OHRN members are engaging with Monash University, Australia, as part of the Monash Warwick Alliance (MWA). The Monash Warwick Alliance (MWA) health project is an exciting new initiative aimed at developing new research and teaching capacity in the area of health leadership and improvement science. The initiative has been on-going for approximately 12 months and involves colleagues from the Warwick Business School OHRN and Monash University’s Centre for Healthcare Research and Implementation. At Warwick this work is co-ordinated by Professors Graeme Currie, Ian Kirkpatrick and Dr Charlotte Croft. Professor Rick Iedema has recently been appointed by Monash University to direct the Australian side of the project.

The health project falls within the broader umbrella of the Monash Warwick Alliance, launched in 2012 with a shared investment of over £5 million. The Alliance comprises jointly appointed staff, research projects, education collaboration and student activities and sets out to generate new capabilities through the “exchange of people, ideas and information”. Besides healthcare improvement, the Alliance focuses on four substantive themes, including: sustainable chemistry, Nano medicine, advanced imaging and materials and understanding cultures. On the Education side the Alliance has developed a variety of joint programmes and enhanced opportunities for student mobility, including for PhD researchers. Collaborative research funding has also been attracted from bodies such as the Australian Research Council, the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council, Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.

In the area of health improvement, the objective is to replicate these achievements through the development of transformational research projects, education user engagement and impact. The teams are currently working on the development of a master’s programme in health improvement leadership which will be entirely online, with internationally focused case studies for global appeal. This programme will be aligned to the research of academic colleagues both at Warwick and Monash, many of whom are world leaders in their field. The programme will also build on strong practitioner and policy network, for example the Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care West Midlands, based at the Universities of Warwick, Birmingham, and Keele. Future research will also focus on comparative governance and leadership of health organisations in Australia and the UK, and on approaches to networking and knowledge translation.