The Australian Government has invested nearly $500 million in funding for health and medical research, further supporting Australia’s world-leading medical researchers.
The $471.9 million funding, which will be funded through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), is expected to support hundreds of research leaders and teams around the country.
The $471.9 million investment will be divided for the following purposes:
- $399.7 million for 254 NHMRC’s Investigator Grants, providing more funding for the highest performing researchers at all career stages;
- $44 million for 17 Centres of Research Excellence to build collaborative teams and develop capacity to improve research translation into better health outcomes;
- $4.6 million to support four projects that will develop coordinated and best practice interventions for better care at the end of life;
- $1.5 million for collaborative research on osteoarthritis, which will be funded in partnership with the UK’s National Institute for Health Research; and
- $1.8 million to fund a clinical trial at Melbourne Health involving combination immune therapy for type 1 diabetes.
Aside from this, $28.6 million has been committed by partners alongside $20.4 million from the Australian Government to fund 16 projects through the NHMRC Partnership Project scheme.
The investment will also provide over $12 million in funding for research on SARS-CoV-2 and over $84 million for research in infectious diseases.
Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt said the committed funding would help Australian researchers continue to make life-changing and life-altering discoveries.
‘Every day we acknowledge the extraordinary work of Australia’s health and medical researchers not only to confront the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also to continue their outstanding research to find solutions to the ongoing health issues we face,’ Minister Hunt said.
‘The grants include support for the next generation of research leaders seeking to develop more effective vaccines for respiratory diseases, investigate the missing genetics of rare diseases and help make the revolution in genomic medicine accessible and useful to everyone.’
NHMRC CEO Professor Anne Kelso said the NHMRC also seeks to address the challenges the health and medical research sector is facing by supporting additional early and mid-career researchers and women in the sector.
CEO Kelso also said the NHMRC will also be focusing on supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research and researchers.
‘As have all sections of the community, the health and medical research sector has contended with the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The sector has delivered against these odds, bringing Australia’s best science and scientists to the problem,’ she said.
‘The remarkable quality of projects funded in these schemes shows that Australia’s health and medical researchers are as passionate and skilled as ever to explore solutions for the range of health problems that concern us most.’
Source: Department of Health media release. Content has been edited for style and length.