9 June 2025

Early Career Reseach Excellence Program

You’re at the beginning of your medical research career, and your work has vast potential. All you need is the space to concentrate on your research without worrying about funding. That’s why Monash’s Early Career Research Excellence Program is so valuable – made possible by a generous gift from philanthropist Lady Primrose Potter AC, a Monash University Campaign Patron.

“Trying to get funding can be a challenging and competitive space,” says Dr Lisa Higgins, one of the Program’s inaugural participants. “When someone like Lady Potter is kind enough to provide funds for this scheme, it means I can advance my research and reach our goals. She is truly a champion of change.”

And that research could have a vast impact on our healthcare. Dr Higgins leads the health economics program at the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre at Monash’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. Her clinical trials aim to discover the best and most cost-effective interventions for those in critical care, enabling healthcare systems to operate much more effectively.

Researchers can use their funding for everything from building a team to professional development. Dr Higgins is enthusiastically looking to the next generation. “I’ve used these funds to employ a junior staff member who’s just finishing their PhD. This is helping to progress my research, but it’s also helping them establish their research careers.”

Professor James Whisstock, Deputy Dean (Research), Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (Left) with the inaugural cohort of the ECR Excellence Program.

Lady Potter’s generosity supports a further seven researchers, including Dr Dustin Flanagan, who is seeking new therapies for stomach cancer, and Dr Nenad Macesic, who is investigating how to stop superbugs spreading in hospitals.

As someone with deep links to medicine – her grandfather, Sir Thomas Peter Anderson Stuart, founded Australia’s first medical school in 1883 – Lady Potter knows the difference that funding can make. “If someone is doing something worthwhile, it’s good to help them,” she says. “And you need a bit of money to be able to do worthwhile things.” Monash, she says, is the perfect place to make those things happen. “The university does a very good job. You’re doers. You don’t just sit there – you get on and do something.”