A cross-jurisdictional research collaboration aiming to improve health outcomes in the tropical north of Australia

Can equitable health outcomes across Australia be provided by increasingly urban-dominated populations? The Australian HOT North (Improving Health Outcomes in the Tropical North) program has tackled the increasing urban-rural/remote health divide by focusing on three components of the health research ecosystem – researcher retention and recruitment, researcher-practitioner collaborations, and knowledge transfer by forming cross-jurisdictional and multi-disciplinary networks and delivering on-country knowledge translation. We propose that a more widespread implementation of locally-designed research and practice, embedded alongside programs that strengthen cross-jurisdictional networks, would increase health equity in rural and remote areas.