HTSA Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Catalyst Grant Scheme

The Health Translation SA (HTSA) Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Catalyst Grant Scheme (Catalyst Scheme) provides targeted funding to develop a pipeline of collaborative research projects that address health system needs in South Australia and 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 requires teams to include members from at least 2 health services organisations and at least 2 academic research organisations/health and medical research 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 2024 Catalyst Scheme will open on May 20^th.

Funding for the Catalyst Scheme is provided through generous support from The Hospital Research Foundation Group (THRF Group) the Women’s & Children’s Hospital Foundation (WCH Foundation) and the Cancer Council SA (CCSA), contributing $240 000, $120 000 and $120 000, respectively.  

Funding of $20,000 to $60,000 per project is available, for a maximum of 1-year.

 2024 Catalyst Funding Streams

• Stream A: Chronic condition preventive health for priority populations: Addressing modifiable risk factors to improve health outcomes
  Funds provided by THRF Group will support innovative and collaborative approaches in developing primary prevention interventions for chronic conditions that seek to improve health outcomes for priority population(s) by addressing modifiable risk factors.

• Stream B: Maternal/Paediatric health and wellbeing
  Funds provided by the WCH Foundation will support projects that address maternal and/or paediatric health and wellbeing, where maternal health and wellbeing includes issues relating to fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, and the postnatal period.

• Stream C: Cancer
  Funds provided by CCSA will support projects that address bowel, breast, or gynaecological cancers.

Register here to attend the 2024 Catalyst Scheme launch webinar, where you will hear about the scheme, key dates and how to create a competitive application.

To view the full Guidelines, click here. 

The 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"

Read about the 6 successful 2023 Catalyst Scheme recipients here.