Research Australia monitoring important new MRFF legislation

The Government introduced the Investment Funds Legislation Amendment Bill 2021 into Parliament on 25 August. If passed, it will, among other things, fix the amount of funding disbursed from the MRFF for five years at $650 million per annum. At the end of the five-year period, the investment performance of the MRFF will be assessed to determine if sufficient earnings have accumulated over the period to raise the annual rate of disbursement. This five-year review period will become a permanent feature of the MRFF.

The MRFF 10-year Investment Plan introduced by the Government in the 2019 Budget has allocated roughly $550 million per annum over the period to 2027-28. The proposed legislative change will allow these commitments to be met, while providing approximately $100 million per annum for new commitments and programs.

This change is about reducing the volatility in MRFF disbursements that arises because of the link to annual investment returns. This volatility caused the Government to tip in $175 million to MRFF disbursements in December last year to keep the MRFF 10-year Plan on track.

Research Australia will be closely monitoring performance of the MRFF and continuing to advocate for fund growth to mirror the growth of the health and medical research sector. While fixing the disbursements, as is proposed by the legislation, provides certainty as to how much we can expect to see disbursed from the MRFF every year, we are seeking clarity as to whether this amount will be indexed. At a bare minimum, the MRFF should keep pace with inflation. Research Australia members remain concerned that other key funding streams like the ARC and NHMRC are not indexed to CPI, meaning they don’t keep pace with inflation and, in real terms, are funds in decline.

The Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee is undertaking an Inquiry into the Bill and is due to report back to the Senate by 14 October.

For further information or to contribute to Research Australia’s submission, please contact Lucy Clynes, General Manager at lucy.clynes@researchaustralia.org

MEDIA RELEASE – NOBEL LAUREATE PROFESSOR BRIAN SCHMIDT AC APPOINTED TO THE BOARD OF RESEARCH AUSTRALIA

July 2021

The nation’s peak body for health and medical research and innovation, Research Australia, has welcomed Australian National University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Brian Schmidt AC, FRS, FAA, to its Board.

Chair of Research Australia, Associate Professor Annette Schmiede said, “as the national peak body for the whole health and medical research pipeline, our Board includes leaders from across our membership. As a major figure in science and academia, Brian’s contribution to our strategic focus of health and medical research advocacy, will be invaluable.”

“The opportunity to leverage Australia’s outstanding research capability and research excellence is now, and strong sector leadership is essential to fulfilling that potential. I therefore welcome Professor Schmidt with his distinguished record and commitment to further the advancement of a high performing research sector for Australia.”

Professor Schmidt said “research improves the world every day. It builds the products, industries and jobs of tomorrow. It helps us find solutions for the significant challenges plaguing our planet. It builds societies and economies that are more just and equitable. And it makes us understand the world around us and our place in it. I am honoured to be joining the board of Research Australia and look forward to working with the team to help promote the vital role and positive impact research has every day for all Australians.”

Research Australia’s CEO, Nadia Levin said Professor Schmidt’s appointment reflects our recognition that much of Australian health and medical research is conducted in our universities, and that, crucially, it is reliant on the broader scientific research endeavour.

“Ensuring that Australia’s people continue to enjoy good health and a quality of life means we must make greater use of our research outcomes to drive greater health and economic impact. Professor Schmidt’s experience and standing will greatly add to these efforts.”

Biography

Appointed the 12th Vice-Chancellor of ANU in January 2016.

Winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics

Professor Schmidt makes a significant contribution to public debate through the media, and via his membership of bodies including the Prime Minister’s National Science and Technology Council.

Professor Schmidt received undergraduate degrees in Astronomy and Physics from the University of Arizona in 1989, and completed his Astronomy Master’s degree (1992) and PhD (1993) at Harvard University. Under his leadership, in 1998, the High-Z Supernova Search team made the startling discovery that the expansion rate of the Universe is accelerating. Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, The United States Academy of Science, and the Royal Society, he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2013. Professor Schmidt has spent most of his academic career as an astrophysicist at the ANU Mount Stromlo Observatory and Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics,

Research Australia is the national peak body for Australian health and medical research and innovation. www.researchaustralia.org.

Contact: Sally Shepherd, Research Australia on 0413 772 285 or sally.shepherd@researchaustralia.org

Health and Medical Research Awards Finalist, Professor Brett Mitchell, featured in the Newcastle Herald

Research Australia welcomed the Newcastle Herald article featuring Professor Brett Mitchell’s UTI research which will reduce patient infection risk in Australian hospitals and save health services money.

