The BCRI is currnetly conducting a range of research projects and initiatives: 

Barriers and enablers to delivering optimal dementia care: Perceptions of community nurses

Being Your Best: An innovative approach to frailty and care transitions

Challenges and opportunities for the multicultural aged care workforce

Complex Care Clients

Digital Wallpaper

EACH: Epidemiological analysis of community and Aged Care Health data 

Enabling Choices: Enabling wellbeing by providing choices for people with dementia and memory loss

Evaluating Enhanced Palliative Care

Foot health service linkage for people experiencing homelessness 

Gait Aid Use: Is there a role for gait aids to improve stability and reduce falls risk for older people with dementia?

HOW-R-U?: Telephone Peer Support for Isolated Individuals in the Community

Keeping Skin Strong

Let's Dig In!

Life Stories Project

Mind the Gap! Respite care and transition to permanent residential care for people living with dementia and informal carers

Peer support for Older WomEn to pRomote wellbeing and independence (POWER) 

Redesigning Texture Modified Foods to Bring Back the Joy of Eating

WEAVE: Weaving Evidence into Action for Veterans with dementia

Research projects recently completed by the Institute include:

By Your Side

Cycling Without Age

Consumer Directed Care and Workforce Retention

Falls Prevention for people with diabetes 

Focus on Wellness and Reablement in At-Home Support

Health and wellbeing survey in retirement living 

Keeping feet healthy with diabetes 

Narrow Band imaging to predict the likelihood of healing venous leg ulcers

National advance care directive prevalence study 

Non-pharmacological interventions for people with dementia 

Older Women Living Alone (OWLA): Understanding and optimising wellbeing and aged care services 

OPTIMISES – Older people living with Type 2 diabetes 

Redesigning texture modified foods to bring back the joy of eating

Understanding older veterans in the community: Addressing post-traumatic mental health

Timely Enhanced Access to Medication Management (TEAMM): Pharmacist workforce model trial  

Veteran Family Mental Wellbeing Series 

The BCRI welcomes collaboration with external researchers to undertake research at Bolton Clarke.

All research undertaken at Bolton Clarke must include involvement and collaboration with the BCRI from the early stages of project development, and:

1. Be relevant to our communities, staff, organisation and the broader aged care industry;
2. Fill a gap in existing research/knowledge, with the aim of leading to positive change in care delivery;
3. Have the approval of the Bolton Clarke HREC and the relevant Bolton Clarke stream business leader (facilitated by BCRI).

All research project applications must undergo a 3 step review process, where appropriate, before commencement. The Research Review and Governance Committee (RRGC) Co-ordinator will facilitate this process and field any enquiries about Research Governance at BC, contact the RRGC Co-ordinator.

For information about whether the project is a Quality Improvement or a research project, please review the following document:

• Quality Improvement and Levels of Risk Checklist

For comprehensive detail about this process and the RRGC please see:

• How to Conduct Research with Bolton Clarke
• RRGC Terms of Reference

To learn more about the RRGC Process, hear from Dr Rajna Ogrin

Please submit research proposals approximately 4 weeks prior to HREC meeting dates, preferably earlier to engage in a process of codesign with BCRI.

Step 1: Initial review

An initial review of your proposal will be conducted by the RRGC, the relevant Business Stream lead and Head of Research, to assess the proposal for relevance and capacity within the business. Allow 2 weeks to complete this step.

To facilitate this step please send the follow documents to the RRGC Co-ordinator:

• Preliminary Research Project Overview form
• A one page project summary in lay language

Step 2: Peer Review

After RRGC, Business Stream and Head of Research approvals have been obtained at Step 1, your research proposal will undergo peer review by members of the BCRI and relevant experts within the organization. The peer review will be facilitated by the RRGC Co-ordinator and requires 2 weeks.

The following documents will be required for the peer review:

• NHMRC Human Research Ethics Application(HREA) (or equivalent) 
• Protocol
• Any promotion material
• PICFs (see PICF Guidance and Template)
• Previous HREC letters
• Funding Details

The review process will identify whether the project is suitable to progress to:

1. HREC review with no or minimal changes required - applicants will be advised what changes, if any, would be appropriate; or
2. requires amendments as advised by BCRI reviewers and re-review by the RRGC Co-ordinator - the review process will continue until the application meets the requirements for HREC submission; or
3. not suitable to progress to HREC review - the application cannot proceed to HREC submission.

Step 3: HREC

The RRGC Co-ordinator will facilitate your submission to the HREC and ensure all the required documentation is provided. All documents listed in the HREC Checklist will need to be completed.

• HREC application checklist
• HREC meeting dates 2023

Find out more information about the Bolton Clarke HREC

Bolton Clarke wants to work with the people we support to make sure that we keep improving the care and services we provide for you and others in the community. Research is an essential part of making these improvements. 

For more information about how research at Bolton Clarke works see:

For Community Members - Taking Part in Research