Funding for medical research

In the latest round of NHMRC funding, $133 million has been awarded to support research across a range of areas including influenza, childhood eczema and allergies, mental health, basic neuroscience and medical imaging.

Announced by Federal Minister for Health, Peter Dutton, the funding will support 153 grants across five NHMRC schemes - Development Grants, Partnerships for Better Health - Partnership Projects, Program Grants, Postgraduate Scholarships and Targeted Call - Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

This round of funding included:

• 11 program grants worth $101.6 million awarded for multidisciplinary research in biomedical, clinical, public health and health services.
• 7 partnership projects totalling $4.4 million, given to researchers and policymakers working to identify changes in the delivery, organisation, funding and access to health services.
• 24 development grants worth $14.7 million for early proof-of-concept for commercialisation research of new medical products, processes, procedures and services.
• 3 targeted calls for research grants at a value of $2.8 million  to improve understanding of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
• 108 postgraduate scholarships totalling $9.5 million.

While New South Wales received the highest ($38.8 million for 47 grants) and Victoria a close second highest ($38.4 million for 58 grants), the University of Queensland received the greatest amount of funding ($26.3 million for 18 grants).

Cancer research was given $44.5 million, Indigenous health research $14.1 million and cardiovascular disease research $13.9 million.

Some highlights of this round include:

• Professor Anne Kelso and collaborators from seven research groups from the University of Melbourne and the Doherty Institute were awarded a program grant of $13.5 million for the development of better ways to prevent and treat influenza.
• An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, led by Professor Richard Harvey, received $10.5 million to use genome technology and stem cell biology to identify evidence-based therapies for treating heart disease and the regeneration of heart cells.
• Professor Barry Marshall from the University of Western Australia obtained a development grant of almost $1 million to trial the use of Helicobacter pylori bacteria to build immunity to childhood eczema and allergies.
• With a partnership project grant of $1.2 million, Professor Elizabeth Eakin from the University of Queensland will investigate the implementation of evidence-based cancer care via the Cancer Council Helpline service with the aim of improving quality and quantity of life for cancer survivors.
• Professor Elizabeth Elliott, University of Sydney, received $693,729 to work in collaboration with the Cherbourg community in Queensland and the World Health Organization to increase local capacity for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder screening and diagnostic services.

For more information on the this round of grants, visit the NMHRC website.