Receive a $30,000 award to power your PhD research and help close the developmental gap in kids.
ORIGINS is the largest longitudinal interventional cohort study of its kind in Australia. Following 10,000 WA children from their time into the womb and into early childhood, ORIGINS researchers are working to better understand when and why non-communicable diseases develop, and provide solutions for early intervention to ensure every child has an equal opportunity to flourish throughout their lifetime.
The Flourishing Child, an ORIGINS sub-project, was recently awarded an MRFF grant over $700,000 for the expansion of the project. The Flourishing Child is working to reduce the rising number of children entering school with social and emotional delays, including undiagnosed neurodevelopment disorders and co-occurring mental health problems, through the provision of accessible, targeted supports for parents in the early years.
The Flourishing Child expansion will include the development and testing of a Flourishing Assessment and Pathway Tool for parents to identify ways to support flourishing in their child's early years.
The Flourishing Assessment, which will be co-designed by ORIGINS existing community in the Joondalup and Wanneroo area will provide information on an individual child’s flourishing to the people who need it the most: parents and carers of young children. By developing a brief, digital, easily accessible and consumer-informed assessment, it will allow parents and carers to understand their child's needs better and may prompt them to seek suitable support should it be required.
The Pathway Tool will direct parents and carers to a wide range of information such as links to evidence based digital applications, standard community services, tip sheets and websites to empower parents with new skills, resources and capabilities that support their child's flourishing.
With the expansion of The Flourishing Child sub-project, there is an opportunity for a PhD student to join the sub-project, with the successful candidate awarded a once-off $30,000 award to support their research.
Eligible candidates must either be currently completing their PhD in a domain within early childhood health or about to begin said PhD within the 0 - 5 year age group.
The successful PhD student will assist with:
- An audit and gap analysis to search for high-quality, evidence-based support programs and interventions that support flourishing and are currently available to young families locally and nationally.
- Creating a prototype of the Flourishing Assessment by defining key concepts being measured, assessing flourishing at an individual level by adapting The Nest Framework's population-level indicators, evaluating pre-existing measures and creating new measures where required based on previous stakeholder responses, creating a draft response format and building a digital assessment prototype for easy distribution and automated scoring.
- Test the Flourishing Assessment among parents within the ORIGINS cohort and early childhood professionals.
- Assess the feasibility of the Pathway Tool through a randomised two-arm trial to determine ease of understanding, visual appeal, acceptability of language, readability, functionality, and ease of navigation using the PEMAT framework.
- Assist in developing a final report and recommendation on participant confidence in the Flourishing Assessment and Pathway Tool through analysis of participant questionnaires and focus group data.
ORIGINS incorporates a strong emphasis on longevity, with our students granted access to our large repository of biological and lifestyle data not otherwise available to researchers in Australia at a discounted rate. To date, the ORIGINS Biobank contains over 400,000 biological samples, and our Data Catalogue contains over 16 million data points.
ORIGINS students also enjoy:
- A workspace at The Kids Research Institute Australia, conveniently based at Perth Children's Hospital in Nedlands
- Access to a Biostatician
- Modern offices and end of trip facilities, including sit to stand desks
- Access to The Kids Student Support Program, the health and wellbeing program, and assistance in developing scholarships and award applications
- Promotion of your research project and findings through ORIGINS vast online and professional network