The proposal is seeking a 10-year CRC grant from the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science and Resources for an industry-led collaborative research centre for co-designing and implementing the next generation of services under all the Care Economy Domains. Other key research partners include University of Sydney, University of South Australia, Macquarie, Griffith, and James Cook University.
The ‘Care Economy’ is as the largest single employer and fastest growing in Australia, with approximately 80% of the Care Economy workforce are women. It also represents a large and growing component of government expenditure, $41.2 billion in 2019-20, and projected to be 5% of all Commonwealth spending by 2030 in the current state. However, the Care Economy sector requires improvements to quality, productivity and outcomes as the sectors are converging, the Care Economy CRC proposal aims to do just this.
Through a series of national workshops between research and industry partners, the three identified research programs are Care Technology, Care Workforce and Care Delivery. The CRC proposal will focus research into improving the services for clients, careers for employees, and quality of life for all who intersect with the Care Economy through these research programs, creating an opportunity, not seen before, for huge transformational impact on the care sector.
Connecting with industry partners
The objective of CRC is to address industry-identified problems through industry-led and outcome focused collaborative research partnerships.
The next round of CRC funding has not yet opened but is expected to do so imminently. La Trobe University and the Care Economy CRC bid team are working closely alongside industry partners who see the CRC as an opportunity to co-design and implement research-led innovation within their area of service.
The Care Economy touches a very broad part of Australia’s commercial and industry base, not only organisations working in care sector, and La Trobe University hopes to connect as many interested industry partners with this opportunity.
The proposal presents opportunities for industry partners to leverage their current research and development funding with matched Government funding into a 10-year collaboration. The partnership will provide access to the best research, government and industry expertise to co-create best practice solutions to this enormous part of Australia’s society and economy.
To join with the Care Economy CRC bid
If you’d like to collaborate with La Trobe and the research organisations on the Care Economy CRC proposal, please contact Professor Irene Blackberry on 0410626880 or by email i.blackberry@latrobe.edu.au
For further information please visit www.careeconomycrc.com.au
