Top End Academic Health Partners (Top End Partners) is an established collaboration and leader in health care, medical research and education in Northern Australia and across the region. Its goal is to undertake translational research of the highest quality to improve health care and health outcomes for its regional, rural and remote communities.

Accredited by the NHMRC as a Research Translation Centre in 2022, the collaboration includes the health services, research and educational institutions of the Northern Territory (NT) Top End. Covering the northern part of the Territory, Top End Partners represents 200,000 people or more than 82% NT’s population.

Top End Partners’ 4 health service members – NT Department of Health, Miwatj Health Aboriginal Corporation, Danila Dilba Health Service and the National Critical Care and Trauma Centre – collectively manage the 4 hospitals and the majority of health clinics in the Top End, as well as the Howard Springs quarantine facility when in operation.

The collaboration is strengthened by the NT Primary Health Network, which supports the coordination of primary health care delivery and addresses local health care needs and service gaps. Top End Partners’ strong and enduring commitment to translational research is supported by its primary research partner, the Menzies School of Health Research, which is one of Australia’s leading research institutes, and by Charles Darwin University, which provides education to more than 23,000 students.

Top End Partners’ priority health translation research themes are built on its internationally recognised areas of leadership. These 4 themes are: Aboriginal Health Across the Life Course; Tropical and Environmental Health; Health Emergency Preparedness and Response; and Health Systems.
Together, Top End Partners bring an understanding of the region’s context to translational research, including the social determinants of health which underpin the disparities in health status of the NT population. This understanding shapes how the collaboration addresses the research priorities identified by its health services and communities.

The collaboration has a strong history of prioritising translational health research activities to support improvements in the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Top End Partners is also a world leader in infectious diseases, which are of critical importance to Northern Australia, disaster and trauma care.

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