Professor Brett Mitchell, an infection control expert, has found that using antiseptic before inserting a catheter reduces the risk of urinary tract infection in hospitals.

Click here to read the full article on the Newcastle Herald’s website.

Clearing the pathway for global clinical trials

Australia’s world-class research community and strong health system, along with low COVID-19 infection rates, should be a beacon, positioning Australia as the preferred global destination for clinical trials.

We have been working with our members from across the pipeline including Novo Nordisk, GSK, PRAXIS Australia and many others to shine a light on the opportunities (and address the challenges) to attract global clinical trials to Australia.

It is fitting that today on International Clinical Trials Day, Research Australia is pleased to publish our report;

Clearing the pathway for global clinical trials

Improving the environment for clinical trials enables Australian patients to benefit from the latest medicines and technologies developed both in Australia and overseas. It also helps Australian health and medical research to flourish in a competitive and lucrative world market.

This report outlines how we can unlock Australia’s potential through 7 key areas:

A world-first, national approach to decentralised clinical trials
Developing a ‘one-stop-shop’ for clinical trial approvals
How to cost and budget for clinical trials
Demonstrating Australia’s high-quality clinical trials capacity to the world
Incorporating health data into Australia’s clinical trial system
The world’s most highly skilled clinical trials workforce
Working with consumers to build better clinical trials

To read and/or download the report please click here.

Budget Update 2021

Summary

The economic impact of COVID-19 continues to dominate the Australian Budget, with tonight’s Budget, the second handed down in just seven months. Like the last one, this is a big spending Budget, but the focus has shifted from providing immediate stimulus to longer term recovery and Australia’s future prosperity. In the health sector, policy reform is focused on aged care and mental health.

Apart from COVID, the biggest health issue the Australian Government has had to grapple with in the last 12 months is aged care. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety provided the Government with 148 recommendations earlier this year. Until tonight, the Government had not provided a substantial response to the report.

This Budget outlines an additional $17.7 billion over five years, seeking to address the needs of aged Australians living at home and those in residential care. This equates to around half of what is called for overall in the Royal Commission’s Final Report. The Prime Minister’s press release states the Government has accepted 126 of the 148 recommendations, we are awaiting the Government’s detailed response to the Royal Commission – particularly the recommendations for dedicated funding for aged care and ageing research. The proposals from the Royal Commissioners in relation to funding for innovation and research have not been funded in this Budget.

Mental Health has also been under the spotlight, including the impact of COVID-19 on mental health. The Productivity Commission provided the Government with a report last year on what could be done to improve mental health, and earlier this year the Department of Health and Ageing consulted on what measures from the report should be implemented, and when.

Tonight’s budget provides $2.3 billion over four years from 2021-22 for the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan, including initiatives to be progressed with states and territories for a new national agreement on mental health and suicide prevention. The Government has indicated that it has accepted all the recommendations of the Productivity Commission Report on Mental Health and that the funding announced tonight is only phase one of its response. The only research specific funding announced as part of this package is establishment of an Eating Disorders Research Centre as part of a $26 million package of funding for eating disorders. Further funding for research-related aspects of the Productivity Commission’s recommendations may follow in future budgets. There is $117.2 million for data collection, in part to establish the evidence base for reforms. We will be seeking the advice of key mental health research experts to understand how this data can inform continuous, evidence-based improvement in mental health care for Australians.

While Preventative Health has gained attention from the Government in the last couple of years, the National Preventive Health Strategy is still very much a work in progress and there is only very limited additional funding for preventive health in tonight’s Budget. There is $1.9 million in 2021-22 for preventive health research and scoping activities, including a national health literacy strategy, to inform the National Preventive Health Strategy. Research Australia has previously advocated the need to improve health literacy (and digital health literacy) as a key measure to address health inequity and enable all Australians to better use technology to manage their health.

One of the key lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic is that we have become overly reliant on global supply chains for vital materials. This drove a new focus in last year’s Budget on manufacturing, with the announcement of $1.3 billion over five years from 2020-21 for the Modern Manufacturing Initiative. While the Government seems satisfied this is enough, Research Australia believes more needs to be done, and has proposed raising annual Government spending on R&D to 0.75% of GDP, setting a target for Australia to become a net exporter of pharmaceuticals by 2035, and using the Government’s influence as a key buyer of products and services to boost Australian innovation.

