Clinician-research fellows smiling to the camera at the research translation symposium

Celebrating research, collaboration and lived experience at CPA’s Research Translation Symposium

Last week, the University of Sydney hosted Cerebral Palsy Alliance’s 2025 Research Translation Symposium, a full-day event that showcased the collaboration between researchers, clinicians and people with lived experience.

The symposium brought together over 35 attendees from across CPA therapy services, the CPA Research Institute and external collaborators. The day focused on implementation of research into practice, including the value of partnering with people with lived experience and translating frontline clinical insights into meaningful, impactful research that improves outcomes for people with cerebral palsy”. 

The program featured 16 presentations covering a broad range of topics, including: 

  • Research translation and implementation strategies 
  • Lived experience involvement in research – including CP Quest 
  • Clinician-researcher activity and leadership in allied health 
  • Updates from our 2024–25 Clinician-Research Fellows 

Our five remarkable Clinician-Research Fellows; Chrissie Macdonald, Brandon Yeo, Ronda Shehata, Melinda Conroy and Nicki Stuart, presented on their projects, sharing learnings from the intersection of clinical practice and research. Their passion and insights highlighted the value of supporting clinicians to step into research leadership roles. 

Other highlights included presentations on: 

  • The cpThrive mobile app and video crowdsourcing project 
  • Strategies to support early diagnosis through General Movements screening 
  • Implementation of the VitalStim intervention 
  • Partnering with families in research conversations 
  • International insights on improving evidence uptake in practice 

On day two of the symposium our five Clinician-Research Fellows attended a dedicated training session, including workshops on searching the literature, statistical methods and effective communication of research findings. 

The symposium highlighted how much stronger our research becomes when informed by real-world experience – from both the clinic and the community. 

This event was part of CPA’s ongoing commitment to building clinician-researcher capability, delivering practical research outcomes, and embedding lived experience into all we do. 

See below photos from across the two days! 

View of a presentation in progress at the research translation symposium
Presenters at the research translation symposium