About the Grevillea Foundation
Turning lived experience into lasting change.
The Grevillea Foundation was born out of a desire to turn personal experience into lasting change.
Our Story
Like millions of women around the world, Director Lily Ainsworth has suffered from severe endometriosis pain for the last 20 years. Throughout her journey of diagnosis and symptom management she assumed there was significant work happening to improve the lives of those with endo. Surely there are scientists and clinicians and well funded research programs looking at how to make diagnosis and treatments better… Surely it’s just a matter of time…
It wasn’t until Lily had two daughters and was struggling to manage her symptoms and be a mum that she realised nothing much had changed in nearly two decades. Her treatment options were largely the same, and many endo myths were still prominent in both the general public and medical communities. Lily and her Mum, Anna, decided it was time to look into how to support the scientific study of endometriosis in the hope they could help make a change.
After three years of supporting research grants through Endometriosis Australia, Lily and her family had learnt that if something big didn’t happen in the funding space soon, it would be decades before life would look any better for those with endo.
There is a mind-blowing gap in the scientific and clinical knowledge of endometriosis in Australia and around the world due to a severe historical lack of funding.
The Grevillea Foundation was established to help change this reality by providing long term funding, and collaborating with scientists and clinicians to design a different model for research into this disease.
Out of this collaborative effort, and with support from the wider Ainsworth family, the Ainsworth Endometriosis Research Institute (AERI) was developed and launched in 2025.
A System That Needed to Change
In our investigation into the endo scientific research world, we were shocked to find that researchers were spending up to 50% of their time not on research, but on grant proposals, while competing for very little funding each year.
If we were to leave the current system as we found it, scientific discoveries and translation to clinical care would continue at a snail’s pace. To us, this was not ok.
There are 200 million girls and women around the world currently suffering from endometriosis. Little girls are hitting puberty every single day and 1 in 7 of them are unknowingly staring down the barrel of a life with endo, where their school, social, work, family and personal lives will be continually and often severely impacted by the disease.
If we do not act now, and act big, in 10 years’ time, an endo diagnosis and care plan will look no different to today.
For anyone who has endo, or supports someone with endo, this is a frightening prospect.
Changing How Research Is Funded
The Grevillea Foundation saw a need for the system to change and, in partnership with experts Professor Jason Abbott and Professor Caroline Ford, developed a new way of funding critical scientific research into endo.
We are providing sustained funding of $50 million over 10 years to AERI to kick-start a new era in endometriosis research.
Baked into the design of the Institute is a whole new way of working, represented by AERI’s 5 Cs:
- Collaboration
- Coordination
- Capacity Building
- Community
- Clinical Care
Giving scientists the time, space and resources to do what they are trained to do.
The Grevillea Foundation believes scientists should be given the time, space and resources to do the work they are trained to do.
The program of work we are supporting at AERI has been designed collaboratively, with scientists, clinicians, community members and funders all in the same room.
While AERI is still in its infancy, our primary focus is ensuring the Institute has everything it needs to succeed.
We are also focused on sharing the Grevillea/AERI model with interested philanthropists, organisations and research institutes around the world, to encourage others to similarly invest boldly in endometriosis and women’s health.
We can’t do this alone.
Our Funding
The Grevillea Foundation is primarily funded by Anna, Simon, Lily and Greg Ainsworth through the Eden Foundation, Paul and Valeria Ainsworth through the Ainsworth 4 Foundation, and Len Ainsworth through the Ainsworth Foundation.
We also have a number of loyal Grevillea Foundation friends who provide funding, and we are very thankful for their contributions.
Our Board
Meet the people behind the Grevillea Foundation.