A key measure in this regard is a patent box; a tax deduction provided to companies that manufacture in Australia using Australian developed IP (patents). The patent box will only apply to income derived from Australian medical and biotechnology patents, with consideration to be given to the clean energy sector. It provides a concessional effective corporate tax rate of 17 per cent, with the concession applying from income years starting on or after 1 July 2022. Such a scheme has operated in the UK for many years and is designed to support high value manufacturing in Australia, complementing the R&D Tax Incentive. Research Australia has been a long-term advocate of patent box tax treatment, along with CSL and others in our sector, and this is a significant win for health and medical research.

Much has been said recently about mRNA manufacture of vaccines and therapeutics, with the Victorian and NSW Governments both announcing support and Victoria proposing to invest $50 million. In the Budget tonight the Government has announced that it, too, is acting. It will provide an undisclosed amount of funding (commercially sensitive) to the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources to work with the Department of Health to develop an onshore mRNA vaccine manufacturing capability in Australia. Research Australia called for such a commitment from the Government in our Pre-Budget Submission and we have been calling for this facility privately and publicly, to encourage this sovereign capability .

While the MRFF funding proceeds as outlined in the Government’s MRFF 10 year Plan, the funding to the NHMRC’s Medical Research Endowment Account continues to decline in real terms.

Medical Research Future Fund

Funding from the MRFF

The MRFF reached the target of $20 billion of capital in August 2020. Tonight’s Budget sees this balance maintained over the forward estimates.

Forecast spending from the MRFF remains largely as expected over the forward estimates. While only $455 million is available from the MRFF to fund research and innovation in 2021/22 due to lower-than-expected investment returns, the Government is maintaining spending this financial year by providing an additional $175 million for MRFF funding from consolidated revenue (announced in the December 2020 mid-year budget). At this stage the Government expects the investment returns to recover this financial year, with $650 million available to fund medical research and innovation in 2022/23.

MRFF expenditure

$m.	20-21	21-22	22-23	23-24	24-25
MRFF Funding 2021 Budget	579.9	455.0	650.0	650.0	650.0

NHMRC and ARC Funding

In Research Australia’s Pre- Budget Submission and our Pre-Election Statement we continue to call for increases in funding for the NHMRC and ARC’s research programs. This Budget sees both schemes continue to decline in real terms, which is of genuine concern to the health and medical research community.

NHMRC Programs

The 2021/22 Budget reveals funding for the NHMRC’s programs continuing to grow very slightly, and only slightly faster than was forecast in last year’s budget. The increase in this financial year is 1,1%, with annual increases of around 1% thereafter. This is lower than the forecast CPI of 3.5%% for 2020-21 and CPI of between 1.75% and 2.5% expected in subsequent years. In effect, NHMRC funding continues to decline in real terms, as it has done for many years now. Research Australia remains concerned about this deficit because research and its outcomes is a long-term commitment.

NHMRC MREA Funding

$m.

20-21

21-22

22-23

23-24

24-25

Funding to MREA

2021 Budget

853,864

863,266

875,362

887,588

899,124

Funding to MREA

2020 Budget

853,864

862,412

872,770

884,960

N/A

ARC Programs

The Australian Research Council’s Funding Programs are critical to Australian publicly funded research including to the life sciences and medical technologies.

Over the forward estimates, the funding to the ARC for the Discovery Program increases slightly each financial year and while higher than in last year’s Budget, the funding is at significantly lower levels than forecast in the 2019 Budget. In real terms funding to the Discovery Program declines over the forward estimates. Again, a cause for concern.

$m.	20-21	21-22	22-23	23-24	24-25
Discovery 2021 Budget	483,272	489,188	494,922	501,162	509,432
Discovery 2020 Budget	483.272	487.016	487.860	490.610
Discovery 2019 Budget	513.542	525.537	538.350	N/A

The ARC Linkage Program has been singled out by the Government as an important component of Australia’s innovation system, and it was announced that from 1 July 2016 the Program would be open to continuous applications and decision making would be fast tracked.

Funding over the forward estimates is higher than forecast in last year’s budget, but future years fail to keep pace with inflation.

$m.	20-21	21-22	22-23	23-24	24-25
Linkage 2021 Budget	323.166	325.454	329.948	334.109	339.622
Linkage 2020 Budget	322.181	323.871	325.240	327.074	N/A
Linkage 2019 Budget	288.788	295.246	301.741	N/A	N/A

While not funding ‘medical and dental research’, the ARC Linkage program remains important to the health and medical research and innovation sectors.

Research Support

In addition to providing funding for the ARC Linkage Program, the Department of Education and Training also provides funding to universities to help cover the indirect costs of research.

