IMNIS program expands to cover new areas of health and medical research
16 September 2020
Pictured (L-R): IMNIS REDI mentees Adaeze Precious Ekwe, Mahshid Ghasemi, Enying Gong, Lara van Leeuwen, Yih Rue Ong.
Five outstanding PhD students in the growth areas of regenerative medicine, gene and cell therapy and digital health technologies are being partnered with high-calibre experts to develop their career pathways.
The Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE), in partnership with industry growth centre MTPConnect is extending its Industry Mentoring Network in STEM (IMNIS) program to support a skilled future workforce in the health and medical research sector through the Researcher Exchange and Development in Industry (REDI) initiative.
ATSE CEO, Kylie Walker today said expanding the IMNIS program to support growth areas in the health and medical research sector will give PhD graduates a knowledge commercialisation mindset, helping to bring research and technologies to market for the benefit of all Australians.
“The IMNIS program connects students and early-stage postdoctoral fellows with industry leaders and decision-makers, which opens the door to a broader range of potential careers to which they otherwise would not have had exposure.
“Opening up a broad range of career pathways in these specialised health and medical fields will provide enormous benefit, not just for the graduates, but also to society.
“By applying to participate in the IMNIS program, early career researchers are showing a strong interest in connecting with industry leaders to broaden their career options beyond academia."
MTPConnect Managing Director and CEO Dan Grant said the REDI initiative is supporting expansion of proven programs like IMNIS to develop an industry-ready workforce with the skills necessary to keep pace with a rapidly changing sector.
“As we continue to push the frontiers of medical research, and new fields develop such as regenerative medicine, we need to prioritise skills development by attracting, building and retaining world-class talent in these innovation areas.
“Extending IMNIS mentoring opportunities to growth areas such as gene therapy or digital health technologies will create new career pathways for our brightest minds,” Dr Dan Grant said.
The five REDI mentees applied to participate in the IMNIS program through their University or Institute, who then selected their respective candidate.
These competitively selected mentees were identified by ATSE as undertaking research in fields with high job-growth potential:
- Enying Gong, University of Melbourne
- Yih Rue Ong, Monash University
- Mahshid Ghasemi, University of South Australia
- Adaeze Precious Ekwe, Queensland University of Technology and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute
- Lara van Leeuwen, UNSW
See more about the IMNIS REDI mentees.