Structural Review of NHMRC’s Grant Program: Research Australia’s Submission in Response to the Consultation Paper

This submission responds to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) consultation paper for the Structural Review of NHMRC’s Grant Program, which proposed three alternative models for restructuring NHMRC funding. Written in the consultation’s question-and-answer format, it supports separate schemes emphasising track record and the research idea, greater flexibility in how funds are spent, caps on applications to reduce the number submitted, and milestone-based funding for larger Ideas Grants, with early termination of disproved high-risk ideas not counted against investigators. It opposes fixed five-year grant terms, limits on the number of Chief Investigators (CIs) and single-CI Investigator Grants, and maintains that the caps as structured would disadvantage part-time and short-duration CIs such as clinician researchers and biostatisticians. Research Australia proposes a hybrid model: two streams; no minimum or maximum number of CIs or grant duration, with funding tied to specific outcomes; caps adjusted for part-time CIs; Model 1’s People Grants for early career researchers, including research costs; milestones for most grants; assessment of how projects support early and mid-career researchers; and Fellowships independent of grants that allow teaching or industry and clinical work. It also suggests limiting any collaborative bonus to international and multidisciplinary collaborations, requiring applicants to show how unfunded and indirect costs will be met, considering consumer participation in research, and rigorous modelling of whichever model is chosen.