Medical Research Future Fund Priorities 2018–2020: Response to the Discussion Paper

This submission to the Australian Medical Research Advisory Board (AMRAB) responds to the discussion paper for the 2018–2020 Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Priorities. Research Australia reviews each existing Priority against the Government initiatives allocated to it and proposes that four Priorities be retained unchanged, seven retained with amendments, five discontinued and six new Priorities created. Proposed new Priorities are Communicable Disease Control (moved to the Strategic and International Horizons platform to cover epidemic preparedness and vaccines), Frontier Technology, Integrating Genomics into Healthcare, Preventive and Public Health, Safer, Higher Quality and More Effective Care (centred on implementation science), Building Capacity to Address Research and Innovation Skills Shortages in areas such as health services research, health economics and bioinformatics, and Pre-commercialisation Grants. It recommends discontinuing the Priorities for the national data management study, MRFF infrastructure and evaluation, a national institute of research, the National Infrastructure Sharing Scheme and Biomedical Translation, and amending others such as Clinical Researcher Fellowships so that they target practising clinicians, including nurses and allied health professionals. It also asks that each Priority carry an explicit objective, and that the Board give indicative funding ranges for the estimated $368.6 million unallocated over 2019–20 and 2020–21, noting that 45.9% of committed funding sits under Strategic and International Horizons and 31.4% under Trials and Translation.