Image: Accepting the award were Manna Institute Director Professor Myf Maple, Project Administrator Ruthie Rule, First Nations Advisory Group Chair Kisani Upward and Strategic Operations Manager Liz Egan.

Team-building – across universities, communities and professional networks – is at the heart of Manna Institute, the virtual institute dedicated to improving mental health across rural and regional Australia. So, winning the Team Builder category in the 2025 UNE Staff Award was fitting recognition for its collaborative efforts.

Anchored at UNE, Manna undertakes research aimed at enabling more effective, tailored support and treatment for those in need. It has been highly successful in engaging academics and students from across the Regional Universities Network, service providers and community representatives (including First Nations Australians and those with lived experience of mental ill-health) to co-design and implement practical, culturally-informed solutions, supported by strong and diverse local workforces.

In just three years Manna has been:

• Creating strong and cohesive cross-institutional teams to collaborate on research projects, fostering thriving networks and promoting the leadership ambitions of early and mid-career researchers;
• Developing training for students, frontline workers and community members to address critical regional workforce shortages, so mental health support can be accessed earlier and closer to home;
• Inspiring collaboration between key mental health stakeholders, including government, community groups, non-profit organisations and universities nationally;
• Building a rural-specific evidence base, enhancing research across five research streams, including youth mental health, suicide prevention, ageing and disability;
• Contributing to key government policy and national mental health reform; and
• Designing and testing promising, place-based strategies within communities across Queensland, NSW and Victoria that now have the potential to be scaled.

“Manna is deeply embedded in the communities it serves,” said Director Professor Myfanwy Maple. “Alone the challenges regional Australians face in relation to mental health can seem insurmountable. Together, we are so much greater than the sum of our parts.

“Manna Institute has provided the collaborative virtual space to connect, learn and share. We thrive on working together. We are uniquely positioned to drive meaningful change across our vast geographical footprint, committed to our shared vision to alleviate mental distress and pressures on our over-stretched healthcare system.

“Being recognised by UNE acknowledges the leadership and collaboration our Manna team demonstrates every day to build a stronger, more connected regional research community that is having real-world impact and changing lives.”

As well as regular webinars and events that connect researchers and partners, build relationships and ease geographical isolation, Manna has established a flourishing Higher Degree Research Community of Practice and mentoring program for Early and Mid-Career researchers to boost their career development.

Manna Institute includes researchers and students from UNE, Federation University, Charles Sturt University, the University of Southern Queensland, University of the Sunshine Coast, Central Queensland University and Southern Cross University. Partner organisations include Everymind, Lifeline Direct and the Australian National University’s Centre for Mental Health Research.