The Seahorse, Issue 41, September 2021

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Welcome to our new Board members (L-R): Sir Edward Byrne AC Kt. Professor Karen Day AM, Mr Craig Drummond and Professor Emma Johnston AO. MESSAGE FROM THE CEO

Changing roles and new faces Despite the continuing challenges thrown at us all during 2021, the management team at the Foundation continues to focus on how it can best support the not-for-profit organisations that are largely bearing the brunt of our community’s needs because of the ongoing impacts of the pandemic.

To better respond to grantseekers and grantees alike, we have changed staffing in two program areas. Responsibility for Medical Research, previously managed by Alberto Furlan, has been handed to Lauren Monaghan. Lauren was already responsible for Health

Research projects, meaning she will assume responsibility for all aspects of the Subscribe Past Issues Translate Foundation’s grantmaking in the Healthy funding pillar. As a result of this change, Louise Arkles will now take responsibility for both the on-the-ground and research-based environmental grantmaking, the latter previously managed by Lauren, with Louise assuming responsibility for all aspects of the Foundation’s grantmaking in the Sustainable pillar.

Lauren has a Master of Public Health (Global Health) from the University of Melbourne and is passionate about engaging with the health sector. Lauren’s background in health will significantly assist her in deepening her understanding and knowledge of and connections across the healthcare sector and working with members of the Healthy Committee to amplify the Foundation’s impact in this critical area.

Lauren assumes responsibility for the Healthy funding pillar at an exciting time, with two new Governors with expertise in the health sector joining the Board in 2021. Sir Edward Byrne AC, a respected neuroscientist and clinician, and Professor Karen Day AM, a respected infectious disease epidemiologist, join Professor Richard Larkins AC and Professor Fiona Stanley AC on the Healthy Committee guiding the Foundation’s deliberations in this area of funding.

For Louise Arkles, the move to assume full responsibility for the Sustainable funding pillar is particularly exciting, as her expanded and focused role coincides with the appointment of Professor Emma Johnston AO to the Board (also in September 2021), and who is now the Chair of the Sustainable Committee. Louise is enthusiastic about taking on full responsibility for the Sustainable pillar as she is personally passionate about protecting and conserving our environment. Likewise, she is excited to work alongside a new Board member with significant skills and experience in environmental science to benefit the Foundation’s capability as a funder supporting a sustainable environment.

Alberto Furlan will retain his role as Senior Program Manager responsible for Community Wellbeing. However, he will also be assuming a new, multi-dimensional role to develop large collaborative opportunities at the Foundation and support existing grantees navigate opportunities to scale their impact sustainably. This natural evolution of Alberto’s role allows him to extend his considerable skills and experience gained working at the Foundation to amplify our impact in support of our grantees.

Recently, we have also reached out to our partners/grantees in NSW and Victoria to let them know that the Foundation continues to adapt its processes to meet the needs of grantees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The program management team and I are always open to discussing the needs of any grantee that is currently the recipient of project-based funding from the Foundation. Those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic who wish to divert funding to more critical areas of operations have been encouraged to contact the relevant program manager to discuss this option. Similarly, we have advised grantees that extensions to project timelines, deliverables and reporting will readily be approved to not place any further demands on our grantees during these challenging times.

Lastly, and as already alluded to earlier in this report, I am pleased to share with you the exciting news of the formal commencement of three new Board members at The Ian Potter Foundation since 30 June 2021. In July 2021, Mr Craig Drummond, an experienced businessman and accomplished financial services executive, joined the Board and has been appointed Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee and will work as a member of the

Community Wellbeing and Finance Committees. As already noted, Professor Emma Subscribe Past Issues Johnston AO and Professor Karen Day AM recently joined the Board of The Ian Potter Foundation. In addition to her role as Chair of the Sustainable Committee, Professor

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Johnston joins the Foundation’s Early Childhood Development Committee. Professor Day also joins the Sustainable Committee and will support Mrs Susan Crennan AC QC in taking responsibility for The George Alexander Foundation.

The appointments of Sir Edward Byrne AC Kt (April 2021), Mr Craig Drummond (July 2021), Professor Emma Johnston AO (September 2021) and Professor Karen Day AM (September 2021) represents the largest number of new Board appointments in a single year, since the establishment of the Foundation in 1964.

