Pre-Budget Submission 2026–2027

This pre-budget submission ahead of the 2026–27 Federal Budget is structured around the focus areas and enabling initiatives of the draft National Health and Medical Research Strategy. Research Australia maintains that health and medical research is strategic public investment, citing a return of around $4 for every $1 invested, a fall in gross expenditure on R&D from 1.88% of GDP in 2015–16 to 1.69% in 2023–24, government R&D investment $1.8 billion a year below the OECD average, NHMRC Ideas Grant success rates of 8.1%, and health services research Investigator Grant funding falling from $37.1 million in 2024 to $10.6 million in 2025. Its main recommendations are to fully fund the National Strategy with a monitoring and evaluation framework; remove the 2021 legislative cap holding Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) spending at $650 million, unlocking about $450 million in 2026–27; index National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funding to the Consumer Price Index (CPI); fund discovery research and the full costs of research; and set a path to R&D investment of 3% of GDP by 2036. Other recommendations include a $17.5 million Clinician Researcher Fellowship pilot, a national health data infrastructure strategy, reversing projected cuts to the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy, $1.5 billion over five years for prevention, implementing Research Australia’s women’s health and regional research roadmaps, research capacity in Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations, new co-investment models and association with Horizon Europe.