A new Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence will conduct world-leading research to investigate new ways of tackling social and economic disadvantage, and to better support Australian children and families.
ARC Acting Chief Executive Officer, Ms Judi Zielke PSM, welcomed today’s official launch of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (the Life Course Centre), which is led by Professor Janeen Baxter at The University of Queensland. The Centre is receiving $32 million in funding from the ARC over 7 years.
Ms Zielke said that researchers at the Life Course Centre will generate valuable new knowledge on key institutions such as families, education, and employment. In turn the research is being adopted in the community with the delivery of webinars on ‘Parenting in the pandemic’ and ‘Families under pressure’ directly supporting disadvantaged families.
“Centre researchers will bring together innovative new data sources to track trajectories and pathways across the whole life course journey. Their research will also focus on specific places to ensure opportunities are equally shared and deliver real-world benefits through life-changing solutions for policy, service providers and communities. This is transformative research and research translation to break the cycle of deep and persistent disadvantage for Australians, and reimagining how we live and work to build a better more equal society for all.” Ms Zielke said.
The ARC Centres of Excellence are prestigious centres of expertise where high-quality researchers maintain and develop Australia’s international standing in research areas of national priority and facilitate significant collaborations between universities, publicly funded research organisations, other research bodies, governments and businesses in Australia and overseas.
More information about the ARC Centres of Excellence scheme is available on the ARC website.
This article originally appeared on the ARC website on 1 March 2022.