2 minute read
Philanthropy • Early Career Research seed funding expands horizons
Dr Fiona Rillotta is transforming the lives of Australians with intellectual disability.
Supported by individual donors, a $10,000 Early Career Research grant from Flinders University has helped Dr Rillotta deliver six research projects based on the University’s trailblazing Up the Hill Project.
Established at Flinders in 1999, Up the Hill is the first-ever inclusion program that offers a university experience for people with intellectual disability. ‘The students have the opportunity to study topics of interest with their peers at Flinders, including visual arts, popular culture, history, women’s studies, drama, screen studies, tourism, IT and disability studies,’ says Dr Rillotta. ‘The university experience leads to personal development in self-confidence, social networks, social skills, and self-advocacy skills. It makes a huge difference to the lives of people living with intellectual disability.’ Dr Rillotta says participants and supporters of the program know its positive impacts, but without empirical research evidence to inform this belief, the program would remain small in scope. With her Early Career Research seed funding, Dr Rillotta was able to employ Up the Hill graduate Tim Adam as co-researcher, to help create and publish accessible research summaries of key areas of the program. The outcomes of this research have been even greater than Dr Rillotta and Mr Adam expected, including high journal rankings that will help develop their research careers, access to national funding to expand the research, and the redevelopment of the Up the Hill Project. ‘We’re now re-designing the Up the Hill program based on some of the research findings, including enabling participants to work towards a university qualification rather than simply a certificate of completion,’ says Dr Rillotta. This change means school leavers with intellectual disability could transition to university just like their peers. Flinders will be the first university in Australia to offer this opportunity. Without donor support, none of these outcomes would have been possible. ‘This seed funding gave me the opportunity to collaborate with others, build a track record, produce results that will impact the community, and gain even more funding opportunities that I hope will support policy change on a national level,’ says Dr Rillotta. This year, Flinders will match every donation to the Early Career Research fund, up to a total of $40,000. This means your donation to support the valuable research by emerging researchers will be doubled – creating even more impact for our community.
DR FIONA RILLOTTA