I am sure you will join me in welcoming these new Board members to the Foundation. I am excited to work alongside experienced and generous people whose skills and expertise will add further dimensions to our continued efforts to assist existing and prospective grantees in creating a fair, healthy, sustainable and vibrant Australia. Details of each new Board member’s background and areas of expertise can be found on our website under People.

As 2021 draws to a close, I am personally invested in our race to vaccinate our nation. I know we all crave a return to our own version of normal, whatever that means for each of us. For me, that will represent the opportunity to gather with my wife and three children and our new daughter-in-law, for the first time as a family, in the same place, somewhere and sometime in 2022. Please stay safe, hug those you love, if you can, and look forward to a brighter future as the pandemic of 2020 and 2021 starts to fade.

Craig Connelly

GRANTS ROUND UP

$7.6 million across 26 grants

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A volunteer assists in planting rainforest tree in the Daintree – Australia's largest and most biodiverse rainforest and the world's most ancient.

Image courtesy of Rainforest Rescue. Photographer: Martin Stringer.

The latest funding round comprised 24 grants totalling $7,619,300 awarded across the Fair and Sustainable pillars, plus one impact enhancement grant in the Vibrant pillar and a sector support grant to Philanthropy Australia.

Within the Fair pillar, nine Community Wellbeing grants were awarded ($1,110,000), three Early Childhood Development grants ($1,710,000) and one $20,000 grant awarded through The Alec Prentice Sewell Gift.

In the Sustainable pillar, eleven grants were awarded totalling $4,569,300. These included one major grant ($500,000) awarded as a single-year core funding grant supporting ClimateWorks Australia, seven on-ground multi-year environment projects ($3,121,300), two multi-year environmental research projects ($928,000) and one $20,000 impact enhancement grant supporting Australian Network for Plant Conservation.

In the Vibrant pillar, there was also one impact enhancement grant ($50,000) awarded to Contemporary Arts Precinct to help fund a public artwork commission to activate the Collingwood Yards site.

A $160,000 Sector Support grant was also awarded to Philanthropy Australia towards the peak body’s strategy development.

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Subscribe Past Issues PROGRAM AREAS & FUNDING ROUNDS

Times (& people) are changing

Dr Jack Richards (left) and The Ian Potter Foundation's Dr Alberto Furlan and Lauren Monaghan inspect Burnet's new biosafety cabinet in 2017.

Program Manager changes Recently, some changes have been made to staffing in two program areas. Lauren Monaghan will now take over responsibility for Medical Research, previously managed by Alberto Furlan. Lauren already manages the Public Health Research program area so this change means Lauren will assume full responsibility for the Healthy Funding pillar. With a strong background in health, Lauren is keen to deepen her understanding and knowledge of and connections across the healthcare sector.

As a result of this change, Louise Arkles will now be the sole program manager for the Sustainable pillar including on-the-ground and research-based environmental grants.

Alberto Furlan will retain his role as Senior Program Manager responsible for Community Wellbeing and has assumed a new strategic role to develop large collaborative opportunities at the Foundation.

Nicole Bortone returns Nicole Bortone has returned from maternity leave to continue her role as Program Manager of Early Childhood Development and The Alec Prentice Sewell Gift.

Please note, Nicole works three days a week: Wednesday to Friday. The next funding round for Early Childhood Development opens in March 2022.

Funding Rounds

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Subscribe Past Issues Translate The open date for the next funding round has moved from 18 October 2021 to 15 November 2021. Medical Research is the only program area open in this round and applications do not close until 25 January 2022. Medical Research grantseekers should contact Lauren Monaghan from the new open date to discuss their potential grant applications.

Funding round dates

GRANTEES IN THE NEWS

Recently launched

Launch of Ngangk Waangening: Mothers’ Stories

Ngangk Waangening: Mothers' Stories Ngangk Waangening: Mothers’ Stories, conceived and developed by Ngangk Yira Research Centre for Aboriginal Health and Social Equity at Murdoch University has recently been released by Fremantle Press. Written in monthly yarning sessions with Indigenous women from across the state, the book relays their experiences of motherhood, ranging from dealing with helpful Aboriginal midwives at Derby hospital to giving birth alone on a veranda.

