HTSA Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Catalyst Grant Scheme

The MRFF Catalyst Grant Scheme (Catalyst Scheme) provides targeted funding to develop a pipeline of collaborative research projects that address health service needs in South Australia. Teams are required to include members from at least 2 health services organisations and at least 2 academic research organisations/health and medical research institutes.

The Catalyst Scheme also focuses South Australia’s (SA’s) effort around the MRFF’s Principles and Priorities to ultimately increase SA’s success at winning MRFF funding.

The Catalyst Scheme is different to existing state-based health research funding schemes in the following ways:

• It is multi-institutional and rewards meaningful collaboration across health services and academic research organisations/institutes
• It focusses on consumer and/or clinician priorities to define and address an unmet health/healthcare need affecting health services in South Australia
• It supports projects that align with MRFF Principles and Priorities to demonstrate local impact with potential to scale.

The inaugural 2023 Catalyst Scheme had a budget of $360,000 available to provide funding of between $20,000 to $60,000 per project for a maximum of a 1year grant period.

Funding for the Catalyst Scheme was provided through generous support from The Hospital Research Foundation Group (THRF Group) and the Women’s & Children’s Hospital Foundation (WCH Foundation), contributing $240 000 and $120 000, respectively. Funds provided by the WCH Foundation for the Catalyst Scheme are for projects that address maternal and/or paediatric health and wellbeing.

The 2023 Catalyst Scheme Recipients were announced in December 2023. Read more about the six successful projects here.

The 2024 Catalyst Grant Scheme is expected to launch in May 2024. Expressions of interest are welcomed from organisations who are interested in becoming a funder in 2024, download the flyer for more information.

The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) is an important funding source in the health and medical research ecosystem. It is a key objective of HTSA's to funnel more MRFF funding into South Australia, and to build capacity within the SA system to lead projects that can have state-wide and national impact. Additionally, HTSA supports the MRFF's aim of promoting health research translation by assisting research teams to engage meaningfully with consumers, policy makers and health services in order to deliver meaningful outcomes/impact for patients and the community.

The Catalyst Scheme provides targeted funding to research projects that are aligned with the MRFF Principles and Priorities, with the goal of increasing the number of successful SA-led applications to the MRFF.

The objectives of the Catalyst Scheme are to:

1. Support translational research projects that address an unmet health/healthcare need affecting health services in South Australia.
2. Foster the formation of diverse teams and collaborations between and across multiple health service organisations and health research organisations/institutes.
3. Build a pipeline of research projects that are “MRFF-ready"