Melbourne-Calgary Research Partnership
A collaborative research partnership between the University of Calgary's Cumming School of Medicine and the University of Melbourne's Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, made possible through the visionary philanthropic support of Geoff Cumming, is advancing innovative projects in priority health areas. Built on shared strengths and research interests in infectious diseases, microbiome research, and its influence on many different areas of health, the partnership offers opportunities to support bold research and drive meaningful global health impact.
University of Calgary–University of Melbourne Cumming Connector
The Cumming Connector challenges conventional thinking and supports bold research in shared interest areas including infectious diseases, immunology, the microbiome, and neuroscience. It builds on the existing strategic partnership between UCalgary and University of Melbourne, including the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne, and the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute in Calgary.
Applications coming June 2026!
This prestigious exchange program supports exceptional postdoctoral researchers to pursue ambitious, boundary-pushing projects overseas under the mentorship of world-class research supervisors. It is an opportunity for rising research stars from the University of Calgary, the University of Melbourne (including the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity), and the Florey Institute for Neurosciences and Mental Health to spend one to two years in a host laboratory at the partner institution.
The inaugural Calgary-Melbourne Cumming Post-Doc Exchange builds on shared strengths and research interests, made possible through the Cumming Medical Research Fund, which is funded by the visionary philanthropic support of Geoff Cumming and the Government of Alberta.
Priority areas of research include: infection, inflammation, immunity, and neuroscience and brain health.
A key pillar of the University of Calgary-University of Melbourne Cumming Connector Program, the exchange aims to foster individual professional growth and the training of highly qualified personnel while strengthening international collaboration between the two universities and shaping the future of health outcomes.
If you have any questions or want to ensure you receive notification when the competition launches, please email medgrant@ucalgary.ca.
More information to come.
Applications now closed
The Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI), in partnership with the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne, has launched a joint Pilot Collaboration Grant Scheme to strengthen international research links in neuroscience. This initiative will fund two projects of up to $50,000 each, supporting collaborative research over 12 months. The scheme is designed to spark new partnerships or expand existing collaborations between Florey and HBI researchers across all areas of brain science. Projects exploring the intersection of infection, the microbiome, and brain health are particularly encouraged.
Researchers in Melbourne are working with colleagues at the University of Calgary to advance shared goals in stroke research. The groups held their first ThinkTank in Helsinki, Finland, in May 2025, with a second ThinkTank planned for Seoul, South Korea, in October 2026.
Together, the teams also co-host a quarterly seminar program, providing a forum for researchers from both institutions to share their latest work and identify opportunities for collaboration. Current joint initiatives include: Melbourne acute hospital intervention and statistical modelling teams collaborating with Calgary on the ACT-GLOBAL stroke platform trial, as well as their rehabilitation and statistical modelling teams advising on new early phase trials in Calgary.
Melbourne-Calgary Collaborative Seed Funding Program
In 2024, five cross-institutional teams from the Doherty Institute and the University of Calgary were awarded a combined $155,000 CAD through the Melbourne–Calgary Collaborative Seed Funding program. Established to foster a research partnership between the two institutions, the program supports collaborative initiatives in infectious disease research, supported by the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences (MDHS).
Projects focused on One Health (how human health is linked to animals and the environment) and antimicrobial resistance, diagnostics and clinical trials received three Melbourne-Calgary Collaborative Seed Grants.
Two additional seed grants, jointly funded by the Cumming Global Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics and the CSM’s Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases, were also awarded with a focus on technologies that will ease the burden of the next pandemic.
Each project has co-principal investigators based at UCalgary and the Doherty Institute.
- RAMP: Rapid Advancement of Mpox Point-of-care Diagnostics with Chief Investigators: Dr. Shivani Pasricha, MD (Doherty Institute) and Dr. Dylan Pillai, MD, PhD (UCalgary)
- Guardians of the Gut: Microbiome Therapeutics for Decolonising AMR pathogens from the gut with Chief Investigators: Dr. Glen Carter, PhD (Doherty Institute) and Dr. Kathy McCoy, PhD (UCalgary)
- A cross-jurisdictional electronic health record based observational cohort of Enterococcal bacteraemia, with Chief Investigators: Dr. Steven Tong, PhD (Doherty Institute) and Dr. Ranjani Somayaji, MD‘10, PGME‘15, (UCalgary)
- Dirty mice, clean results: a pre-clinical model for immunity to infection that better mimics human immune responses, with Chief Investigators: Dr. Maximillien Evrard, PhD (Doherty Institute) and Dr. Kathy McCoy, PhD (UCalgary)
- Synergising Human Organoid Platforms to Support Pandemic Therapeutic Research with Chief Investigators: Dr Laura Cook, PhD (Doherty Institute) and Dr. Simon Hirota, PhD (UCalgary)
AUS-CAN Symposium
In October 2025 a joint event held in Melbourne showcased the partnership between the University of Melbourne, The Florey and the University of Calgary and associated institutes: the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, and the Doherty (Melbourne).
The symposium Frontiers in Neuro-Microbial Interactions explored infectious diseases, immunology, the microbiome, and neuroscience.
