Initiatives and funding

Medicine for healthier lives and transformative discoveries.

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The CVMM Theme provides competitive grants for projects that identify and seek to address areas of unmet needs in improving cardiac, vascular and metabolic medicine outcomes in the communities we serve. Our grants also allow opportunities for emerging researchers to lead and develop smaller projects with the potential to feed into larger funding opportunities.

2025 CVMM Collaborative Grant (up to $30,000):

The Grant aims to support the initiation of new collaborations among scientists and clinicians from various disciplines and faculties. This grant is designed to provide early- and mid-career researchers with opportunities to lead and develop innovative projects, showcasing a clear pathway towards securing substantial external funding for the continued growth and sustainability of research efforts.

Recipients	Affiliation	Grant Title
Dr Zien Zhou Dr Menglu Ouyang	The George Institute for Global Health	The willingness to accept brain imaging evaluation for the optimisation of anticoagulation management among people with atrial fibrillation and low-to-intermediate stroke risk
Dr Aaminah Khan Dr Vikram Tallapragada	Children’s Cancer Institute & Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute	Balancing Efficacy and Safety: Modulating Polyamine Inhibition to Reduce Cardiotoxicity in Paediatric Oncology
A/Prof Clare Arnott Dr Nila Dharan	The George Institute for Global Health & Kirby Institute, UNSW	OPTIMAR-Heart Study: Assessing the impact of SGLT2 inhibitors on epicardial adipose tissue in HIV positive patients on integrase-based anti-retroviral therapies.
A/Prof Izzy Jayasinghe Dr Vaishnavi Ananthanarayanan	Department of Molecular Medicine/SBMS & EMBL Australia Node in Single Molecule Science Department of Molecular Medicine	Unmasking and targeting the structural and molecular drivers of heterogeneity in the failing heart
Dr Katrina Kissock Dr Kathy Trieu	The George Institute for Global Health	Integrating potassium-enriched salt into usual healthcare practice for hypertension management in Australia
Ms Martina Beretta Dr Brenna Osborne	School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences	Investigating the efficacy of mitochondrial uncoupler BAM15 in promoting neuronal resistance to metabolic and oxidative stress in ischemic conditions
Dr Yunjia (Carmen) Zhang Dr Jingjing Li	School of Biomedical Sciences & Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering	A novel strategy for preventing heart failure in myocardial infarction survivors

2025 CVMM International Speaker Fellowship:

This fellowship is dedicated to inviting and hosting international experts in the field of cardiac, vascular, and metabolic medicine to visit UNSW Sydney. The purpose of this program is to bring the most exceptional and accomplished experts to UNSW, contributing to the enhancement of existing collaborations or the establishment of new partnerships with researchers affiliated with UNSW.

Recipient	Speaker	Affiliates	Talk Topic
A/Prof Sradha Kotwal	Prof Graeme Eisenhofer	Professor at Dresden Adrenal Research Center Department of Medicine III	Personalised medicine approaches in hypertension. Validation of machine learning models for laboratory and clinical diagnosis, differential diagnosis and management of secondary hypertension (August-September 2025)
A/Prof Cheryl Carcel	A/Prof Thalia Field	Associate Professor, Heart and Stroke/Sauder Family Professor of Stroke Research, University of British Columbia	1. Brain health in congenital heart disease: Knowns, unknowns and implications for care and research throughout the lifespan 2. Cerebral venous thrombosis: an update (between September to December 2025)
Prof Jason Kovacic	Prof Filip Swirski	Arthur & Janet C. Ross Professor of Medicine (Cardiology), Professor of Radiology and Director, Cardiovascular Research Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai	Heart-Brain Communication in Health and Disease (18-25 November 2025)

Recipient

Speaker

Affiliates

Talk Topic

A/Prof Sradha Kotwal

Prof Graeme Eisenhofer

Professor at Dresden Adrenal Research Center Department of Medicine III

Personalised medicine approaches in hypertension. Validation of machine learning models for laboratory and clinical diagnosis, differential diagnosis and management of secondary hypertension (August-September 2025)

A/Prof Cheryl Carcel

A/Prof Thalia Field

Associate Professor, Heart and Stroke/Sauder

Family Professor of Stroke Research,

University of British Columbia

1. Brain health in congenital heart disease: Knowns, unknowns and implications for care and research throughout the lifespan

2. Cerebral venous thrombosis: an update (between September to December 2025)

Prof Jason Kovacic

Prof Filip Swirski

Arthur & Janet C. Ross Professor of Medicine (Cardiology), Professor of Radiology and Director, Cardiovascular Research Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Heart-Brain Communication in Health and Disease (18-25 November 2025)

