PRE-CONFERENCE MEETINGS AND WORKSHOPS

Meeting 1 – Scientific Meeting of the Mental Health Australian General Clinical Trials Network (MAGNET)

Date: Tuesday 18 November 2025
Time: 9:00am- 5:00pm
Venue/Room: SAMHRI, 2 North Terrace, Adelaide CBD
Cost: Included with SMHR Full Conference Registrations (covers morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea).

The MAGNET Scientific Meeting brings together Australia’s mental health researchers, clinicians, and Lived Experience Research Partners. It focuses on exploring innovative clinical trial ideas submitted for MAGNET trial endorsement. These proposals, aligned with national research priorities and community needs, will be presented for peer review and feedback. The goal is to improve trial design, methodology, and translation, while identifying opportunities for collaboration.

The meeting will also feature keynote talks from leading mental health researchers. It encourages open discussion and supports collaboration across the sector. Networking is a major focus offering valuable opportunities to build partnerships that can drive future mental health clinical trials research in Australia.

Presenters Biographies
Presenter Information to follow

Meeting 2 - EMCR Pre-Conference Workshop: Diverse Pathways to Success in Mental Health Research

Date: Tuesday 18 November 2025
Time: 2:00pm- 4:00pm
Venue/Room: Ground floor lecture theatre, Adelaide Medical School on North Terrace
Cost: Included with SMHR Full Conference Registrations

This interactive session is designed for early- to mid-career researchers (EMCRs) looking to build capacity, connect with other researchers, and gain practical insights into how to overcome challenges and achieve success in their research careers. The workshop will feature a panel discussion with a diverse group of researchers who have overcome challenges or taken diverse paths to achieve success (including grant success). Panellists will reflect on challenges they’ve faced - such as navigating career uncertainty, funding barriers, working in under-recognised or challenging areas of research, or taking a non-traditional academic trajectory. They will share practical strategies and tips for overcoming these sorts of challenges, securing grants, forming meaningful collaborations, progressing your career, and discuss the diversity in career paths and what a "successful" career can look like. Attendees will also have the opportunity to submit anonymous questions, including “hard to ask” or “you can’t ask that” questions. Following the panel, the workshop will include group activities designed to extend on the discussion and facilitate networking and connection with other EMCRs. The session will conclude with a “Pitch Your Project” challenge designed to highlight the importance of supporting each other and working together to achieve success. Participants will be encouraged to team up with others with complementary skills, shared interests or common goals to co-design collaborative project ideas and deliver a short pitch, with the best pitch receiving an award and $5,000 in seed funding to action the collaborative idea.

Meet our panellists below:

DR ISABEL ZBUKVIC
University of Melbourne

Dr Isabel Zbukvic (she/her) is a Senior Research Fellow at Orygen and the Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne, specialising in knowledge translation and implementation science in youth mental health. Isabel leads a diverse program of research, knowledge translation, and evaluation projects, and she is especially interested in improving mental healthcare systems for and with queer and trans young people of colour.

DR MICHAEL HODGINS
University of New South Wales

Dr Michael Hodgins is a Research Fellow with the UNSW Population Child Health Research Group. He has more than 12 years’ experience conducting health systems research. This work has included the design and evaluation of health implementation initiatives in paediatric care, covering diverse areas such as improving the integration and delivery of youth mental health services, strengthening paediatric care in primary care settings, developing knowledge in learning health systems, and improving the engagement of young people in health research.

DR JAMES MCLURE
Deakin University

James is a Research Fellow with IMPACT, the Institute of Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation, Deakin University. He also is a representative on the Mental Health Australia General Clinical Trials Network (MAGNET) Lived Experience Research Partners and Scientific Advisory Committees. He is increasingly involved in researching novel treatments to improve mental health and wellbeing. Currently, he is the co-design lead for an MRFF-funded trial exploring the use of faecal microbiome transplantation as a treatment for Long-COVID and NHMRC Synergy grant for the Development of Innovative Clinical Treatments in Schizophrenia.

DR ANTOINETTE POULTON
University of Melbourne

Dr Poulton is an NHMRC-MRFF Early to Mid-Career Research Fellow within the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Her research centres on cognitive mechanisms underpinning reward sensitivity and impulse control, and how these processes contribute to impulsive behaviour. Her MRFF project considers how personalised feedback about alcohol/drug use and impulsivity impacts subsequent intake behaviour.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinette-poulton-157b1a24/

https://hesterlab.org/lab-members/antoinette-poulton