The Shake It Up Australia Movement Disorder Capacity Building Program

Shake It Up Australia’s Movement Disorder Capacity Building Program aims to grow the number of movement disorder specialists in Australia, by training movement disorder clinician-researchers who can provide expert care, have an interest in research and the capacity to lead clinical trials.

As the demand for movement disorder specialists increases, not enough neurologists are receiving vital training in Parkinson’s and related conditions. Shake It Up wants to ensure equity and early access to a Movement Disorder Specialist for every Australian diagnosed with Parkinson’s, regardless of their geographical location, and also ensure they have access to new treatments, therapies and the opportunity to participate in clinical trials.

The Movement Disorder Capacity Building Program will fund academic institutions to train a new movement disorder clinician-researcher over a three-year period.

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Fellowship Recipients

Trawalla Foundation Fellowship

Awarded to Dr Gerard Tao at The Alfred Movement Disorder Clinic under Dr Kelly Bertram

Commenced January 2025

Besen Family Foundation Fellowship #1

Awarded to Dr Michael Li at NeuRA under Professor Carolyn Sue

Commenced July 2025

Besen Family Foundation Fellowship #2

Awarded to Dr Deepak Darshan at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital under A/Prof John O’Sullivan

Commenced February 2026

Capricorn Foundation Fellowship

Fellow yet to be named, at the Royal Melbourne Hospital under A/Professor Andrew Evans.

Commencing January 2027

BMD Group Fellowship

Fellow yet to be named, at the Princess Alexandra Hospital Brisbane under Dr Alex Lehn.

Commencing January 2027

Who is eligible?

The Shake It Up Australia Foundation Movement Disorder Capacity Building Program is open to established movement disorder centres in Australia and seeks to support the training of promising MD or MD/PhD fellowship applicants.

Each Fellowship grant will be for $270,000, to cover a 0.5 FTE position to support either a three year fellowship or to support three one year fellowships.

These funds may cover:

stipend, benefits and travel allowance
coursework
conferences
other relevant educational and training opportunities

Shake It Up will award funding directly to qualified institutions, which will then identify the most competitive fellowship candidates. Institutions must nominate their prospective fellow, with submission of the fellow’s CV and a letter of recommendation, for final review by the Shake It Up Australia Foundation.

Funding cannot be used to support a fellow already enrolled in or selected for the Institution’s fellowship program. Individual fellows are not eligible for this funding but are encouraged to inform institutions about this opportunity.

What is the evaluation process?

Applications from movement disorder institutions will be evaluated on the following criteria:

Previous experience training fellows for productive research and clinical care careers
Research environment and research training program
Clinical care centre and clinical learning opportunities
Departmental support for the fellow
Leadership in building an equitable and diverse environment for clinical care, research and education through training opportunities and scholarly pursuit for the fellow
Biographical sketches of five faculty members, including the fellowship director, who will be active in the training program

Get in touch

To get in touch with us for more information about the program, or to express interest in funding a fellowship or applying as a research institution, please fill out the below form.

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