Illuminate Awards
Illuminate Awards are a philanthropic initiative - shining a light on child health research to help all kids lead happy, healthy lives.
The Illuminate Awards invites prospective donors to power the future of child health research. By supporting this initiative, donors play a pivotal role in equipping brilliant researchers with the resources and funding they need to transform their visions into ground-breaking advancements for children's health.
At Telethon Kids our greatest asset is our people. We are strongly invested in the future of child medical research welcoming, nurturing, and encouraging the best and most innovative Australian and international researchers. However, our best and brightest researchers face an increasingly competitive environment in securing research funding. This means substantial delays in research and even career insecurity, particularly for early and mid-career researchers.
With support from our community by funding an Illuminate Award, we can ensure our future changemakers are empowered to turn research into reality. Philanthropic support of next generation researchers is needed now more than ever to ensure we retain and support WA’s best and brightest minds.
The funding of an Illuminate Award can be the make or break for many of our early to mid-career researchers, allowing them to explore, discover, innovate, and even launch into international opportunities.
Illuminate Awards connect researchers and supporters together – making connections between people who have a shared vision of happy, healthy kids.
Talented early to mid-career child health researchers are supported via generous gifts through Illuminate with awards starting from $25,000 per annum.
Thanks to the support of our donors, we are able to illuminate a bright path for researchers and their bold ideas.
Illuminate PitchFest is back! To read more about each of the finalists and to register, please click here.
We are excited to introduce you to 10 new trailblazing researchers who will take to the stage in February to pitch their bold and bright ideas.
Each researcher will pitch their project and provide the audience with an insight into their life-changing work.
Through the power of philanthropy, our community plays a pivotal role in equipping brilliant researchers with the funding they need to transform their vision into ground-breaking advancements.
To read more about each of the finalists and to register, please click here.
Rachael's story
Dr Rachael Zemek is a 2023 People’s Choice Illuminate Award winner, after taking to the stage at the Illuminate PitchFest event, held in February.
Since the event, her Illuminate Award has launched her career to new heights, with an opportunity to work as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Fred Hutch Cancer Centre in Seattle.
Her work in immunotherapy treatments for Sarcoma has made breakthrough discoveries to advance our understanding about why some cancers do not respond well to immunotherapy and has identified effect new drug combinations to improve responsiveness.
Rachael will continue her work with our Telethon Kids Cancer Centre within an Honorary position to further collaborate with the team and continue the research program.
Supporting early to mid-career researchers at Telethon Kids Institute not only means new opportunities for young careers but it also expands our ability to collaborate with international partners on a global stage.
Benefits of supporting Illuminate
You can contribute to this vital work by investing in early to mid-career child health researchers.
For your generous support of the Telethon Kids’ Illuminate initiative you will receive:
By funding an up-and-coming researcher, you will help to attract and retain the most promising researchers from Australia and overseas.
With your help, our young researchers are supported as they continue to find new ways to innovate clinical care, discover new treatments and prevent childhood diseases.
Ensuring researchers can focus on nothing but research means future generations will benefit from the latest medical knowledge and world-class treatments as our researchers continue to discover, prevent and cure.
We greatly value your support.
Illuminate Events
Illuminate events serve a critical function in promoting child health research, drawing together individuals and groups committed to fostering innovation and advancing knowledge in this vital area. Central to these events are their focus on collaboration, community engagement, and fundraising.
The beating heart of these initiatives is the generous network of supporters — individuals, families, and organizations — who willingly contribute their time, resources, and expertise. Their unified efforts and generosity not only fuel the financial grants essential for groundbreaking research but also create a nurturing environment where ideas receive the support and exposure they need to flourish. It is through this strong backbone of community support that Illuminate events continue to be a catalyst for advancements in child health research, driving forward a shared mission to foster a healthier future for children globally.
Support an Illuminate Award
A named Illuminate Award is $25,000 and any gift over $2,500 goes towards an Illuminate People’s Choice Award
Let’s work together
We are incredibly grateful for gifts at any level and for any duration. We will work with you to build a lasting relationship and ensure your gift is directed to an area of research that matters to you most. Please get in touch with our Philanthropy team today.
Simmone Sharp
Philanthropy Manager - Major Gifts
Email: simmone.sharp@telethonkids.org.au
Patrice Maher
Major Gifts Officer
Phone: +61 8 6319 1102
Email: patrice.maher@telethonkids.org.au