On Friday the university received a $3.62 million federal government research grant to develop the 'patient first' digital platform with trials to take place in six sites across regional Victoria.

Critically the data will also be used to generate world-leading research in to preventative and clinical management of chronic illness..

In Australia, 90 per cent of people will die of a chronic illness. About half the population have a chronic illness, and one in four have more than one.

Rates of chronic illness in regional areas are 40 per cent higher than metropolitan areas, underscoring the importance of developing new digital methods to improve health outcomes.

Professor Shane Thomas, who is overseeing the project, said Australia, like the rest of the world, was experiencing a "tsunami of chronic illness".

"The paradox is actually we have the medical technology and knowledge to treat these conditions but what we don't have is a delivery system to reach out to the whole of Australia to do this.

"Our intention is to not only deliver services better but also enable us to identify who is at risk so using genomics we can identify those people and focus on them ... to divert them away from a lousy pathway in to ageing.

"It's taking known technology but for the first time combining them in a unique way to enable us to deliver this support."

Announcing the grant, Senator Bridget McKenzie said the project would "transform chronic illness outcomes" through digital health.

"This project uses data and innovation to solve real-world problems by helping to improve early diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases, easing the load on regional health practitioners and improving health outcomes for country Australians," she said.

"It will also support the pipeline of talent into regional clinical roles and commercialise products at scale across Australia and around the world.

"We know exciting world-class research can happen out in rural and regional universities and the best and brightest minds exist in rural facilities like this."

Federation University vice chancellor Professor Duncan Bentley said a critical part of the project was the collaboration with other parties including IBM, East Grampians Health Service, Ballarat Community Health, University of Melbourne and others. "This project ticks so many boxes - it helps chronic disease sufferers, it improves productivity for clinicians, it supports collaboration between private and public partners, it facilitates student placements and it backs commercialisation," he said.

While touring Federation University's Mount Helen laboratories, Senator McKenzie also made an election pledge to invest $5 million to refurbish the university's Courthouse Theatre, in the Ballarat CBD, if the Coalition Government is re-elected.

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It would be another step in the university's vision to reinvigorate Ballarat's CBD with thousands of students and shift many classes to its SMB campus.

The Courthouse Theatre, which is the historic 1868 former Ballarat Supreme Court, has been used as a teaching and performance space since the 1980s.

"It's not just performance but it's all the tech and support people around them. So many people who started out working in theatre have moved in to AI, cyber security ... they're all transferrable skills and this is a really important companion to our work in the city," he said.

"As we schedule more and more classes in the city, thousands of students will turn it in to a vibrant hub which will mean the student experience is enhanced ... and make Ballarat a hub of activity."

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