MRFF Funding Opportunities

Several funding opportunities are currently available under the MRFF, seeking to address a range of different diseases and issues in different health settings. They are presented in order of application closing date below.

Want to assist with assessing MRFF grants?
The Department of Health is currently seeking interest from a range of stakeholders to assist in MRFF grant review and assessment as a member of a Grant Assessment Committee. More information is available here.

Open for application now

Long COVID

Funding for Post Acute Sequelae of COVID (PASC) research is available under 4 streams. $14 million is available in grants of up to $5 million.

Minimum data for Streams 1-4 was required by 18 October.

  • Stream 4:
    • Stage 1 Minimum data was required by 18 October 2023.
    • Stage 2 will establish a multidisciplinary national adaptive platform trial that accelerates assessment and implementation of therapeutic interventions (pharmacological and non-pharmacological) for PASC. Up to $8 million will be available for Stage 2, and applications will close on 30 April 2025.

This grant  is administered by the NHMRC. More information on Stream 4, Stage 2 is available here.

2023 Clinical Trials Activity Grant Opportunity

$65 million, in grants of up to $5 million, is available across four streams:

Rare Cancers, Rare Diseases and Unmet Need

    • Stream 1 – a pilot study to assess the feasibility of a new clinical trial
    • Stream 2 – a clinical trial of one or more treatments and/or management-based interventions for rare cancers, rare diseases and/or unmet need.

Effective health interventions

    • Stream 3 – a clinical trial to assess the comparative effectiveness of two or more health interventions to treat a specific clinical condition.
    • Stream 4 – an implementation science trial to identify scalable strategies for reducing the provision of low value care.

This grant is administered by the NHMRC. Minimum data is due on 1 May 2024.

Paediatric Brain Cancer

$20 million is available for grants in two streams for:

    • Stream 1 (Targeted Call for Research):establish a national childhood brain cancer clinical trial consortium (7 years, up to $14 million)
    • Stream 2 (Targeted Call for Research): conduct novel pre-clinical and/or early stage clinical research to improve understanding of paediatric brain cancer and/or generate new therapies and treatments for paediatric brain cancer. (3 years)

This grant is administered by the NHMRC. Minimum data is due by 22 May.

 

2024 EMCR Grants

$44.8 million is available in grants of up to $5 million under 3 streams:

    • Stream 1 (Incubator): conduct early stage, small scale research, led by early-career researchers to assess the potential and feasibility of novel strategies to address a critical or intractable health issue in one or more Priority Populations.
    • Stream 2 (Accelerator): establish a large-scale interdisciplinary research program, led by mid-career researchers, that drives implementation of substantial improvements to health care and/or health system effectiveness for one or more Priority Populations.
    • Stream 3 (Targeted Call for Research): utilise co-funding between the MRFF, a sponsoring academic organisation and other organisation(s) to accelerate translation of research led by early to mid-career researchers.

This grant is administered by the NHMRC. Minimum data is due by 26 June.

2024 Indigenous Health Research

$13.4 million is available in grants of up to $5 million for research to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over 11 years from 2018–19 to 2028–29 through one of the three Streams of research.

Stream 1: conduct a large-scale multidisciplinary project to develop and evaluate effective strategies to reduce the prevalence of chronic disease in Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people.

Stream 2: conduct a large-scale multidisciplinary project to develop and evaluate improved understanding of the relationships between infection, inflammation, and chronic diseases among Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people.

Stream 3: conduct early-stage developmental research to improve understanding of the association between racism, intergenerational trauma and issues of social justice and health outcomes, and how they intersect with other forms of disadvantage.

This grant is administered by the NHMRC. Minimum data is due by 26 June.

Stem Cell Therapies

$10 million is available in grants of up to $1 million for:

Stream 1: short-term, small-scale development projects to establish the feasibility of novel cellular therapies. Such development projects should involve novel applications of human tissue or pluripotent stem cells.

Stream 2: development of disease model platforms. Research projects may include:

    • development and validation of human stem cell–based models of disease, including genetic disease, infectious diseases and cancer
    • development of high-content or high-throughput screening approaches
    • generation of patient-derived stem cell lines for screening treatments.

This grant is administered by the NHMRC. Minimum data is due by 26 June.

2024 Survivorship Care

$20 million is available in grants of up to $2 million under two streams:

Stream 1: develop scalable and sustainable approaches, in partnership with consumers, to improve survivorship care and quality of life for individuals who have survived severe health conditions and their families, careers, and communities.

Research proposals in this Stream must focus on one of six Topics. Detail on individual topics can be found at Section 1.3 of the Grant Opportunity Guidelines.

Stream 2: conduct pilot projects co-led with communities that scope and address priority health issues and:

    • are conducted with and in communities experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage and with limited opportunity for engaging in research
    • are co-produced and/or co-designed with the community
    • are in partnership with local health and community service providers
    • address health issues and/or access barriers that are a priority for the community by identifying new solutions.

Funding under Stream 2 is available based on the geographic location of the organisation undertaking the majority of the research, detailed at Section 1.3 of the Grant Opportunity Guidelines.

This grant is administered by the NHMRC. Minimum data is due by 3 July.