The aim of the book is to break the taboo around 'women's business', and help educate midwives and pregnant Indigenous women around the country. Professor Rhonda Marriott, a Nyikina woman from Derby who helped collate the book, said every woman's story was wildly different and, for many, it was the first time they had even spoken about their experience giving birth.

Subscribe Past Issues Translate A common thread throughout the book is the need to re-centre Indigenous knowledge. In her foreword to the book, Professor Fiona Stanley writes: "The challenge of becoming educated in the dominant culture while keeping strong in one's own culture as well is enormous, but Aboriginal women and men are doing just that. They are not only excelling in medicine, nursing, midwifery, psychology, social sciences, mental health, child health and public health but in history, agriculture science and all areas of endeavour."

The book is edited by Aunty Dorren Nelson, Rhonda Marriott AM and Tracy Reibel.

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NELLS launched On September 8 2021, the proposed National Early Language and Literacy Strategy was launched by the National Early Language and Literacy Coalition (NELLC), a body of 10 key organisations, which, together with input from government departments, agencies and interested parties, has developed a proposed national strategy that they want the government to review and prioritise.

The launch of the proposed strategy received coverage in The Australian and other sector media outlets.

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An introduction to the NEW third edition of ‘Plant Germplasm Conservation in Australia: strategies and guidelines for developing, managing and utilising ex situ collections in Australia’.

Germplasm Guidelines updated The Australian Network for Plant Conservation has recently comprehensively updated one of its flagship publications 'Plant Germplasm Conservation in Australia - strategies and guidelines for developing, managing and utilising ex situ collections'.

The Guidelines ­– which is a joint publication of ANPC and the Australian Seed Bank Partnership – remains the definitive Australian standard for native seed and regenerative plant material collection, storage, and use. It was last updated in 2009 and since that time, seed biology research has progressed significantly.

To ensure that the latest information is passed onto practitioners and land managers, ANPC brought together leading experts in seed biology research and practice from across Australia to review and rewrite the Guidelines. It now incorporates updated scientific knowledge to ensure Australia’s seed sector maintains the necessary skills and knowledge required.

Printed copies of the Guidelines are available free of charge through the Australian Network for Plant Conservation website. There are also several short videos available that look at Assessing Seed Storage Behaviour, Our National Plant Treasures and If I were a Plant …musing from the authors of the Guidelines.

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IPF News

Past Issues We're getting a new look

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New website coming in 2022 We are pleased and excited to announce that a new Ian Potter Foundation website is coming in early 2022. Design and development are well underway and we expect to be able to share a beta version of the site with our users in January 2022 to get feedback on usability.

We are building in some helpful new features so please check out this short video to see what’s coming.

MORE GRANTEE NEWS

JCU comes up TroMPS

A shot at Earthshot Prize

Finalists announcement | The Earthshot Prize

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James Cook University's Tropical Subscribe Past Issues Mountaintop Plant Species (TroMPS) project led by Professor Darren Crayn has won the Cassowary Award for Climate Change Leadership from the Wet Tropics Management Authority (WTMA).

Professor Crayn's research team are sampling and securing climate threatened plant species from tropical mountaintops and studying/propagating them in partnership with several botanical gardens around Australia.

This award demonstrates what can be achieved when a clear research vision is pursued with excellent science supported by strong partnerships. This project is being supported by The Ian Potter

Living Seawalls, a flagship project of the Translate Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS), has joined The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Royal Foundation Earthshot Prize family – as one of only three finalists in the world selected in the oceans category of the most prestigious environmental prize in history.

Finalists were announced globally on 17th September in an online event hosted by HRH Prince William. The winner in each category will be revealed on 17th October.

Follow @sydneyinstituteofmarinescience on Facebook or @SydneyMarine on Twitter for updates.

Foundation, WTMA, The Geoff Ross Foundation, the Threatened Species Initiative and other partner institutions.

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We produce this quarterly e-newsletter to keep our friends and associates up to date with all the news and recent grants made by The Ian Potter Foundation.

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present.

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