About the Grant

Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund Blue Sky Research Grant

Recognising that many great scientific discoveries are based on once blue-sky, fanciful ideas looking for a backer, in 2011 the Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund established the Blue Sky Research Grant, to provide such backing.

The inaugural award of the grant, which is for the period January – December 2012, was announced in November 2011. Because of the strength and number of applications received, the Trustees of the Fund decided that two awards, each of $100,000, would be made to the following projects:

Characterising a unique substrate for expansion and differentiation of mesenchymal stromal cells for use in regenerative medicine

Chief Investigators: Prof John Rasko, University of Sydney and RPA Hospital; Dr Janet Macpherson, RPA Hospital; Prof Tony Weiss, University of Sydney; Prof Dan Gazit, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

AND

Identifying novel factors for improving liver regeneration in the elderly
Chief Investigators: Prof Yehudit Bergman, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Prof Jacob George, University of Sydney

More details about the project lead by Prof John Rasko can be found here.

More details about project lead by Prof Yehudit Bergman can be found here.

The Award of the grants was announced at a special function held during the University of Sydney's Israel Research Partnerships Forum in November 2011. The function was hosted by the Australian Israel Chamber of Commerce.