A new grant program announced by ARIIA will see 14 aged care providers come together to tackle two challenging sector issues: workforce strategies and data literacy.
Aged Care Research & Industry Innovation Australia (ARIIA) announced the successful recipients of its $2 million 2025 Flagship Project Grants today, with 14 aged care providers selected to implement innovative, evidence-based solutions to address some of the sector’s most complex challenges.
Delivered through ARIIA’s Aged Care Collaborative and funded by the Commonwealth Government and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, the Flagship Projects will support aged care organisations to co-design and implement tailored interventions over a 12-month period. The participating aged care providers were selected through an application and assessment process led by the Aged Care Collaborative Advisory Group, which comprises sixteen leaders and policymakers from across the Australian aged care sector and ecosystem.
Each participating provider will receive grants of up to $120,000, with 1:1 matched co-contributions.
Flagship Project 1: Enhancing Role Clarity, Communication and Career Pathways with a Flexible Leadership Model
The aged care sector faces continued workforce pressures related to staff workload and burnout, workforce retention, and limited career growth. Clarifying role scopes, accountabilities, and lines of communication, as well as providing more career progression opportunities, could improve staff engagement, collaboration and retention, improving quality of care and service provision.
This project leverages the positive outcomes of a previous ARIIA Grant Funded pilot project, and will implement a facilitated co-design process and improvement project that incorporates staff, leadership, client and family feedback. Each participating aged care provider will undertake the project at one of their residential sites or home care regions.
Flagship Project 1 Selected Participants:
• Australian Unity’s residential aged care facility, St Patrick’s Green, Sydney NSW
• Benetas’ residential aged care home, St George’s, Melbourne VIC
• Beaumont Care’s residential aged care facility, Kippa-Ring, Moreton Bay QLD
• Feros Care’s home care region, Gold Coast, QLD
• Integratedliving Australia’s home care region, Far North Coast, NSW
• Life Without Barriers’ home care region, Darling Downs, QLD
Flagship Project 2: Empowering Data Literacy and Capability to Drive Quality Care
This project will empower aged care staff with the knowledge, skills and confidence to enhance the use of data to improve care quality. The project will focus on improving routinely collected data related to pressure injuries and wound care, and the participating aged care providers will undertake a capability building and co-design process to develop and implement a data-driven, evidence-based improvement project. Each participating aged care provider will undertake the project at one of their residential sites or home care regions.
Flagship Project 2 Selected Participants:
• Alwyndor’s residential aged care home, Adelaide SA
• Bolton Clarke Home and Community Support, Melbourne East region VIC
• Elderbloom Community Care Centres’ residential aged care facilities, Perth WA
• Fronditha Care’s residential aged care facility, St Albans, Melbourne VIC
• Glow Health Care Australia’s home care region, Sydney and regional NSW
• Lifeview’s residential aged care facility, Willow Wood, Melbourne VIC
• Regents Garden’s residential aged care facility, Scarborough, Perth WA
• Warrigal’s residential aged care home, Wollongong NSW
Driving sector-wide transformation
The 2021 Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety found there were intractable problems that required greater collaboration and multi-disciplinary approaches.
ARIIA CEO Reuben Jacob said the Flagship Projects were designed to address this need and aimed to unite the sector in solving “wicked” problems through greater collaboration and co-design with aged care providers.
“Rather than working in silos, we need to encourage a more collaborative and innovative approach to solve the most difficult and pervasive problems. We want to offer more education and career pathways to aged care workers, better sharing of data to inform decisions, and better management of wound care and pressure injuries as this could improve quality of life for older Australians and reduce hospital admissions.
“The Flagship Projects bring together providers from diverse contexts with the expertise to develop scalable solutions that can be adopted more broadly across the sector with the ultimate aim to improve the holistic wellbeing and quality of care for older Australians.”
ARIIA Senior Manager, Strategic Projects Holly Sparrow said the Flagship Projects aimed to deliver tangible outcomes to the aged care sector.
“The selected sites represent a diverse mix of metropolitan and regional providers, small and large organisations, as well as residential and home care services, ensuring the learnings and outcomes are relevant to a broad range of providers.
“ARIIA, along with a selection of subject matter experts, will provide each organisation with ongoing tailored support, and we are excited to facilitate the collaboration and shared learning within the projects and across the sector.”
ABOUT ARIIA
Aged Care Research & Industry Innovation Australia (ARIIA) is an independent, charitable organisation shaping the future of aged care in Australia. Founded in October 2021, under the Australian Government’s aged care workforce strategy, A Matter of Care, ARIIA was born to respond to the urgent challenges of our evolving aged care industry.
With foundational support from the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and Flinders University and the South Australian Government Department of State Development, ARIIA is at the forefront of positive transformation in aged care across Australia. We address critical sector needs, support government and professional commitments, and foster collaboration and innovation to empower aged care professionals to drive positive change.