2025 PARM

RESEARCH GRANTS

Deadline for applications: 27 August 2025 (Midnight AWST)

The SPANZA research grants are given by SPANZA to support research in Australia and New Zealand in paediatric anaesthesia, paediatric ICU or paediatric pain management.

In 2025, SPANZA are offering up to A$70,000 in grant funding, which will be split as per the following categories:

Research Grant: up to A$40,000
Emerging Investigator: up to A$20,000
Quality Improvement (QI): up to A$10,000

A maximum funding for each level may be requested for any one grant, and SPANZA reserves the right to partially fund grants.

All persons considering submission of a project are invited to present their idea at the Paediatric Anaesthesia Research Meeting (PARM), hosted by SPANZA on 10 August in Adelaide. Presentation at this meeting provides an opportunity to discuss your idea and receive feedback from the research community.
If you are unsure of which category you should submit your project under, please contact the Secretariat with your question/s BEFORE the deadline: secretariat@spanza.org.au.
The SPANZA research subcommittee reserves the right to request a re-submission of an application if they believe it has been submitted in the incorrect category. Resubmission will be required within 48 hours of request. We therefore recommend reaching out prior to the deadline date if you are uncertain which category to submit under.

Conditions for eligibility

For all categories:

The chief investigator on the project must be a member of SPANZA at time of application (Note: it can take up to one month to process membership applications).
The project must be based in Australia and/or New Zealand and the activity must be research relevant to paediatric anaesthesia, paediatric intensive care and/or paediatric pain management.

For Research Grants (recommended):

Collaborative projects across New Zealand and Australia. (including mentoring and senior support)
OR
Higher degree candidate – MD, PhD. Must be currently enrolled and project must be part of the higher degree

For Emerging Investigator:

The chief investigator must have no more than 5 publications in the last 10 years (including career breaks)

Things to note before submitting

Conditions on awarding of any grant:

All applicants must be compliant with reporting requirements as follows:
1. The recipient of funds will provide brief annual reports until the project is completed.
2. A brief final report will be submitted when the project is completed.
3. A link to any publications will be provided.
4. The results of the project will be presented at an annual SPANZA scientific meeting (this may be in addition to other presentations).
5. Any grant holders who do not present or publish work funded by SPANZA will not be eligible for future grants, until such dissemination of findings occurs.

If you are awarded a grant, you may be invited to present details of the project in the Research Forum at the SPANZA ASM in the year the grant is awarded.

For Research Grants and Emerging Investigator:

The project application must include a clear aim, a complete project outline and a budget. Applications must be in the SUGGESTED FORMAT.
The application will be judged on the following additional criteria:
1. The plausibility, importance and originality of the objective and the likelihood to change practice and/or result in publication.
2. The feasibility of the project
3. The track record of the investigators with respect to ability to complete project

For QI projects:

The project should be structured to address criteria as outlined in the table below.

Criteria	Suggested assessment advice
Problem description	Nature and significance of the problem locally. The clinical relevance and the impact are clearly outlined.
Available knowledge	Key information is summarized w.r.t. what is known locally, best practice in general (and relevant reference/s)
Rationale	There is clear rationale linking the intervention to its expected effects
Specific aims	Are the Aims SMART? Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound
Context/organisational characteristics	Are these described and would they be relevant to other organisations? Demographics and basic characteristics of the organisation. There may be relevant contextual factors that should be measured prospectively – have these been considered and are they part of the project?
Interventions	Description of the intervention is in sufficient detail that others could reproduce it. There is an approach that attempts to establish whether observed outcomes are due to the intervention/s or other factors within the wider system.
Design	Description of the qualitative and quantitative methods planned to draw inference from the data. The time period and/or effect size and the number of patients studied are large enough to establish a statistically significant difference for quantitative methodologies. There is a Clear outline of the clinically significant change sought. Methods for understanding variation within the data including the effects of time as a variable.
Comparator	What is the QI project comparing to? Is it to local data that establishes a problem? Is it to a known benchmark standard? Is it both? Score for clarity and higher if clear benchmark or work will establish a benchmark.
Measures	Measures chosen. Are they process measures or outcome measures? Are they valid and reliable? Higher score for outcome measures. Description of the approach used for assessment of contextual elements that contribute to success, failure, efficiency and cost.
Data source/reliability	Methods employed to ensure completeness and accuracy of data and/or a description of challenges to this.
Patient related health outcomes	Are there clear patient related health outcomes – what are they? How relevant/impactful are they?
Timing of intervention and evaluation	QI is often about temporary activities being introduced to introduce potentially enduring change. When is the intervention occurring, how and when is it assessed? Is there ongoing late assessment to ensure sustained changed or PDSA cycles planned to ensure continuous improvement
Barriers and facilitators	Are challenges identified? Are potential facilitators within the organisation described? Who is on the QI project w.r.t. expertise and diversity of approaches w.r.t. solutions/interventions?
Penetration/reach	Is this a single unit/department intervention? A multi department intervention within the same speciality (eg multicentre)? A interdepartmental intervention (eg within the same organisation)? Score more highly for multicentre and interdepartmental
Sustainability	Is the intervention proposed likely to be sustainable in the future? E.g. system change, imbedding of change versus dependent on a single person or a few people. Score more highly for a project that will lead to imbedded changes.
Spread	Is the project potentially applicable to other groups? Either as education or as a project which could be relevant to other groups for their own QI projects.
Equity and Ethical considerations	Does the project meet ethical standards? Are there any groups where health equity challenges may be over come?

2024 Research Grant Winners

At the 2024 SPANZA ASM in Melbourne, we were proud to present to two fantastic Research projects:

A$20,000 was awarded to:

Dr James Broadbent: Development of high-fidelity 3D printed tracheae for infant CICO rescue and shared airway training.

Objectives are to develop high fidelity 3D printed tracheae which can be incorporated into currently available simulation mannequins for training purposes:

Infant CICO-rescue model

Paediatric trachea for multidisciplinary inhaled foreign body removal workshops

Operable paediatric trachea incorporating dynamic pathology including inflatable tracheal cyst and tracheal web

Associate Professor Paul-Lee Archer: Wearable technology for the measurement of post-operative outcomes in children undergoing Ear, Nose and Throat surgery.

The overarching aim of this study is to improve outcomes for children who require ENT surgery by exploring the use of wearable technology for monitoring children's post-operative recovery. The objectives of this study are to

Evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of wearable devices to objectively monitor children recovering from ENT surgery.

To explore the feasibility of developing a pain assessment algorithm by examining the correlation between data from wearable devices with parent and child reported pain scores, physical activity and sleep.

Characterise and describe the recovery to baseline activity, sleep and pain intensity for children undergoing ENT surgery