More grants available for aged care problem-solvers

The Aged Care Research & Industry Innovation Australia has opened applications this week for the second round of its grants program and third round of workforce innovator training program.

ARIIA, which launched under its new name last week, is a commonwealth-funded centre dedicated to providing resources and assistance to the aged care workforce to help it deliver best practice care and support.

The grants program targets applicants wanting to contribute to the aged care sector’s workforce capability and capacity. The grants – up to $160,000 – are for a maximum of one year and require a 20 per cent cash co-contribution to support a translational research project.

For this round, ARIIA is seeking applications from organisations with projects that improve the sector’s service delivery, adoption of technology and quality of care. The project must address one of the following priorities:

• dementia care
• restorative care
• reablement and rehabilitation
• social isolation
• mental health and wellbeing
• urgent and critical need.

ARIIA research director and capability lead Professor Sue Gordon is calling on people with evidence-based and scalable solutions to apply.

“We are keen to hear from applicants who wish to contribute to the aged care sector by implementing research evidence findings that will lead to scalable and translatable solutions,” Professor Gordon told Australian Ageing Agenda.

“We are particularly interested in innovation in the organisation of care and clinical activities, and how they are delivered by different workers and deployed in different care settings,” she added.

Applications for this round opened on 15 August and close on 21 October. Find out more here.

Become an aged care innovator

Applications are also open for the flexibly delivered Innovator Training Program. The program aims to support aged care workers to make change based on the best evidence available.

It is designed to provide participants with the tools and skills to use available knowledge and evidence to solve an identified problem. As such, the program targets anyone working in the aged care sector who is looking for a solution for a problem they have identified in the workplace.

Participants can choose how they complete the program, such as via a series of self-directed learning modules, facilitated workshops or small group project discussions delivered over schedule to suit the learner.

Applications also opened on 15 August, and close on 23 September. More information available here.

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