About the Lowitja Institute
The Lowitja Institute is an innovative research body that brings together Aboriginal organisations, academic institutions and government agencies to facilitate collaborative, evidence-based research into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health.
The Institute will host the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (CRCATSIH) until June 2014 when its funding cycle ends. Beyond June 2014 the Institute will fund research and implement programs in its own right, thereby providing a permanent organisation for Indigenous health research.
The Lowitja Institute is dedicated to:
- Working with Australia’s leading health research institutions, policymakers and community organisations to ensure world-class health research is targeted at areas where it can have the most impact in improving the health and lives of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
- Ensuring that research outcomes are disseminated widely through knowledge exchange, and that promising interventions identified by research are implemented and evaluated.
- Collaborating with Australian educational/training organisations to support the expansion of a professional Indigenous health – and health research – workforce.
The activities of the Lowitja Institute are overseen by the Board (see below) of the National Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research Ltd (the Company), which comprises seven directors, including an independent Chair, the majority of whom are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. The Company is a not-for-profit entity limited by guarantee and structured as a public benevolent institution.
The Lowitja Institute’s membership comprises CRCATSIH members, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical service providers, government departments and statutory bodies, research institutions and private sector entities. See Congress Lowitja for more information about membership.
Interim Board of the Lowitja Institute
The Company is in the process of appointing a permanent Board of Directors. In the interim its activities, including oversight of the Lowitja Institute, are being governed by an Interim Board. Go to Call for Expressions of Interest for the Lowitja Board, which closes on 31 August 2010.
Interim Board members are: Ms Pat Anderson (Chair), Professor Ian Anderson, Ms Stephanie Bell, Professor Jonathan Carapetis and Professor Shane Houston.