In last year’s Budget, the Government used the Research Support Program to provide a vital injection of $1 billion into higher education research in the current financial year. No further injection is provided in this year’s Budget and funding in is actually lower than was forecast in the 2019 Budget.

Research Support Program

$m.	20-21	21-22	22-23	23-24	24-25
2021 Budget	1918.298	930.659	942.775	958.326	974.143
2020 Budget	1918.298	926.490	929.270	938.107	N/A
2019 Budget	920.573	941.748	962.455	N/A	N/A
2018 Budget	1,018.879	1,042.302	N/A	N/A	N/A

Funding for the indirect costs of research funded by the MRFF is now provided from the Research Support Program. With the MRFF providing hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to universities over the next few years, beyond this financial year, a substantial increase in the Research Support Program is needed just to maintain the levels of research support funding for research projects at their current already inadequate level. The cuts to the Research Support Program beyond the one-off boost in 2020-21 represent a real and continued threat to the capacity of our universities to undertake vital health and medical research.

The issue of indirect research costs remains unresolved for the whole health and medical research sector and indeed publicly funded research more broadly. Research Australia continues to call for a whole of government approach to the issue of funding indirect research costs. Research Australia proposes that the Chief Scientist lead a review of the funding of indirect research costs to establish a sustainable and equitable funding program. In the short term, the pool of funding for the Research Support Program must be increased substantially.

Research Training

The Research Training Program (RTP) provides funding to universities to support higher degree by research students (mostly PhDs). Funding for the RTP also declined in absolute terms between the 2019 and 2020 Budgets, and have only partly recovered in this year’s Budget.

Research Training Program

$m.	20-21	21-22	22-23	23-24	24-25
2021 Budget	1054.981	1069.182	1083.160	1100.967	1119.137
2020 Budget	1054.981	1064.392	1067.585	1077.738	N/A
2019 Budget	1057.595	1081.921	1105.710	N/A	N/A

Industry PhDs

The Department of Industry will provide $1.1 million over two years from 2020-21 to create new employment pathways for students and boost financial incentives for universities to enrol students in ‘Industry PhDs’. This measure will introduce an additional weighting in the Research Training Program funding formula for PhD students who undertake an industry placement.

Research Commercialisation

In last year’s Budget the Government committed funding for a scoping study for a University Research Commercialisation Scheme to better translate and commercialise university research outputs. The development of the Scheme is still in train and there is no funding for the Scheme in this year’s Budget. It looks like this might have to wait until next year. Research Australia remains actively engaged in consultation with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on this Scheme.

CRC Program

Funding forecasts for the CRC Program reflect a shift in some funding between 2019-20 and 2020-21. Beyond that, they are slightly lower over the forward estimates.

CRC Program $million

$m.	20-21	21-22	22-23	23-24	24-25
2021 Budget	222,777	189,980	197,815	191,042	193,807
2020 Budget	234,168	189,040	186,378	188,599	N/A
2019 Budget	187,356	192,239	191,223	N/A	N/A

The CRC Program is important to health and medical research and innovation with about one third of the CRCs funded over the life of the program being health related.

Conclusion

Research Australia will continue to provide analysis and comment in the coming days and weeks as well as seek further input from across the membership for your reactions and insight into the policy and funding announced for our sector; and how it affects or enhances your research and related activities as a result.

Ends …..

Frontiers Award Nominee Professor Maher Gandhi featured in The Australian

New hope in fight with fatal blood cancer

The Australian
Mackenzie Scott, Tuesday 23 March 2021

A cancer breakthrough developed in Brisbane is expected to give new hope to patients suffering a rare and deadly form of blood cancer that affects the brain and nervous system.

The dual precision treatment designed at Brisbane’s Mater Hospital by haematologist Maher Gandhi is expected to revolutionise the care given to those diagnosed with a non-Hodgkin‘s lymphoma called Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma.

Professor Gandhi has spent the past five years researching the disease, which affects between 10 and 20 Australians a year. It is the first large-scale study into PCNSL conducted worldwide as part of an Australian-led international consortium, which found that the genomic make-up of the lymphoma was fundamentally different from any of the 60 other types.

“I remember when I was a trainee doctor, seeing patients like this, there was always a lot of excitement because the disease is quite rare. It was alongside a lot of disappointment, too, because it was so hard to treat,” Professor Gandhi said.

“Some of the rare cancers get very neglected. It just made me very passionate to try to extend the advances we’ve had in other forms of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma to these ones.”

