Life Course Centre Professional Team wins UQ 2020 Award for Excellence in Service

17 Dec 2020

The Professional Team from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (the Life Course Centre) has been honoured with a 2020 Award for Excellence by The University of Queensland.

The Life Course Centre is a national research centre investigating the factors underlying social, economic and health disadvantage to provide life-changing solutions for policy and service delivery. The Centre is administered by the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) at The University of Queensland (UQ) and is a collaboration with The University of Sydney, The University of Melbourne and The University of Western Australia as well as a network of international experts and government and non-government partners.

The UQ Awards for Excellence celebrate the achievements and successes of staff across all levels of the organisation. The Awards Selection Committee honour outstanding contributions, innovative work and exemplary leadership, and this year’s awards saw a record 222 nominations. The Life Course Centre Professional Team claimed an Award for Excellence in the Service category. The award was presented by UQ Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Deborah Terry and attended by Life Course Centre Director Professor Janeen Baxter.

The Awards Selection Committee commented: “The Life Course Centre Professional Team provides exceptional service and support to ensure the success of this Centre of Excellence scheme, which is a major research initiative. The team works closely with Chief investigators across four universities, as well as research fellows, students, external partners and international partner investigators to establish a culture of innovation, inclusiveness and engagement. Their exceptional service has established a strong culture of professionalism across all parts of the Centre, while raising the profile and reputation of UQ social science, and importantly, underpinned the development of a successful new Australian Research Council proposal for new funding from 2021.”

Pictured at the 2020 UQ Awards for Excellence ceremony are (back, from left: Carla McCarthy, Heidi Hoffmann, Lisa Pope; (front, from left: Matt MacDermott, UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Terry, Life Course Centre Director Professor Janeen Baxter.

In the video below, Professor Bronwyn Harch, UQ Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation) and Professor Heather Zwicker, Executive Dean, UQ Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, honour the achievements of the Life Course Centre:

The Life Course Centre Professional Team nominated for the award comprised: Ms Dee Dearing, Centre Administrator; Ms Heidi Hoffmann, Research Assistant; Mr Matthew MacDermott, Communications Officer; Ms Carla McCarthy, Engagement Officer; Dr Lucy Mills, Chief Operating officer; and Dr Lisa Pope, Analysis & Development Coordinator.

Also at the 2020 UQ Awards for Excellence, Dr Lucy Mills, Life Course Centre Director Professor Janeen Baxter, and Ms Emma Earl of ISSR were all part of the UQ 2020 ARC Centres of Excellence Bid Development Team that received a Commendation in the Leadership category. This team helped UQ to secure three of the nine ARC Centres Excellence awarded in the 2020 round. UQ was the only University to receive more than one Centre let alone achieving three from three shortlisted bids – for the Life Course Centre, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture – from an initial field of 93 expressions of interest nationwide.

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