Fostering population health research in NSW: the role of research infrastructure.

Research infrastructure – the assets, facilities and services that support research and maintain the capacity of researchers to undertake research – is an important contributor to research excellence. A key theme in the 2008 review of public health research funding in Australia was the need for strategic investment in public health research infrastructure, including centres of research excellence, large scale assets such as cohort studies, disease registers, data linkage and survey facilities, and the career development of researchers.