The ability to communicate and present research clearly and simply is a key skill for any researcher. Fadia Isaac, a clinical psychologist at Federation University and a Postgraduate Research Scholar with Natural Hazards Research Australia, demonstrated her excellent communication skills by winning Cooperative Research Australia's recent Early Career Researcher Competition.
Four finalists were chosen to present at the Innovate Collaborate 2023 conference, held in Adelaide in July, each giving a five-minute presentation on the practical application of their research, with Fadia's presentation of her Online cognitive-behavioural intervention for treatment of insomnia and nightmares in bushfire survivors project taking out the winning spot, with a $5,000 cash prize.
Other finalists included David Li at University of Sydney, Bhavya Mod at University of Newcastle and Zoe Piper at Australian National University.
Natural Hazards Research Australia CEO Andrew Gissing congratulated Fadia on winning the competition.
"Winning this competition is a fantastic achievement for Fadia and highlights her ability to communicate her research to a non-specialist audience," Andrew said.
"We are glad to have Fadia on board as one of our postgraduate scholars and we look forward to supporting her research and seeing her grow as a researcher in our network."
Fadia's study is a online, self-paced sleep intervention trial called Sleep Best-i, developed for treatment of sleep disturbances such as insomnia, nightmares or sleep trauma in bushfire survivors.
“The hope is that Sleep Best-i will give individuals increasing self-governance when it comes to their mental health and sleep patterns,” said Fadia.
This trial is currently recruiting participants. For more information, visit https://sleepwell1copy.healthzone.org.au/ or contact Prof Gerard Kennedy: g.kennedy@federation.edu.au.
Competitions such as this are just one of the benefits for postgraduate students who join the Natural Hazards Research Australia research network. Find out more about our Postgraduate Research Scholarship program and the research being conducted here.
Watch Fadia's finalist video entry here: