Our client: Speech Pathology Australia

Speech Pathology Australia sought our assistance to write and submit to the National Health and Medical Research Council, a proposal for a one-time investment of funding in research into interventions that will help children and young people with speech, language and communication disorders.

What we did for Speech Pathology Australia

We developed a research proposal for SPA, harnessing relationships with Australia’s leading speech language and communication researchers, such as the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute’s Centre of Research Excellence in Child Language. We have the expertise to understand research publications and show how their groundbreaking insights are relevant to the goals of a government program.

Our depth of experience of engagement with administrative processes ensured that the proposal met the NHMRC’s strict standards around research applications. While mapping a path for future research grounded in the published literature, we also demonstrated how funding future research would deliver health and economic benefits to individuals, communities and the country, so that it responded to NHMRC and government priorities.

Whether a proposal has high-level support from other stakeholder organisations is an important consideration for the NHMRC when it makes its funding decisions. We built relationships between SPA and other national organisations that would benefit from, and be responsible for, the dissemination of research results. We secured support for the project from several peak bodies and professional associations, showing that SPA was committed to the NHMRC’s and government’s goal of working across organisations to ensure the benefits of research are maximised.