2024 Cardiovascular Health

$24 million is available in grants of up to $5 million under four streams:

    • Stream 1: reduce the number of Australians experiencing cardiovascular disease and stroke by developing and implementing early, more effective preventive health interventions, by developing, optimising and implementing clinical pathways that embed evidence-based treatment, including for risk factors.
    • Stream 2: conduct research to foster uptake of best-practice care, including to reduce care inequities, by improving uptake of evidence generated from the program into acute care guidelines or policy.
    • Stream 3: conduct a large-scale project that builds on the development projects (i.e. the short-term, small-scale development projects under Priority area 3.3 that were supported through the 2020 Cardiovascular Health grant opportunity) that are focused on new models of rehabilitation and recovery support that increase equity of access for all people (e.g. digital or online delivery of services like tele-rehab for heart and stroke).
    • Stream 4: conduct research to support effective national adoption and best-practice use of rehabilitation and recovery programs.

This grant is administered by the NHMRC. Minimum data is due by 3 July.

Research Infrastructure- 2023 Innovative Trials

A total of $23.7 million in funding is available across three streams:

    1. Promote the development and implementation of adaptive platform trials
    2. conduct a registry-based randomised controlled trial in an area of unmet medical need by embedding a registry-based randomised controlled trial into a pre-existing clinical registry
    3. generate evidence of the efficiency and cost effectiveness of innovative trial designs over conventional trial designs for adaptive platform trials OR registry-based randomised controlled trials.

Applications can be made through Grants Hub and close on 10 July.

Grant guidelines are available on Grant Connect here.

2024 Million Minds

$19 million is available in grant of up to $10 million for:

Stream 1: establish a bold and innovative national consortium involving multi-institutional collaborations, and encompassing multiple geographies and demographics, consisting of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary teams combining treatment and public health perspectives that will, through a coherent strategy:

    • improve the understanding of the mechanisms underpinning effective mental health interventions and then develop new and improved early interventions, and
    • improve the understanding of protective factors that reduce the negative impact on mental health from shifts in society and how best to strengthen these in the population.

Stream 2: establish a national consortium that partners with service providers and people with lived experience, and encompasses multiple geographies and demographics, to develop preventions, interventions, treatments, and models of care, based on the findings from existing epidemiological research.

Stream 3: conduct small-scale developmental projects to improve understanding of the key components of:

    • Topic A: high-quality mental health care and how these components can be incorporated into optimal personalised care for individuals.
    • Topic B: high-quality prevention strategies.

This grant is administered by the NHMRC. Minimum data is due by 10 July.

Dementia, Ageing and Aged Care

$19 million is available in grants of up to $3 million for:

Stream 1: implementation research focused on addressing inequalities in access to high-quality care for older Australians from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds

Stream 2: small-scale development projects to develop innovative new approaches for providing optimal care for vulnerable people.

This grant is administered by the NHMRC. Minimum data is due by 10 July.

2024 Maternal Health and Healthy Lifestyles Grant Opportunity

$31 million is available in grants of up to $3 million to:

Stream 1: design, implement and/or evaluate the effectiveness of integrated and multidisciplinary delivery of maternal and child health services in the first 2000 days of life (pregnancy to age 5) for equitable health and development

Stream 2: pilot approaches for improving health outcomes by promoting adoption of healthy lifestyles in adolescents and young adults

Stream 3: conduct small-scale developmental projects to create screening or prevention approaches to reduce the risk of developing cardiometabolic disease post-birth, after a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy and/or gestational diabetes

Stream 4: develop, implement and/or evaluate new co-designed and scalable lifestyle interventions to reduce the risk of chronic conditions in adults from Priority Populations.

This grant is administered by the NHMRC. Minimum data is due by 10 July.

2024 International Clinical Trial Collaborations Grant Opportunity

$12.6 million is available in grants of up to $3 million for projects that:

    • promote Australian involvement in international collaborative investigator-initiated clinical trials research through the establishment and co-ordination of clinical trial site/s in Australia.
    • provide high-quality evidence of the effectiveness of novel health treatments, drugs or devices in ‘usual care’ settings, which will support a decision on whether to deliver the intervention in an Australian setting.

This grant opportunity is being administered by the NHMRC in two rounds, with minimum data due by:

    • Round 1: 3 July 2024
    • Round 2: 4 December 2024

2024 Enhancing Medical Device Surveillance Through Registries

$14 million is available in grants of up to $7 million to:

Stream 1: establish or expand a registry to collect and promote analysis of information on medical devices and tools used to treat atrial fibrillation, including evaluation of cost-effectiveness and clinical outcomes

Stream 2: expand coverage of device-specific data and improve nationwide data collection and analysis on spinal procedures using implantable devices, including evaluation of cost-effectiveness and clinical outcomes.

This grant is administered by the NHMRC. Minimum data is due by 17 July.

2024 BioMedTech Incubator Operators

The Government is seeking organisations to ‘identify, select and support Australian SMEs undertaking early-stage medical research and medical innovation projects that have commercial potential….Applicants may propose to support development of innovations in their area/s of strength (i.e. applicants are not required to propose a program that covers the breadth of the biomedtech sector).’

$99 million is available over three years from 2024/25. Applications close on 31 July  on the Business Grants Hub.

MRFF Frontiers

Frontiers Health and Medical Research offers funding to support medical research and medical innovation programs of research that deliver a ‘moonshot’ by creating a treatment for a currently serious and incurable health condition, through a series of linked projects. The program of research can propose to develop novel health technologies and/or re-purpose existing health technologies in a novel way.

The process to get funding has two stages:

    • expression of interest – outlining a proposed program of research with a 10-year time horizon
    • full application, for a project of up to 5 years under the program of research.

Full applications may be submitted by invitation only. Applicants may propose to start research at any stage in the research pipeline from proof-of-concept, with the intention of achieving full implementation of the proposed technology in 10 years.

The program is administered by Business Grants Hub and an expression of interest can be submitted at any time. More information is available here