Hello, and Season's Greetings from everyone at the Raine Study to all our researchers!
 
With our operations based in Perth, we are fortunate to have been able to proceed with business in line with the Western Australian version of “usual” in 2021. We know that this has not been the case for so many of you living in other locations around Australia and indeed around the world.
 
As 2021 draws to a close and the world continues to respond to the constantly evolving demands of the new-normal, we wish you good health, happiness, and connectedness with the people you care about the most, regardless of physical location.
 
Warmest regards,
Your Raine Study team 
 
In this issue:

• December/January office closure
• The Gen1-33 and Gen2-33 year follow-up – input via survey requested
• Embedding consumer and community involvement in health research
• How to write an effective lay summary
• News about our researchers
• News in brief: 2021 Annual Scientific Meeting, and more…
  

As a result, any new projects submitted during this period will not be approved before early February. Following that, the standard 6-8 week time period needed for project approvals will apply. If your project application is related to a grant/fellowship application, please factor in this turnaround time to ensure that your project receives the required Raine Study approval before the submission deadline.
 
Related to this, any data access requests submitted in ROSS during this December/January shutdown period will not be delivered until late January.
 
For a full description of the project and data access request approval process, please visit the For Researchers section of our website.
 
If you have any questions please email [email protected] and we will respond when we return.

As outlined at the Annual Scientific Meeting, the Raine Study will conduct a new follow-up with both Gen1 (parents of those born into the study) and Gen2 (the babies  born into the study from 1989-1992) participants, currently named the Gen1-33 and Gen2-33 year (Generations) follow-up. Data collection is scheduled to begin early in 2023.
 
Being able to collect consistent samples from two generations rather than one is something that we have never been able to do before. We believe that it will open up many new avenues for future research using Raine Study data, which in turn will add significantly to the ongoing value of the Raine Study to researchers in Australia and around the world.
 
Whilst the collection of core data/measures is determined and paid for by our funders, there is capacity to add further measures to this two-generation follow-up.
 
You should have already received an email from the Raine Study's Science team explaining the process for adding measures to this follow-up. If this is something you are interested in, please ensure that you talk to us first, before applying for funding. We will need to determine the costs associated with the collection of additional measures so that you can accurately budget for them in your proposals.
 
If you are interested in applying for a grant that (i) uses the Generations follow-up core data/measures and/or existing data/biosamples, (ii) adds to the Generations follow-up core data/measures, or (iii) both of the above, please complete this SURVEY as soon as possible (deadline extended from 17 December 2021 to 5 January 2022).

A new handbook for embedding consumer and community involvement in health research was launched by the WA Health Translation Network on 19 November. It is aimed at research organisations, researchers, consumers and funders. This handbook provides a very practical guide - step by step -- on HOW to embed CCI in your research. Importantly, this is not just for those doing clinical research, it's increasingly important to funders of all health-related research.
 
The handbook comes with a Quick Guide for those wanting a short reference version. Hard copies of both the handbook and the quick guide are available from WAHTN.

Related to this, participant engagement is and has been at the heart of the research undertaken by the Raine Study since its inception. To continue with this strategy, in November we welcomed thirteen new participant members to the Raine Study Community Advisory Committee, a majority of whom were able to join us for the final RSCAC meeting of the year on 30 November. 
 
Each and every one of our RSCAC members is committed and eager to work with Raine Study researchers to help ensure the best research outcomes for all involved. They are also keen to hear short updates from researchers at their quarterly RSCAC meetings. These could be about past research highlights, or sharing details about upcoming opportunities for involvement. 
 
If you are interested in connecting with our RSCAC members or involving other interested participants in general in your research, please get in contact and we’ll be happy to help start the process.

Lay summaries are commonly used by researchers in many subject areas - they are in fact required as a condition of entering your project into the Raine Study's Online Submission System (ROSS).
 
A well-written lay summary will bring many benefits to you as an author: increased visibility, increased "findability" online, and a greater understanding of your work by people beyond your immediate colleagues and team.
 
Unfortunately, it is much more common to find badly written lay summaries than it is good ones - full of jargon, too long, and incomprehensible to anyone who doesn't share your expertise in that field.
 
Since the translation of our research to non-specialist audiences is critical to securing funding, grants and potentially even media opportunities, we asked the Raine Study's Communications Manager Kate Rowlands to give us a rundown of what she hopes for in a lay summary. Read on for more. 

Dr Penelope Strauss (Telethon Kids Institute) awarded Raine Priming Grant.
 
Professor Sharon Parker earns Curtin University’s highest academic honour, John Curtin Distinguished Professor.
 
Dr Koya Ayonrinde (The University of Western Australia) awarded Spinnaker Grant, Premiers Science Award for his ongoing research into the causes of liver disease.
 
A number of the Raine Study’s eminent researchers and collaborators including Professors David Mackey, Jeremy Nicholson, Fiona Stanley, Fiona Wood and Bu Yeap were included in this list of top scientists globally by citations (Elsevier).
 
Dr Amanda Cleaver (Raine Medical Research Foundation) receives 2021 Aspire Award.
 
Associate Professor Ashleigh Lin (Telethon Kids Institute/The University of Western Australia) awarded NHMRC Investigator Grant.
 
Dr Peter Franklin (The University of Western Australia), co-leader of the Raine Study’s Environmental and Perinatal Exposures SIG, promoted to Associate Professor in UWA’s School of Population and Global Health.
 
Professor Trevor Mori (The University of Western Australia) in partnership with Dr Jun Yang (Hudson Institute) led a research study into hormone-related high blood pressure which was published in the August 2021 edition of the journal Hypertension, accompanied by editorial. 
 
Dr Chi-Le Ha (RPH Research Foundation) was the lead investigator of a world-first study published in the May 2021 edition of journal Hypertension. His research showed that young adults who had higher testosterone levels in their umbilical cord blood at birth tended to have high blood pressure by 20 to 27 years of age.

2021 Annual Scientific Meeting: Review the program and speaker abstracts, watch the presentation from our keynote speaker Professor Fiona Wood, learn more about the winners of the Best Student and Best Early Career Researcher Presentations, and more.

Highlights of Published Research in 2021: A total of 49 papers were published by researchers using data from the Raine Study in the period January-December 2021.

Research Project Applications: In 2021, we received 40 research project applications from researchers engaged with the Raine Study. These came from a range of topics across 7 of the Raine Study’s 14x Special Interest Research Groups which were (in order of frequency): Musculoskeletal (4); Cardiometabolic (3); Psychological (3); Environmental & Perinatal Exposures (1); Respiratory/Immunology (1); Senses (1); Sleep & Activity (1).

The Raine Study was invited by the WA Department of Health’s South Metropolitan Health Service to hold a Facilitated Workshop for early/mid-career researchers at Fiona Stanley Hospital on 3 December 2021.

The Visual Consent Research Project.