Meet our Catalyst Partners
Our Catalyst Partners bring forward-thinking, scalable and feasible innovations that are ready to change the landscape of heart health.
Selected from a high-calibre and competitive shortlist, these projects stood out for their bold vision, real-world potential, and ability to make a difference. More than innovations, they are powerful, fundable solutions to help save lives and shape a healthier, more equitable future.
Discover how our Catalyst Partners are seeking to make a difference to heart health in Australia and beyond.
Community, policy & implementation | Data, informatics and screening
Community, policy & implementation
Springfield Healthy Hearts: A living lab for global heart disease action
Coordinated, practical interventions across healthcare, schools, retail, community spaces and homes that embed heart health into everyday life, generating real-world evidence to inform policy and best practice.
Switch the salt to save your heart
Australians are eating too much salt, and it’s silently harming their hearts. Potassium-enriched salt looks, tastes, and cooks the same, but helps lower blood pressure and protect heart health.
Data, informatics and screening
Message from the heart: a new solution to screen for blood vessel calcification
Turning a routine bone scan into a powerful heart check. Using AI to read lateral spine images to help detect hidden calcium in arteries - spotting risk early, saving lives.
A clinical lipidomics platform for early detection of cardiovascular disease
The mCVDRisk score is a new blood test that integrates next-generation diagnostics into heart health checks to offer a clearer, more personalised picture of heart disease risk.
First Nations
Remote Laundries: building stronger communities through washing
This off-grid solution will help to ensure Remote Laundries can be delivered to any community, anywhere in Australia.
Medical devices
Heart first initiative: personalised heart health across generations, anytime, anywhere
A versatile combination of three key heart tests for personalised cardiac health monitoring right where you live.
Next-generation 3D-printed heart valves: inspired by nature, engineered for life
Created to treat aortic stenosis and other valve conditions, this durable, low-cost heart valve uses advanced 3D printing and design inspired by the body’s natural valves to offer a safer and longer-lasting solution for patients.
Hybrid 3D-printed imaging device for precision heart care
A revolutionary intravascular imaging system that uses a world-first 3D-printed micro lens-in-lens that combines high-resolution and molecular imaging techniques in one miniaturised device to enable cardiologists to detect high-risk plaques accurately.
Therapeutics
Mending our blood vessels to combat dementia
A new therapeutic ‘molecular glue’ that helps seal and repair one of the earliest changes in Alzheimer’s disease - leaky blood vessels in the brain - preventing disease progression before it’s too late.
New life for scarred hearts: regenerating the heart after a heart attack
Leveraging mRNA technology, this new kind of medicine rebuilds the heart - growing new heart cells and reducing scarring to help people recover more fully from heart attacks.
Building stronger communities through washing
AIG’s off grid solution will ensure we are able to deliver our Remote Laundries to any community, anywhere in Australia.
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Problem
Remote Aboriginal communities are disproportionately impacted by scabies, which can lead to acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease (RHD). Housing challenges including lack of access to utilities such as reliable power, hot water, and washing facilities make it difficult to keep parasites and bacteria under control.
Remote Aboriginal communities in northern Australia have the world’s highest prevalence of skin sores with more than 80% of children affected by their first birthday. Repeated infections lead to secondary complications including acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease, with the result being that 98% of people living with RHD in the NT are Indigenous.
Solution
Despite the Remote Laundries Project’s success to date, our expansion into very remote communities and those without reliable access to power/water has been challenging and expensive. These communities include but are not limited to Lajamanu, Yarralin, Tiwi Islands, Wadeye, Borroloola, Gunbalanya and Umbakumba.
We are proposing to develop a 100% off-the-grid fully self-contained solution leveraging solar power and water recycling technology. Ultimately, this will allow the laundry unit to be delivered to any community or homelands across Australia, including in very remote areas without access to services. This solution will also reduce expenses for the community and AIG (no power / water bills).
Impact
In 2020 AIG, with our partner KPMG, undertook a cost/benefit analysis assessing the impact of the Remote Laundries Project. The review demonstrated that every dollar AIG invested in the Remote Laundries Project delivered $6 in cost savings for the healthcare system. AIG Remote Laundries deliver tangible action and impact on the four priority reforms of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap:
1. Formal Partnerships and Shared Decision Making
The project demonstrates strong partnerships with Indigenous communities, as it was created by Traditional Owners and is 100% Indigenous owned and operated. First Nations representatives are involved in decisionmaking at all stages, ensuring cultural appropriateness and community input. Our detailed community consultation ensures we deliver a laundry that is purpose built and operated for each community it is delivered to. This process often takes up to 12 months and engages Aboriginal Corporations operating in the community, health clinics, councils and schools.
2. Building the Community-Controlled Sector
Recognises Indigenous communities’ right to self-determination and supports capability building by creating employment opportunities and providing training in maintenance, customer service and educational workshops on health, conducted in culturally appropriate ways.
3. Transforming Government Organisations
The project promotes government responsiveness and accountability to First Nations communities. Continuous monitoring and improvement mechanisms are in place, supported by the Remote Laundries Social Impact Framework, developed and being delivered in partnership with the Heart Foundation, Flinders University and CSIRO.
4. Shared Access to Data and Information at a Regional Level
Data sharing is transparent, involving First Nations Communities in collection and dissemination, ensuring community control over what is measured and valued. Remote Laundries collects data on # of cycles, operating capacity and delivery, staff recruitment/retention/attendance. As we operationalise the Social Impact Framework, we will also be collecting data including infection rates, school attendance and qualitative data around general health and wellbeing.
Funding
AIG is seeking $1,005,081 to build, implement and monitor a pilot 100% off grid Remote Laundry in our Casuarina community, in order to test its effectiveness and durability for remote Aboriginal communities.
The project will be staged in 4 phases and it is expected to be completed by 1 December 2026.
Phase 1: 30 May 2025 - $50,000
- Finalise design and documentation for pilot plant development, lodge DA
Phase 2: 1 July 2025 - $643,405 (Phase 2 & 3)
- Commence build of pilot plant
Phase 3: 30 November 2025
- Completion of build and pilot plant is operational
Phase 4: 1 December 2025 - $311,676
- Commence 12 month monitoring of pilot plant to ensure effectiveness of solar/water recycling and that it is fit for remote communities.
Project completion by 1 December 2026.
Meet the team
Supported by
Collaborative efforts between organisations like ours and the Heart Foundation are crucial in addressing the heart health crisis in the Northern Territory. Together, we can make a significant impact on the lives of our First Nations people and the broader community.
Liz Morgan-Brett, CEO
Aboriginal Investment Group
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Catalyst Partnership Grants
The Heart Foundation's Catalyst Partnership Grants are bringing big ideas to life and changing the cardiovascular landscape in Australia and beyond.
Meet our Catalyst Partners
Our Catalyst Partners bring forward-thinking, scalable and feasible innovations that are ready to change the landscape of heart health.
Selected from a high-calibre and competitive shortlist, these projects stood out for their bold vision, real-world potential, and ability to make a difference. More than innovations, they are powerful, fundable solutions to help save lives and shape a healthier, more equitable future.
Discover how our Catalyst Partners are seeking to make a difference to heart health in Australia and beyond.
Community, policy & implementation | Data, informatics and screening