The RBWH Foundation has announced almost $500,000 in innovative patient care and medical research projects, with nine of the 11 grants awarded to early career applicants. 

Foundation CEO Simone Garske said it was extremely rewarding to provide funding opportunities to upcoming patient care innovators, thanks to the extraordinary power of giving.  

“It is inspirational for the RBWH Foundation to foster early career projects that allow staff to collect data, grow projects in scale, and hopefully attract competitive funding through national funding bodies,” said Ms Garske. 

“This is what we call the philanthropy of promise - the promise that a seed of an idea will grow to have impact on hundreds, if not thousands of patient lives.”

The 11 grants were selected by an expert panel with representation from Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) and the Surgical, Treatment and Rehabilitation Service (STARS). A record 80 submissions were received, totalling more than $3 million.  

“It has long been our ambition at RBWH Foundation to strategically increase our grants and we are thrilled that in 2023 we have doubled our funding distribution,” said Ms Garske. 

“This commitment owes everything to the extraordinary power of giving by our community, fuelled by their trust and faith in the passion and expertise of our brightest medical minds to improve outcomes for patients here, as well as nationally and potentially even internationally.”

“These ideas are unique, well-thought-out and most importantly, are created through direct contact with patients,” said Ms Garske. 

More information on each project can be found on our Project Hub page.