At Burnet, we are helping to create the future of health.
Launched today, the Burnet 2030 Strategy has a strong commitment to supporting our research programs, environment, and importantly, our people - the very heart of Burnet.
Burnet 2030 focuses on growing our impact, as we help create a future where diseases are eliminated, the world is more prepared, and future generations thrive.
Director and CEO, Professor Brendan Crabb AC said: “it’s the first time we’ve looked nearly a decade ahead. And that says a lot about where we are as an institution. And in the world of global health where there are complex problems, technical problems that intersect with poverty, you have to look long term.”
Burnet 2030 highlights our priorities in our programmatic areas of infectious diseases and maternal and child health, and in strengthening both our workforce and our workplace, especially as a Foundation Partner in the Australian Institute for Infectious Disease.
“The core theme of Burnet 2030 is impact around two major themes that have equity. Our vision of a more equitable world through better health. That’s been the core theme of the institute, almost since its inception, 30 years ago,” Professor Crabb said.
“Our vision influences all of Burnet 2030, and throughout we foster our unusually broad interdisciplinary approach that marries laboratory-based discoveries with public health research, commercialisation, and international development programs.
“What’s new this time is that we’re adding a second core theme - equity in a rapidly changing world. We know climate change is upon us. We know that humans are encroaching and impacting the environment like never before. And that is changing things very quickly for people and for people’s health.
“No strategy can be sustained without paying close attention to the effects of a rapidly changing climate and environment. Burnet 2030 embraces this challenge.”
“The institute has two technical foci - the first is infectious disease, the second overlaps - its Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health. And we tackle those through major initiatives - Eliminating Hepatitis C, Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, and Know-C19 which is focused on pandemics,” Professor Crabb said.
“In Burnet 2030 we’re adding two more major initiatives - The first is around capacity building in indigenous health to grow the next generation of great health research leaders in indigenous health in Australia. And the Burnet Diagnostics Initiative, to address tests that are costly and complicated and turn them into simple, point-of-care, home-based tests for things that would otherwise be expensive and difficult.
“And a major priority of Burnet 2030 is our people, the very heart of Burnet. The culture of Burnet is intertwined with both our core reason for being here - which is an equity-based reason and our point of difference which is that technical breadth.
“We are building resources to complement the government and related philanthropic grants to be able to have a long-term, exciting, vibrant workplace and that’s a challenge that we are not alone in facing but Burnet is in a very good position now, a well-resourced position to do something special in the next decade.”