ASMR president rallies for medical research funding

By Susan Williamson
Thursday, 09 June, 2005

The president of the Australian Society for Medical Research has made a call for action from researchers to campaign for more federal government funding for medical research.

"The federal component of medical research funding is in crisis," Assoc Prof Bronwyn Kingwell told the ASMR's annual Medical Research Week dinner in Sydney this week. "The last five years have seen a doubling in the NHMRC budget thanks to the Wills review, which is now complete. The budget is now static, or declining if you take inflation in to account."

Most medical research in Australia is funded through public grants, of which NHMRC funding makes up a significant portion. Recommendations of the 1999 Health and Medical Research Strategic Review -- better known as the Wills review, after its chairman, Peter Wills -- led to a doubling of the NHMRC's base funding to $614 million by 2005-06.

The Investment Review of Health and Medical Research -- the 'Grant Review' -- released by the federal government in December last year presented a positive report card for medical research over the last five years in Australia, but recommended that the government should increase its investment in medical research to $1.8 billion per annum by 2008-09. Such an increase would mean a doubling of the budget for medical research and would bring Australia in line with the average OECD expenditure, it said.

"We have had no commitment from the federal government or the opposition to support this yet," said Kingwell. "We need a strategy to impress on the government to invest in medical research. The timeframe for this campaign is October 2005, which is when the agenda for the 2006 budget is set."

The AMSR is working with lobby group Research Australia to encourage people to engage with politicians on this issue, by inviting them to institutes, writing letters, and generating more awareness of the need to increase grant rates and maintain research outcomes in Australia.

For more information go to the ASMR campaign page.