PCNSL, which is confined to the brain, eyes and cerebrospinal fluid,mostly affects people in their 50s and 60s who are immuno-compromised.

Chemotherapy and radiation are largely ineffective.

Brisbane grandfather Scott Griffiths, 46, was diagnosed with the disease in 2018 after a bout of glandular fever.

While the virus wouldn’t normally increase the risk of developing the cancer, a kidney and pancreas transplant in 2010 had left him susceptible.

Professor Gandhi prescribed a dual treatment that included a daily dose of small molecule chemotherapy drug Ibrutinib for 10 weeks alongside a vaccine of cells from a healthy person who had previously had the virus.

The goal was to try to kill the cancer slowly and re-educate the immune system how to function.

“I was really depressed when I was diagnosed,” Mr Griffiths said. “I thought I was going to die.”

“I may not be here for a long time, the tumour could come back but hopefully I can get back to work and do something for myself.”

The treatment is in its third year of clinical trials and the research is about to be published in the American Society of Haematology’s journal Blood.

Professor Gandhi is also in the running for Research Australia’s prestigious National Health and Medical Research Awards.

The full article can be viewed here.

@MackenzieJScott

MEDIA RELEASE – Australia’s health and medical research and innovation sector welcomes new Chief Scientist

10 November 2020

The national peak body for Australia’s health and medical research and innovation sector is delighted to offer congratulations to Dr Cathy Foley AO PSM FAA FTSE on her appointment as Australia’s new Chief Scientist.

Research Australia CEO, Nadia Levin said, “This appointment is a celebration of Dr Foley’s high regard as a renowned physicist and extensive experience as CSIRO’s Chief Scientist and importantly, deep understanding of the scientific landscape and the contribution it does and should make to society.

“Dr Foley’s extensive contributions to areas such as understanding of superconductors has been influential in translating fundamental research into commercial outcomes. The health and medical research community looks forward to working with Dr Foley to translate our incredible lifesciences research into health systems outcomes.

“I would like to warmly thank outgoing Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel AO for his significant leadership and endeavours during his tenure. Over the past five years, Dr Finkel AO has truly cemented his position as a friend to the health and medical research community,” said Nadia Levin.

Research Australia has welcomed the Prime Minister’s comments yesterday that Dr Foley’s role will be to facilitate collaboration between industry and the science and research community.

“Research Australia has long encouraged collaboration between research, science and industry and we believe Dr Foley is poised to lead Australia’s science and innovation community as it emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The economic value that health and medical research and innovation offers this country should not be underestimated.

“Working together, we’re confident Australia can lead the world in health innovation and we believe the chance to maximise the health and wealth opportunities within the innovation and science sector more broadly, is now.

“We look forward to working with Dr Foley to achieve this,” said Nadia Levin.

Research Australia is the national peak body for Australian health and medical research and innovation. http://www.researchaustralia.org
Media contact: Lucy Clynes 0404 068 912

Aged Care Research is essential for a better Aged Care system

Research Australia is delighted that research is firmly on the agenda for the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

The peak body’s Chief Executive Nadia Levin welcomed the news that among the more than 100 recommendations made by counsel to the Commissioners, were several very important recommendations relating to research.

Importantly, Counsel has recommended establishing a dedicated Aged Care Council to set a strategy and agenda for research and development into aged care. A dedicated aged research fund with an annual budget of 1.8% of government expenditure on aged care has also been recommended.

‘This would be a welcome boost to aged care research in Australia and has the potential to lead to better, higher quality and safer care, said Ms Levin. ‘In fact, I don’t think this promise of a better system can be delivered without more research, it is absolutely essential.’

Research Australia has made the case on several occasions for increasing research into aged care and ageing. We urged the inclusion of research in the Commission’s original terms of reference and have liaised with the Commission’s officers to connect them with researchers who were able to assist the Inquiry.

The aim is to prioritise research that involves co-design with older people, their families and the aged care workforce, and to facilitate networks between researchers, industry and government. The scope of research is broad, encompassing technology pilots and innovation projects, and assisting the translation of research into practice to improve aged care.

In a series of related recommendations, data collection across aged care should be improved and a national minimum aged care dataset developed under the auspice of the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare.

The Commissioners are now considering the evidence they have received and are due to provide their final report to the Australian Government by the end of February next year. (They may accept, reject or modify Counsel’s recommendations.) More information about the Royal Commission, including the final submissions, is available here.

