Preventive and Public Health Research initiative

Objectives:

To provide grants of financial assistance to support Australian medical research projects that conduct clinical trials to address one of the following topics:

• safer and more efficient ways to use high-cost medicines for one or more specific indications without compromising effectiveness. Priority areas include biological agents and other high-cost medicines
• other therapeutic indications for existing medicines that are not currently approved by the TGA. Priority areas include off-patent and other low-cost medicines.

Priority will be given to clinical trials investigating changes in the use of medicines that have the greatest potential impact on patients, clinical care and/or health service delivery.

Research Data Infrastructure Initiative

Objectives:

This opportunity looks to fund the creation or extension of national research data infrastructure and focuses on strategic investment in:

• data registries
• biobanks
• data linkage platforms.

The fund will help researchers to collect, share and analyse data more widely. This will help

• make evidence-based care easier for health professionals
• drive efficient use of resources
• support advances in healthcare

Preventive and Public Health Research initiative

The MRFF Preventive and Public Health Research Initiative will support research that focuses on one or more of the following priorities: 

• Maternal health 
• Early childhood, or 
• Exercise and nutrition.

Objectives:

• foster new discoveries that lead to practice changes in community and clinical settings 
• increase collaboration across academic disciplines, policy makers and health services to better understand the social, cognitive and emotional aspects of people’s health choices
• develop guidance, tools and interventions to support Australians to adopt positive behaviour change and to live active and healthy lives, and
• improve health outcomes for Australians living with chronic and complex disease through innovative public health approaches, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and for disadvantaged regional and rural and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

Preventive and Public Health Research initiative

Description:

It will support research to

• test innovative public health approaches
• identify innovative approaches to treat and manage chronic and complex diseases
• improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of preventive healthcare interventions

It will provide grants to support medical research and innovation projects that create or adapt:

• technologies
• mechanisms
• approaches

Projects should aim to improve medicine use and medicine intervention by pharmacists in primary health and transitions of care. They should target improvements to quality, safety and effectiveness. The projects should also align with relevant peak or representative bodies to help national implementation.

Indigenous Australians Health Programme Emerging Priorities grant opportunity expected to open last quarter of 2020.

Grant Objective: to improve our understanding of the aetiology, biology and progression of cancer in children and adolescents.

The grant opportunity will fund projects in two streams of research:

• Stream 1-Cancer in children
• Stream 2-Cancer in adolescents

Funding of $3 million will be allocated to each of the two streams. The remaining $3 million will be earmarked to support the overall best research, irrespective of streams.

Frontier Health and Medical Research Initiative

The MRFF 2021 Frontier Health and Medical Research Initiative provides multi-disciplinary teams with up to $1 million to develop, and up to $50 million to implement their innovative research projects.

The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) 2021 Frontier Health and Medical Research Grant Opportunity opened as the MRFF 2019 Frontier Health and Medical Research (Stage One) Grant Opportunity. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the opportunity was deferred.

The MRFF 2021 Frontier Health and Medical Research Grant Opportunity now incorporates the entire Frontier process. It now includes both Stage One and Stage Two into a single grant opportunity. 

Clinical Trials Activity Initiative

Grant Objectives:

Applications to this MRFF Clinical Trial Activity Initiative -2020 International Clinical Trial Collaborations Grant Opportunity must propose a clinical trial in Australia, in collaboration with international counterparts. 

Million Minds Mission

Grant Objectives:
Support research into the following mental health priority areas:

•  new mechanisms for early identification and prevention amongst children and adolescents;
• treatments for those with treatment resistant or treatment refractory mental health conditions
• initiatives to address the physical health of individuals with mental illness
• mechanisms to support access to treatment

It is anticipated that this Grant Opportunity will fund two mental health clinical trial networks, one focussing on children and youth; and another on adults.

Partnership Projects will support connections, within the Australian context, that translate research evidence into health policy and health practice, to improve health services and processes.

Research may involve preventative programs, primary and community health care, hospitals, community services, the health workforce and infrastructure. NHMRC’s current key structural priorities are: Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander health research and researchers; health services research; gender equality.

To support high-quality clinical trials and cohort studies that address important gaps in knowledge, leading to relevant and implementable findings for the benefit of human health.

Priority is given to researchers whose work is particularly relevant to the priorities and research interests of the partner organisations, which for 2020 include Cancer Australia & Funding Partners.