New MRFF Strategy 2021-2026

Research Australia welcomes the release of the Australian Medical Research and Innovation Strategy 2021-2026, which sets clear objectives to support and foster Australian HMR to meet future health needs. This is a definitive step towards tackling the challenges and opportunities presented by the pandemic so that we emerge with a stronger health and medical research sector, capable of delivering better health and economic prosperity for Australians. Research Australia’s consultation Health and Medical Research – Australia can do better! seeks your input on how we do this. Visit our consultation hub and let us know your views on the key reform areas here.

For more information about the MRFF Strategy and Priorities, visit our webpage here.

A new Strategy for the MRFF

Research Australia’s submission in response to the consultation on the new MRFF Strategy 2021-26 and related Priorities has proposed several critical changes:

    • It has emphasised the need for the Strategy to provide more guidance about how the MRFF should be invested.
    • Greater engagement with health systems in the states and territories is essential, as is a focus on preventive health.
    • The Strategy needs to address how evidence arising from the research and innovation funded by the MRFF is embedded into the health system.
    • The new MRFF strategy should identify and address gaps in skills and capability that prevent the implementation of evidence into practice into our health system.
    • Infrastructure funding priorities for the MRFF should be developed in consultation with Department of Education Skills and Employment and state and territory governments, to ensure research infrastructure is funded where needed and complements other programs and initiatives.
    • The Strategy should propose a mechanism for better differentiating the funding programs of the NHMRC and the MRFF. The Strategy should also propose the development of a national HMR strategy to better coordinate funding for HMR from all sources, in much the same way the first strategy proposed a whole of government approach to addressing funding for the full cost of research.
    • COVID-19 has highlighted the particular difficulties facing early- and mid-career researchers. The Strategy could commit the MRFF to considering how the design of the MRFF’s funding programs could better support EMCRs.
    • The effects of COVID-19 in our region provide the opportunity for the strategy to consider how Australia can use its research capability to support our neighbours’ response to and recovery from COVID-19, as an exemplar for broader engagement on regional health issues.

Read Research Australia’s submission here.

The new MRFF Strategy, for the period from 2021-2026 was subsequently published on 2 November. It is available here.   More information about the MRFF Strategies and Priorities is available on our website here.

Federal Medical Research Plan: The Health & Economic Roadmap We Need

Media Release: Wednesday, 9 November 2016

Link to the MRFF Strategy & Priorities.

With almost two in three Australian adults and one in four children overweight or obese, two-thirds of Australians over the age of 50 with poor bone density, and one in six Australians with chronic back pain, tonight’s release of the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Strategy sets out the roadmap for addressing some of our biggest health issues.

That is the verdict from the medical research community and Research Australia, the organisation behind the virtual doubling of health (NHMRC) funding in 2000, and again in 2005.

“As the organisation that has been championing health and medical research for the last 15 years, we can tell you the MRFF is a real game changer,” said Research Australia Chair, Dr Christine Bennett.

CEO of Research Australia, Nadia Levin said the MRFF Strategy’s vision of a health system informed by quality research is exactly what’s needed.

“Research Australia shares the Strategy’s vision of a health system fully informed by quality health and medical research,” said Levin.

Continue reading “Federal Medical Research Plan: The Health & Economic Roadmap We Need”