Past Awards

2024

2024 CVMM Collaborative Grant:

Recipients	Affiliation	Grant Title
Dr. Meghan Ambrens Prof. Kim Delbaere	Neuroscience Research Australia	StandingTall-Rehab: Co-designing a Comprehensive Digital Rehabilitation Program for Enhance Patient Management and Rehabilitation Outcomes
Dr. Reza Argha A/Prof. Sze Yuan Ooi	Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering	Affordable Analysis of Electrocardiogram Data Using Transfer Learning and Weak Supervision
A/Prof. Susann Beier A/Prof. Kaleab Asrress	School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering	Supervised machine learning to detect coronary artery and aortic valve calcification on routine chest X-rays (CAC-X)
Dr. Md Shajedur Rahman Shawon Dr. Jennifer Yu	Centre for Big Data Research in Health	Discovery of high-need, high-cost cardiovascular patient phenotypes using Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) models
A/Prof. Kavitha Muthiah Dr. Vanathi Sivasubramaniam	St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney	Molecular and genetic effects of sodium glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors on cardiac tissue
Dr. Sonali Gnanenthiran Prof. Anthony Rodgers	The George Institute for Global Health	LOTUS Trial: LOw dose anti-hypertensive combinations To improve stroke oUtcomeS
Dr. Chai-Ann Ng Dr. Elizabeth Palmer	Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute	Improving the treatment of ventricular arrhythmia by targeting the cardiac calcium channel

CVMM International Speaker Fellowship:

Recipient	Speaker	Affiliates	Talk Topic
Prof Diane Fatkin	Prof Steven Niederer	Alan Turing Institute	Multi-Scale Patient-Specific Cardiac Models Based on Clinical Data (September 2024)
A/Prof Jodie Ingles	Prof James Ware	Imperial College London	Polygenic Determinants of Monogenic Cardiovascular Disease (May 2024)
A/Prof Ruth Peters	Prof Jeff Williamson	Wake Forest Center for Healthcare Innovation	Cognitive Decline and Hypertension (March 2024)
Prof Jamie Vandenberg	Prof Tina Vilsbøll	Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark	1. Cardiovascular Benefits of GLP1 agonists 2. Utilisation of incretins as therapeutics (1 November 2024)
Prof Anthony Rodgers & Prof Alta Schutte	Dr Michael Rakotz	American Medical Association	Challenges and opportunities in achieving a step change in hypertension control in Australia – lessons from the USA (25 November 2024)
Prof Bruce Neal & A/Prof Sradha Kotwal	Prof Ewout Hoorn	Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands	Potassium in chronic kidney disease: reconciling controversies (15 November 2024)
A/Prof Belinda Parmenter	Prof Mary McGrae McDermott	Deputy Editor of JAMA Northwestern Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University	Pharmaceutical and lifestyle medicine for cardiovascular disease with a focus on peripheral artery disease; AND her career trajectory to Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University and Deputy Editor of JAMA (14 November 2024)

2024 CVMM Early to Mid-Career Researcher Conference Award:

Recipient	Affiliates	Conference	Talk Topic
Osvaldo Contreras	Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute	Biomolecular Horizons Congress	Time-resolved multi-omics illustrates the complex impact of DNA replication stress on chromatin integrity and pluripotency loss
Lauren Houston	The George Institute for Global Health	72nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand	Risk of cardiovascular disease in female cancer survivors: a population cohort study using linked Australian health datasets
Jeanette Villanueva	Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute	The 30th International Congress of The Transplantation Society	Improving donor heart preservation with funnel web spider venom and the anti-diabetic drug Empagliflozin
Vivian Lee	The George Institute for Global Health	71st International Joint Congress of the International Society of Obstetric Medicine (ISOM) and the Society of Obstetric Medicine of Australia and New Zealand (SOMANZ)	Investigating opportunities to prevent Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus after Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: the DIVINE-NSW study.
Isaballa Tan	The George Institute for Global Health	International Society of Hypertension Scientific Meeting	Listen to Your Heart and Mind: A feasibility study on combined screening of raised blood pressure, atrial fibrillation, cognitive impairment and hearing loss
Katrina Kissock	The George Institute for Global Health	Preventive Health Conference	Developing a strategy to scale-up potassium-enriched salt use to prevent cardiovascular disease

