The research landscape has changed dramatically over recent decades with the evergrowing opportunities facilitated by increasingly sophisticated technologies and statistical approaches, and complexity of governance and funding requirements, coupled with a relatively recent acknowledgement of the need to consider the impact of what we study and whether it addresses concerns that are shared by patients and consumers.

Over the past 20 years, the Melbourne Children's Brain and Mind team has followed children from the time of their brain injury as they have moved from infancy and childhood, through adolescence and into adulthood. With a backdrop of the myriad of changes in research approaches, over the life of this study, this presentation will describe the challenges and findings generated from our work and consider how key research questions have changed, whether the work has been impactful at a scientific and if it has impacted the outcomes of brain injury survivors.

Finally, given the critical importance of researchers, at any stage of their career, in the successful conduct of programs such as ours, learnings regarding ingredients supporting successful research careers will also be explored.