Funding is available from NHMRC to support health and medical research, from basic science through to clinical, public health and health services research
National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is Australia’s peak body for supporting health and medical research; for developing health advice for the Australian community, health professionals and governments; and for providing advice on ethical behaviour in health care and in the conduct of health and medical research.
Background
As at Feb 2014, the 2013 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Grant Application Round has resulted in the commitment of more than $800 million to fund health and medical research including 1137 new grants to universities, medical research institutions and hospitals across Australia.
Research Areas
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grants focus on providing funding to support the research undertaken to promote the health of all Australians through the creation of knowledge.
Grants to Accelerate Research Translation
NHMRC’s translational schemes fund high quality researchers to conduct the research needed to support the production of scholarly evidence to inform policy and/or practice and the intellectual work to better deal with complex translation pathways.
Grants to Build Australia’s Future Capability
To build Australia’s future capability for research and translation, National Health and Medical Research Council funds the best and brightest researchers and research teams and provides infrastructure support grants to support the infrastructure required to complete health and medical research in Australia.
Work With Partners
National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Partnerships for Better Health aims to improve the availability and quality of research evidence to decision makers who design policy and to inform the policy process by supporting more effective connections between the decision makers and the researchers.
Media Release
The Turnbull Government will invest $2 million in new medical research to help find a cure for rare genetic epilepsy disorders.
I am pleased to make this announcement on Purple Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness about the impact of epilepsy.
Epilepsy is a chronic disorder of the brain that affects people of all ages, with around 250,000 Australians living with the condition.
This new funding will support our leading researchers to investigate genetic and other causes of epilepsy including the mutation of the Syngap gene, a rare neurological condition which can lead to epilepsy.
The SYNGAP-1 project will be the first project undertaken by the Australian Epilepsy Research Fund, and will be led by researchers from the respected Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health.
The Australian Epilepsy Research Fund has been established by the Epilepsy Foundation to provide Australians living with genetic and other types of epilepsy hope for the future through medical research.
The Epilepsy Foundation works with individuals and families, organisations and the community to increase people’s understanding of epilepsy.
I want to thank the Epilepsy Foundation for their tireless commitment in supporting people living with epilepsy and their families, and for their work to establish a medical research fund to fight epilepsy.
It is my hope that this funding contributes to a medical breakthrough that will improve the lives of people living with this condition.
Since 2013 the Coalition Government has invested more than $58 million for epilepsy research through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
The Turnbull Government spent more than $71 million on the PBS for medicines to treat epilepsy in 2016-17.
All Australians benefit from the investment in health and medical research.
List of National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grant recipients
| Recipient | Project | Grant |
| Prof Philip Hansbro | Elucidating the role and potential for therapeutic targeting of TLR7 in emphysema and COPD | $925,780 |
| Prof Philip Hansbro | Defining the roles and targeting interferon-epsilon as a new therapy for influenza in asthma and COPD | $905,904 |
| Dr Chantal Donovan | Targeting remodelling in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic asthma and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) | $386,634 |
| Prof Amanda Baker | Quitlink: Accessible smoking cessation support for people living with severe and enduring mental illness | $1,141,189 |
| A/Pr Frederick Walker | Microglial paralysis in post-stroke neurodegeneration: help or hindrance? | $512,351 |
| A/Pr Frederick Walker | Stroke induced disturbances in glymphatic clearance: implications for brain repair? | $491,688 |
| Dr Heather Lee | Targeting cancer-initiating cells with DNA methyltransferase inhibitors: single-cell analysis to decipher molecular mechanisms and improve efficacy. | $175,000 |
| A/Pr Brett Graham | Excitatory interneurons: a sensory amplifier for pathological pain | $649,848 |
| A/Pr Christopher Grainge | How does bronchoconstriction worsen asthma? | $1,064,746 |
| Dr Kirsty Pringle | Maternal Recognition of Fetal Sex in the Regulation of Labour | $455,821 |
| Dr Gerard Kaiko | Functional characterisation of novel metabolites in asthma and identification of new biomarkers | $818,464 |
| A/Pr Christopher Dayas | Cognitive inflexibility and the development of pathological habits in brain diseases | $871,742 |
| Prof Xu Dong Zhang | Role of lncRNA IDH1-AS1 in regulating c-Myc driven-glycolysis and tumorigenesis | $675,585 |
| A/Pr Joerg Lehmann | First ever system to continuously and directly measure the internal anatomy to guide breast cancer radiation treatment under deep inspiration breath hold | $404,109 |
| A/Pr Murray Cairns | Complete genomics for mechanistic insight and precision treatments of schizophrenia | $1,133,341 |
| A/Pr Murray Cairns | Network biomarkers of traumatic stress resilience and sensitivity | $638,407 |
| Prof Brett Nixon | Elucidating the role of epididymosomes in the transfer of fertility-modulating proteins and regulatory classes of RNA to maturing spermatozoa | $531,978 |
| A/Pr Gillian Gould | Translating evidence based smoking cessation care for pregnant Indigenous smokers | $179,118 |
| Mrs Rachel Sutherland | A randomised trial of an intervention to facilitate the implementation of evidence based secondary school physical activity practices. | $179,118 |
Grants Highlights
Professor Karlheinz Peter, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute ($450,721)
Professor Peter and his team will work with their European collaborators to uncover the proteins, genes, and biological pathways behind the rupture of atherosclerotic deposits in blood vessels. The knowledge they uncover will be directed towards developing new therapies to prevent heart attacks.
Professor Georgia Chenevix-Trench, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute ($472,984)
There are many different types of breast cancer, each with different causes, treatments and outcomes. The aim of this project is to use genetic, lifestyle/environmental, mammographic breast density, pathologic and clinical data from a very large number of studies from all over the world to develop ways of predicting which women are at risk of particular types of breast cancer, and if breast cancer develops what the likely outcome will be.
Professor Colin Pouton, Monash University ($902,949)
Microglia cells in the brain play an important role in the development and progression of common neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and stroke. Professor Pouton, his team and collaborators will develop new tools and approaches to create microglia from human stem cells. These microglia can then be studied in the laboratory to better understand their role in neurological disease.
Professor Andrew Elefanty, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute ($881,221)
The treatment of leukaemia and other diseases of the blood involves the transfusion of hematopoietic stem cells. In order to refine these treatments and improve their efficacy, we need to improve our understanding of how pluripotent stem cells – stem cells which can transform into any other type of stem cell – develop into hematopoietic stem cells. Professor Elefanty and his team will create a tool that will allow them to observe this development process, which will allow them to more precisely engineer hematopoietic stem cells for clinical use.
