We’re delighted to announce the latest CRE grant funding. Many thanks to the many who applied for Seed Funding. The standards were excellent, but we were only able to award four new Seed Grants and these have been awarded to:
- Dr Anna Holwell (physician, Alice Springs Hospital, NT): Remote Code Stroke in Central Australia
- Dr Madeleine Smith (neuroscientist, Monash University, VIC): Mesenchymal stem cell therapy in combination with high-dose rehabilitation: A translational, preclinical study to improve upper limb motor outcomes after stroke
- Dr Dawn Simpson (physiotherapist, University of Newcastle, NSW): A Learning-Cycle Approach to develop the Fatigue Protectometer trial pipeline
- Dr Emily Dalton (occupational therapist, University of Melbourne, VIC): DOSE ranging in UPper limb rehabilitation late post-stroke (DOSE-UP)
Following the CRE support of Townsville as our first new CRE supported stroke trial recruitment site, we are delighted to announce that Dr Anna Holwell (Alice Springs Hospital, NT) and Dr Thomas Chemmanan (Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth, WA) were successful in obtaining CRE support.
These grants illustrate how we are using our NHMRC funding to promote new stroke trials, and increase research capacity for the discipline. We intend to provide some further additional support in the next 1-2 years so watch this space.
The CRE was proud to partner with the Angels initiative, the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry (AuSCR), The Florey, Stroke Foundation and Monash University in running a 2 day National Stroke Quality Improvement Workshop in Melbourne on 31st July and 1st August, which was attended by approximately 200 registrants (in person and online). This workshop showcased numerous positive stories of improving stroke care, had an onsite (and remote) audience of well over 100 participants, including those with lived experience. As a key part of our CRE Learning Health System, the workshop demonstrated how the collaboration with our key partners is driving change. Key messages included: how important the new 30/60/90 Acute Stroke Targets have been to drive improvements (see https://australianstrokecoalition.org.au/portfolio/targets/); and how useful the new AuSCR hospital dashboards are for busy clinicians wanting an easy method of viewing their recent stroke quality data (see below). As we get important traction in acute care, the importance of rehabilitation was emphasised by our lived experience audience, and the establishment of the National Stroke Rehabilitation Taskforce will be an important additional driver of change (see https://australianstrokecoalition.org.au/portfolio/rehab-taskforce/).
Our Learning Health System work includes a portfolio of projects to improve the quality of stroke care in Australia with the CRE supporting Dr Bola Fasugba in running the QASC Australasia Trial (with CRE Chief Investigator Professor Sandy Middleton and CRE affiliate Simeon Dale and additional CRE members: Prof Dominque Cadilhac, Mr Kelvin Hill and Dr Joosup Kim). This trial is evaluating the intensity of external remote facilitation to improve Fever, Sugar, Swallow Stroke (FeSS) Protocol uptake and quality of care for patients with stroke in Australian and New Zealand acute care hospitals. The trial has 58 sites participating (50 in Australia and eight in New Zealand). Other work in stroke quality care includes developing better feedback mechanisms for clinicians involved in the Australian Stroke Quality Registry and the Registry of Stroke Care Quality, as well as building strong collaborations with the Stroke Foundation and the Living Guidelines for stroke.
Australian Stroke Clinical Registry (AuSCR) Interactive data dashboards: There are 165 external active dashboard users that have access to 11 AuSCR interactive data dashboards. A National Stroke Targets dashboard was released in June 2025 where hospitals can view live (updated daily) national progress towards the Targets and filter by location (metro/regional), state, stroke service type and stroke unit certification status. A second dashboard was released showing episode level metrics including calculated door-to-CT, door-to-needle, door-in-door-out times to support local clinical review.
A CRE Stroke webinar on Implementation Strategies in Learning Health Systems was held on 25th June, and provided a fantastic overview of key implementation strategies, tailoring approaches to context, real-world case studies and the importance of using data for improvement. If you missed it, the webinar recording is now available on the CRE website (Webinars – The Centre for Research Excellence to Accelerate Stroke Trial Innovation and Translation) and YouTube ( Workstream 2: Translation & The Learning Health System – Implementation Strategies webinar)
Work is progressing on the new National Stroke Data Platform, replacing the current Australian Stroke Data Tool, which is expected to go live in January 2026.
Dr Sandy Middleton, Dr Tara Purvis and Lived Experience Advisor, Brenda Booth, also participated as keynote speakers for a Masterclass on Consumer Engagement for the Australia Clinical Trials Alliance sharing insights and strategies to help strengthen meaningful partnerships between consumers and researchers ( https://clinicaltrialsalliance.org.au/events-forums/acta-masterclass-5-consumer-engagement/ )
For those attending the Australian and New Zealand Stroke Organisation Conference in Hobart, a reminder that the joint ASTN/CRE workshop will be on Tuesday afternoon, 2nd September, with a Program including updates from our first round seed grant holders, a session on Data and Safety Monitoring, an update on Good Clinical Practice and how Townsville are establishing their new stroke trial recruitment site. Please register if not done already!
We are also proud to announce our CRE-affiliated publications to date:
Zeleke S, Drury P, Allida SM, Ferguson C. Multicultural Recommendations to Guide Stroke Care: A Document Review of International Stroke Guidelines. Stroke. 2025 Aug;56(8):2375–9.
Allida SM, Angelucci A, William S, Alanazi F, Gall S, Ferguson C. Cardiovascular disease and stroke prevention educational-behavioural programmes for culturally and/or linguistically diverse communities: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2025 Mar 19;zwaf145.
Mazariego C, Gul H, Liang S, Kelly-Hanku A, Brady B, Allida S, et al. Critical actions for embedding research evidence into practice: how to get the most out of your implementation scientist. JBI Evid Implement [Internet]. 2025 [cited 2025 July 24]; Available from: http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105010709355&partnerID=8YFLogxK
Allida SM, Hackett ML, Lindley R, Hill K, Ferguson C. A practical guide to living evidence: reducing the knowledge-to-practice gap. Eur J Cardiovasc Nurs. 2025 Jan 30;24(1):165–75.
Hayward KS, Dalton EJ, Campbell BCV, Khatri P, Dukelow SP, Johns H, et al. Adaptive Trials in Stroke: Current Use and Future Directions. Neurology. 2024 Oct 22;103(8):e209876.
Hayward KS, Dalton EJ, Barth J, Brady M, Cherney LR, Churilov L, et al. Control intervention design for preclinical and clinical trials: Consensus-based core recommendations from the third Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Roundtable. Int J Stroke Off J Int Stroke Soc. 2024 Feb;19(2):169–79.
Hayward KS, Kwakkel G, Bernhardt J. International Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Roundtable Consensus Statements Are Driving Growth and Progress in Our Field. Neurorehabil Neural Repair. 2024 Jan;38(1):3–6.