects in Western Australia. The researchers and the programs we support are committed to not only finding a cure to diabetes, but also treatments and breakthroughs that aim to reduce the long-term effects of diabetes.

All research projects funded by DRWA are conducted in WA. Additionally, when selecting where to distribute our funding we will look favourably at collaborative research that has the infrastructure to support its completion. Projects can focus on all forms and types of diabetes and previous conditions.

For 2022, $120,000 in funding has been awarded to two WA-based projects. The first is a fresh pilot study into the use of oral insulin in type 1 diabetes, carried out by Dr Mary Abraham from Perth Children’s Hospital and the Telethon Kids Institute. The second grant was awarded to Professor Kevin Pfleger and his team at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, who will investigate a new way to tackle disease-inducing chronic inflammation linked to type 2 diabetes.

In recent years Diabetes Research WA has awarded two annual research grants, however in the current economic environment for not-for-profit organisations, a prudent decision has been made to offer one grant for 2023. Notwithstanding this, the Board of DRWA reserves the right to exercise its discretion to award more than one research grant in this round should circumstances justify.

In 2024 we awarded our grant to Dr Danuta Sampson, for her study on The Harmonisation of Multi-Site OCTA Datasets for Advanced Biomarker Discovery. You can read more about her research here.

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