$300k for gambling harm early career researcher projects

The Minister for Consumer Affairs, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Marlene Kairouz, today invited applications for up to six individual gambling harm-related early career researcher projects, with a total funding pool of $300,000 GST excl. available.

The funding will be awarded under the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation’s Grants for Gambling Research Program, which supports projects that aim to broaden and deepen our understanding of how the Victorian community is affected by gambling. 

Knowledge gained through the research program informs strategies and activities to prevent and reduce gambling harm, as well as provide effective support services. Governments also consider the robust and impartial findings of Foundation-funded research in formulating and making policy decisions.

The Foundation currently supports a range of research projects that are examining how factors like marketing, accessibility, new technologies and the normalisation of gambling affect people’s behaviour. 

Other Foundation-funded projects are looking at, and providing insights into, the effects of the proliferation of gambling advertising; the progression of gaming to gambling; and the impact of gambling harm on at-risk groups such as young men, people who are affected by other public health and social issues, and Aboriginal Victorians. 

Following a six-month consultation process that involved more than 230 individuals and organisations across metropolitan and regional Victoria, the Foundation’s second five-year research agenda was also launched today.

The Research Agenda 2018–2022 focuses on five themes:

1. monitoring and surveillance
2. harm
3. gambling products
4. gambling environments
5. recovery and support. 
   

Aligning with these themes, the priority areas for the early career researcher grants are:

• lived experience
• gambling harm and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) communities
• gambling in regional Victoria
• eSports
• fantasy sports and daily fantasy sports.

Projects will be funded for 18 months.

The comprehensive consultation process included people with personal experience of gambling harm, as well as members of LGBTIQ, Aboriginal, and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

Applications for early career researcher grants close at 2.00 pm AEST on Monday, 16 July 2018.