Content
Fellowship Awards
Introduction
The NHMRC's Fellowship Awards provide support for experienced researchers to undertake research that is both of major importance in its field and of benefit to Australian health.
Fellowship Award types
The types of Fellowship Awards available are described below.
Australia Fellowship
This Fellowship aims to attract and retain leading health and medical researchers. It is designed for outstanding health and medical researchers across all disciplines and will consist of a one line budget of $800,000 per annum for five years. Applications are invited from leading researchers both in Australia and around the world.
The aims of the scheme are to:
- support the most outstanding and creative health and/or medical researchers across the range of disciplines in biomedical, clinical, health services and public health research;
- foster the expansion of the scale and scope of Australian health and medical research, including innovative research that is transformative and with high impact potential;
- build excellent research teams in Australia, foster mentoring and collaboration and provide opportunities for talented researchers; and
- undertake research that is of major importance, potentially high impact and of significant benefit to Australians.
Research Fellowships
The purpose of the NHMRC Research Fellowships Scheme is to provide opportunities for outstanding biomedical and health researchers with proven track records to undertake research that is both of major importance in its field and of significant benefit to Australian health and medical research. Research Fellowships offered by the NHMRC are prestigious awards and are, consequently, highly sought after and extremely competitive. Recipients of Research Fellowships are generally in the top 10% of their field.
An NHMRC Research Fellowship is a full time research appointment that enables high caliber biomedical and health researchers with a proven track record in research to undertake research of significant benefit to the health of Australians. Opportunities exist in biomedical, clinical and population health research.
Trans-Tasman Joint Initiative Award
The NHMRC and Health Research Council of New Zealand have established this award to foster the development of collaborative research initiatives between Australian and New Zealand health and medical researchers.
This award will provide $10,000 per annum in addition to the Research Fellowship Package to enable the recipient to establish research links with Health and Medical Researchers in New Zealand.
Practitioner Fellowships
This is a targeted award intended to assist experienced and productive clinical and public health researchers who wish to maintain both a research and a professional career. The scheme aims to support clinical (medical, paramedical, allied health) and public health professionals who have undertaken a successful research program and wish to continue at nationally or internationally competitive levels. Successful applicants will, for their non-research time, be employed by a health care authority to provide clinical care, or public health services or related policy activity. Applicants for a Practitioner Fellowship must be engaged in clinical or public health practice in order to be eligible for the Scheme. Recipients of Practitioner Fellowships are generally in the top 10% of their field.
The scheme is not designed to support applicants already well established as scientists who happen also to be clinicians or public health practitioners; such scientists are more appropriately supported by the Research Fellowships Scheme. Rather it is intended particularly for active clinicians and public health practitioners to undertake research that is linked to their practice or policy. The scheme may support practitioners in developing a career that included successful research; the Practitioner Fellowship is a five-year award, and successful Fellows may apply for a second five year appointment or it may be more appropriate for them to seek appointment as a Research Fellow.
Translating Research into Practice (TRIP) Fellowships
The NHMRC TRIP Fellowship awards provide support and training for future leaders in translating important research findings into clinical practice. The award supports protected- time for clinicians in researching approaches to applying evidence to improve care, and develop the range of skills needed for leadership in research translation.
Fellows gain practical hands-on implementation experience by proposing and undertaking an implementation research project. This is supported through training in implementing evidence, influencing and managing change and communicating research findings. Fellows also receive mentoring to assist in the development of leadership and project management skills.
The two-year half-time award is open to early-to-mid career medical practitioners, nurses, allied health professionals and other health professionals. It is expected that the Fellow’s employing institution will support the remainder of the Fellow’s time in a clinical role.