Non-Government Funding For Victorian Health & Medical Research

Prepared with support from the Victorian Government Department of Health and Human Services, this report describes the environment for non-government financial support for health and medical research (HMR) in Victoria, from untied donations and directed grants through mixed grant/investment models to commercial investment, and places it in a national context. It draws on ABS R&D data, AVCAL yearbooks, ACNC and Australian Taxation Office statistics, and financial statements. Total Victorian HMR expenditure is estimated at $2,670 million, of which universities account for 41% and business 36%. Victoria accounted for 45% of venture capital investment in Australian healthcare and biotechnology companies in 2016-17, while national VC raised that year ($1,320.91 million) far exceeded VC invested ($429.36 million). Private and public ancillary funds held over $12 billion in assets, yet in 2012-13 only 6% of their donations went to health and 1.5% to research. Donations, bequests and foundations funded 1.4% of Victorian university research expenditure, compared with 2.3% nationally. Case studies cover the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund, the Biomedical Translation Fund, BioCurate, crowdsourced equity funding, hospital foundations and government–philanthropy partnerships such as the Brain Cancer Mission. The report concludes that a lack of venture capital is no longer the main constraint, that more commercialisation expertise is needed, and that there is scope to increase philanthropic support for HMR from all sources.