The Sir Zelman Cowen Fellowship Fund will assist in developing new, specific and sustainable research and implementation programs that will improve the health of many thousands of women and their children and give opportunities for a healthier life.

The Sir Zelman Cowen Fellowship Fund will help to:

• Define the major disease burdens that contribute to the deaths of women and children, such as anemia, malaria, malnutrition, and postpartum haemorrhage, and identify the best ways to improve the delivery of treatments in the community setting.

• Conduct research to identify the best ways of providing effective health interventions to communities that currently lack readily accessible health care, such as screening and drug treatment to prevent the transmission of HIV to newborns, as well as delivering appropriate nutritional support.

• Develop the best way to address nutritional deficiencies, anemia and malaria in young children. Currently thousands of babies suffer from low birth weight and a high percentage of children under five are moderately or severely underweight, leaving them highly susceptible to malaria and other preventable infectious diseases.

• Identify practical ways to reduce maternal mortality. We need to identify the best ways to intervene during birth to reduce the death rate of mothers and their babies in remote village settings.

Why the Sir Zelman Cowen Fellowship Fund program is so important

The World Health Organization estimates 350,000 women and girls around the world die every year from often-preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth.

More than three million newborn babies also die needlessly because they don’t have access to adequate healthcare.

The Sir Zelman Cowen Fellowship Fund will improve the level of funding available to support our early-career scientists and enable them to continue their ground-breaking research here in Australia. We continue to lose many gifted young people overseas purely because funds are not provided for their research during the early to mid-part of their career. These scientific ‘stars of the future’ need our support and encouragement without having to relocate overseas and be part of the ‘brain drain’.

Thank you to all our wonderful supporters including:

Patron-in-Chief: Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia

I am delighted that the Fund honours the outstanding legacy of Sir Zelman Cowen whose contribution to Australian public life was an example to us all. Sir Zelman had a deep commitment to medical research and to promoting opportunities for our brilliant young scientists.

On behalf of our fellow Australians, I congratulate the Burnet Institute on the way it makes a difference to the lives of many. Medical Research, Practical Action.

Patron-in-Chief
Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC, CVO
Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia

I am delighted to recommend the Sir Zelman Cowen Fellowship Fund and all it is endeavouring to achieve. The tragic loss of a young woman and her baby during childbirth is a catastrophe for any family and community.

As an Ambassador I would ask that you too help in helping create a healthier and just world.

Lady Anna Cowen
Sir Zelman Cowen Fellowship Fund Ambassador

The Sir Zelman Cowen Fellowship Fund is a fund of the Burnet Institute, which is income tax exempt with all donations over $2 tax deductible. ABN: 44 726 647 62