The Rio Tinto Children’s Diabetes Centre; a Breakthrough T1D Centre of Excellence announces $40,000 in new round of seed grant funding for researchers dedicated to type 1 diabetes (T1D).
Two researchers from across Australia have received up to $20,000 to advance their research projects in type 1 diabetes (T1D) to improve the lives of children and families living with T1D.
These grants are designed to encourage new research activities and develop new research projects and partnerships.
Congratulations goes to:
Dr Jeff Cannon, a Health Economist and Senior Research Officer at the Kids Research Institute Australia, for his project 'Exploring resources to better understand the full health, economic, and social impact of type 1 diabetes on patients and families'.
"This project aims to explore resources to understand the full burden of (T1D) on patients and families. Based on the community panel discussions at the 2025 Centre of Excellence Symposium, we hypothesise that the health, economic, and social circumstances of people and families living with T1D are less favourable than those of the average person and family in Australia," Dr Cannon said.
"Specifically in this project, we aim to develop and publish a validated and reliable survey to efficiently capture and summarise the full burden of T1D at different life stages. We will also explore national survey data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to quantify the excess burden of a range of health, economic, and social indicators by comparing them between patients and families living with T1D to those not living with T1D."
Dr Jo Jordan, a Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for Behavioural Research in Diabetes (ACBRD), Deakin University, for her project 'Early Childhood Education and Care Experiences of Australian Families Living with Type 1 Diabetes: A Community-Driven Study'.
"Caring for a young child (under six years) with T1D is extremely demanding. Parents and carers must support every aspect of a child’s daily T1D management around the clock, and this ongoing pressure takes a toll on the parents’ health and wellbeing," Dr Jordan said.
"Securing safe and supportive early childhood education and care (ECEC) for preschool-aged children with T1D can be an added burden for these parents. Yet, little is known about families’ experiences of care for their preschool-aged child with T1D in ECEC settings and no Australian studies have explored this."
"This co-design project, working with families, healthcare providers, educators, and policy stakeholders, aims to understand Australian families’ experiences of engaging with ECEC, and to develop community-led recommendations to make ECEC safer and more inclusive for children with T1D."
We look forward to sharing their research progress with you throughout the year.
First published Tuesday 31 March 2026.
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