Response to the Consultation on the MRFF Australian Medical Research and Innovation Priorities and the MRFF Act Review

This letter to the Health and Medical Research Office in the Department of Health and Aged Care responds to the consultation on the draft Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Australian Medical Research and Innovation Priorities and the review of the MRFF Act. Rather than commenting on each priority, Research Australia maintains that the priorities lack cohesion and an overarching strategic vision, which the forthcoming National Health and Medical Research Strategy should supply, and that the MRFF and the National Health and Medical Research Council should be better coordinated with each other and with bodies such as the Australian Centre for Disease Control. It recommends aligning priorities with national strategies, including the new National Science Priorities, and treating consumer-led research, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, priority populations, and artificial intelligence and digital health as cross-cutting enablers as well as dedicated priorities. It recommends stronger attention to research workforce environments, clinician researchers and allied health, and formal recognition of lived experience researchers; inclusion of all people with disability rather than only those with intellectual disability; and broadening gender equity references to all equity groups and intersectionality. On the Act review, it favours refreshing priorities every three or four years and the strategy every six or eight, and supports allowing states and territories to apply directly for MRFF funding, subject to safeguards against funds being absorbed by jurisdictions.