2023

2023 Collaborative Grants

Principal Investigators	Affiliates	Project Title
Professor Tracie Barber; Dr Blake Cochran	School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering/Faculty of Engineering; School of Biomedical Science	Creating an in vitro model using printed vessels to assess endothelial cell signalling in patients treated with haemodialysis (Creating IMPACT)
Dr Vivian Lee ; A/Prof Belinda Parmenter	The George Institute for Global Health; UNSW	Using wearable activity monitors to increase physical activity in women with a recent history of gestational diabetes – A cross-over randomisation trial.
Dr Juliana de Oliveira Costa; Dr Tamara Milder	UNSW School of Population Health; St Vincent and Garvan	Improving the use of cardiometabolic medicines in type 2 diabetes: an atlas to identify areas of unmet clinical need
Dr Justin Phan; Dr Reza Argha; Prof Jamie Vandenberg	Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute; UNSW; VCCRI	Machine learning-based electrocardiographic analysis to predict cardiac toxicity in patients undergoing cancer treatment.
Dr Isabella Tan; Prof Aletta E Schutte; Ms Catherine Morgan; Prof Mridula Sharma; Prof Henry Brodaty	The George Institute for Global Health; UNSW; National Acoustic Laboratories; Macquarie Uni; UNSW CHeBA	Listen to Your Heart and Mind (Hypertension and hearing loss)
Dr. Jordan Thorpe; Dr Shafagh Waters; Dr Adam Hill	Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute; School of Biomedical Science; VCCRI	Tackling rheumatic fever induced atrial fibrillation and heart failure in indigenous communities utilizing stem cell derived atrial cardiac tissues.
Dr Luna Xu; A/Prof Yulei Sui	School of Population Health; School of Computer Science and Engineering	Cardiovascular risk prediction: a robust deep learning approach to guide healthy eating

2023 CVMM Early to Mid-Career Researcher Conference Award (up to $2,000):

Recipient	Affiliates	Conference	Talk Topic
Dr Monique Bax	Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute	71st CSANZ Annual Scientific Meeting, Adelaide, Australia	Proteomic analysis reveals TGFB pathway perturbation in spontaneous coronary artery dissection patient iPSC derived endothelial cells
Dr Cheryl Carcel	The George Institute for Global Health	The Joint Annual Scientific Meeting of The Stroke Society of Australasia and Smart Strokes, Melbourne	Inequity in stroke trials
Dr Briar McKenzie	The George Institute for Global Health	The Nutrition Society Irish Section Conference, Ireland	Investigating sex and gender differences in diet, and the diet related burden of cardiovascular disease
Dr Celine Santiago	Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute	71st CSANZ Annual Scientific Meeting, Adelaide, Australia	Using zebrafish to solve 'missing pathogenicity' in genetic cardiomyopathies
Dr Md Shajedur Rahman Shawon	Centre for Big Data Research in Health, UNSW	71st CSANZ Annual Scientific Meeting, Adelaide, Australia	Regional differences in the rates and impact of care fragmentation following myocardial infarction admission
Dr Yunjia (Carmen) Zhan	Biomedical Sciences, UNSW	Australian Atherosclerosis Society Annual Meeting 2023, Adelaide	A novel strategy for reducing future events in myocardial infarction survivors

2021

2021 Networking Grants

Recipient	Affiliates	Project Title
Dr R Arnold & Dr C Sandler	School of Health Sciences; Thde Kirby Institute	Can digital cardiovascular initiatives be applied to Chronic Kidney Disease: A cohort of disproportionate cardiovascular risk?
Dr J Snaith	The Garvan Institute; St Vincent's Hospital	A novel online tool to diagnose double diabetes using biomarkers: towards cardiovascular risk reduction by personalised adjunctive treatment of insulin resistance in type 1 diabetes

2021 Big Ideas Grants

Recipient	Affiliates	Project Title
A/Prof X Feng & Prof A Schutte	UNSW School of Population Health; The George Institute for Global Health	Uptake and effectiveness of a UNSW Lifestyle Clinic exercise physiologist intervention for improving physical activity and reducing high blood pressure: A pilot randomised controlled trial
A/Prof A Henry & Prof A Patel	School of Women's and Children's Health	DIVINE: Drug InterVention for prevention of type 2 diabEtes among women with recent prior gestational diabetes – a proposal for formative research
Dr L Lin & Prof M Parsons	Ingham Institute of Applied Medical Research; Sydney Brain Centre	Clinical and imaging characterisation of stroke in First Nations, Pacific Islander, and other culturally and linguistically diverse Australian communities
Dr Yu & A/Prof B Gallego Luxan	South East Sydney Local Health District; Centre ofr Big Data Research in Health	Cardiovascular Analytics and Innovation (CVAI) data repository: A big data resource for machine learning-enabled research and health systems quality improvement.