Cardiovascular Framework Initiative

The Australian research community is buoyed by the recent federal and state investments in the Cardiovascular research sector- $220 million MRFF investment in the Mission for CV Health and $150 Million announced by NSW in 2018.

Bioplatforms is partnering with the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance (ACvA) that was established in 2015 by leading scientists and key scientific institutions and associations from across Australia. ACvA advocate for increased funding for cardiovascular research, whilst simultaneously ensuring improved impact of dollars invested through strategic collaboration and an enhanced national platform. ACvA work closely with all relevant jurisdictions, in particular state governments and Local Health Districts to maximise efficiency, and translational impact.

Bioplatforms Australia, through our framework strategy has provided resources for ACvA leadership and a catalyst program whereby cardiovascular researchers are partnering with the Bioplatforms network to develop and analyse ‘omics data in support of national collaborative research grants.

Six Flagships have been established to promote collaboration, translation and health impact:

1. Implementation and Policy Research Flagship: to deliver best CV care for all Australians, from prevention and primary care through to the interventional catheter laboratory and operating theatre.
2. Clinical Trials Flagship: including rigorous testing of Australian discoveries and devices, and drug repurposing.
3. Big Data Flagship: Large-scale data linkage, leveraging emerging opportunities in data science. Large scale, epidemiology and health services research, monitoring and evaluation.
4. Precision Medicine Flagship: embedding multi-omic platforms (from genomics to metabolomics) and computational bioinformatics with well-phenotyped clinical cohorts to discover new markers and mechanisms.
5. Bioengineering Flagship: accelerating the development and translation of devices, tissue engineering, and advanced CV imaging.
6. Drug Discovery and Translation Flagship: promoting targeted development of new therapies incorporating emerging biology.

The Precision Medicine Flagship (4) is very closely aligned with the goals of Bioplatforms Australia. Many of the flagship aspirations, such as discovering new markers and mechanisms for complex cardiovascular disease states, supporting collaborative research projects and building high quality open access data rich biobanks would greatly benefit from further leadership and partnership with the capacity building capability of Bioplatforms.

Further, the Big Data Flagship (2) aligns with Bioplatforms to the Australian BioCommons and associated development of genome to phenome data archives. Additional investigations are underway on partnering with NCRIS peers to integrate and describe biomolecular role in morphological states.