Research Australia will continue its advocacy focus along with its members such as NARI, CSIRO, University of Queensland, Flinders University and the University of Wollongong to keep research firmly on the agenda as the Royal Commission considers its response.

Please join our efforts through contributing to Research Australia’s submission due on the 12^th November via greg.mullins@researchaustralia.org

Notice of Research Australia AGM 2020

Dear Members
On behalf of the Research Australia Board, you are invited to attend the virtual Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Thursday 3^rd December 2020 at 9h30am-10h00am AEDT.

During this meeting we will consider the following agenda items:

ORDINARY BUSINESS

ANNUAL OVERVIEW

ANNUAL ACCOUNTS

To consider the annual report, financial statements and report of the Directors and Auditor for the year ended 30 June 2020.

RESULTS OF DIRECTOR APPOINTMENT/S

To acknowledge returning Directors and the appointment of new Director/s in accordance with the Company’s Constitution.

OTHER BUSINESS

Any other business that may be brought forward at a general meeting in accordance with the Constitution.

Please note: A Member who is entitled to vote at the meeting has a right to appoint a proxy and should use the proxy form available here. One vote is entitled per member organisation. Please sign and date the proxy form and email to admin@researchaustralia.org by Monday 30 November 2020.

Please register here and we look forward to connecting with you on the day.

With best regards

Nadia Levin

Managing Director

Research Australia

MEDIA RELEASE – Budget shows strong support for health and medical research as a critical national capability

MEDIA RELEASE

Budget shows strong support for health and medical research as a critical national capability

Australian health and medical researchers have cautiously welcomed a suite of support measures contained in this year’s Budget.

Higher education Research Support Program

“A one-off injection of $1 billion this financial year in support for university research through the Research Support Program will go some way to stemming the loss of crucial early and mid-career medical researcher jobs from our universities. While it is not the panacea to the problem, without this crucial injection of funds, we were at risk of losing a generation of Australian health and medical researchers – the minds behind the next Gardasil or Cochlear would never have been given the chance to save lives and boost our economy,” said Research Australia CEO and Managing Director, Nadia Levin.

More than half of all Australian health and medical research is undertaken in the higher education sector. It is clear that Australia can no longer rely so heavily on international student fees to subsidise university research.

“This funding is absolutely welcome in the short term, in the long term we need to look at effective partnerships between higher education, government, industry and philanthropy to create a more sustainable higher education sector,” said Nadia Levin.

Research and Development Tax Incentive

The Government will invest an additional $2 billion through the Research and Development Tax Incentive over the next four years to help innovative businesses that invest in research and development. This is welcome news for Australia’s medical innovators, those future job creators and exporters who will be so crucial to Australia’s post-pandemic economic recovery. It is achieved by winding back some of the proposed reforms to the RDTI legislation currently before the Senate.

“One of the key lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic is that we have become overly reliant on global supply chains for vital materials, particularly medical supplies. The inclusion of medical products as a National Manufacturing Priority in the $1.3 billion Modern Manufacturing Initiative will help alleviate this sovereign risk.”

The MRFF and the NHMRC

The Health Budget has also delivered key funding with the Medical Research Future Fund now fully matured and on track to deliver $2.5 billion in research funding over the next four years.

“We remain concerned that the NHMRC is experiencing a decline in funding in real terms. The NHMRC plays a unique and vital role in funding medical research separate to the MRFF and at a minimum, its funding must keep pace with inflation if it is to guarantee the pipeline of health and medical research so vital to our national health and wealth,” said Nadia Levin. “While the universities benefit from the one- off increase in the Research Support Program, there is no similar support for researchers in Medical Research Institutes who are grappling with the delays and disruptions caused by COVID-19.”

Research Australia Chairman, Chris Chapman said, “Last year’s forecast budget spending for 2020-21 was $82.5 billion. This forecast has been revised up to $115.5 billion, as we begin to see just how much COVID-19 is driving up healthcare costs.

“In the coming months and years, Australians will look to health and medical research and innovation to deliver more effective treatments and more efficient pathways of care to curtail these costs. Research Australia will continue to work with Government to ensure support for the crucial role all parts of the health and medical research pipeline have to play in delivering better, more sustainable care.”

Tonight’s budget announcements are part of the equation, Research Australia will continue its advocacy efforts, influencing smarter investment in health and medical research and innovation.

Health and medical research must be seen and treated as the critical national capability it is. Not only to ensure our health and quality of life, but as a key driver of our economy.

Research Australia is the national peak body for Australian health and medical research.

Media contact: Lucy Clynes 0404 068 912