Post Pandemic Opportunities for Health & Medical Research & Innovation: Consultation Paper

Released as an online consultation questionnaire for Research Australia members and stakeholders, this paper examines how the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated both the value and the structural fragility of Australia’s health and medical research sector, and seeks views on reforms to strengthen it. Drawing on Research Australia’s analysis of more than 550 recommendations from 20 national reviews of health and medical research conducted over the preceding 15 years, it identifies recurring themes: inefficient funding structures, the need for a research-informed health system, weak links between research and industry, and concerns about the research workforce. The paper sets out five reform areas: strategic coordination of funding, including a National Health and Medical Research Strategy and a coordinating body modelled on the UK’s Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research; future-proofing the sector by addressing researcher job insecurity (54% of university and 74% of medical research institute researchers are employed on contracts, most commonly of 12 months) and the underfunding of indirect research costs; building Australia’s future health industries through higher R&D investment, medical manufacturing and a national stocktake of research funding; meeting the needs of state and territory health systems to accelerate the adoption of evidence; and putting patients and the public at the centre of health innovation through citizen panels and juries. Consultation feedback was to inform a Statement of Strategic Intent for the sector.