Announced today by the Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon Mark Butler MP, are 229 high-performing researchers who will share in an investment of over $422 million under the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) Investigator Grants scheme.
Around the country, Chief Investigators and their teams will undertake researcher-led investigation that will ultimately lead to advances in knowledge about human health, better health care for Australians and improvements to the economy.
Health and medical research make a significant economic contribution to Australia, including establishing a more productive and healthier workforce due to improved healthcare treatments and services.
Professor Clara Chow from the University of Sydney is aiming to conduct large-scale research studies on innovative interventions to prevent cardiovascular disease, with the goal of applying these innovations to transform how healthcare is delivered for the future.
Dr Matthew Hare from Menzies School of Health Research will lead a collaborative research program that will investigate early-life risk factors for intergenerational diabetes and related conditions. The program will establish the burden of diabetes complications among Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory and investigate new treatments and models of care to both prevent the development and improve health outcomes for people living with diabetes.
University of Queensland researcher, Dr Jessica Schults, is aiming to discover better evidence about infection prevention and translate the findings into healthcare practice. Dr Schults and team will develop state-of-the-art systems and knowledge translation solutions that inform infection control programs and combat rising infection-associated death rates.
Dr Alana Gall will lead a research program out of Southern Cross University that is focused on First Peoples' Cultural Medicines (also called bush medicine) across 2 key areas. The first is to embed Cultural Medicines into Australian health policies to improve cultural safety, health and wellbeing. The second is to protect Cultural Medicine knowledge through research that informs the regulation and intellectual property legislation, to realise the self-determination of First Peoples and their communities.
The 2025 Investigator Grant funding round is the third year to apply gender equity targets to address systemic disadvantage and it’s also the third time in the history of the scheme that women researchers will receive more funding overall.
The Investigator Grant scheme is NHMRC’s largest funding scheme and plays a critical role in supporting the Australian health and medical research sector by providing a salary (if required) and a significant research support package.
Full details of the researchers and projects funded are available to download on NHMRC’s outcomes of funding rounds page.
Quotes attributable to NHMRC CEO, Professor Steve Wesselingh:
- “NHMRC funds investigator-led research where Australia’s highest performing health and medical researchers set out to achieve ambitious goals of improving the health and wellbeing of the Australian community.
- “Investigator Grants are highly sought after as it provides recipients with certainty, security and flexibility to pursue an ambitious research program across a 5-year period.
- “With the backing of the Australian Government, and NHMRC firmly in their corner, our investigators will undertake outstanding health and medical research – congratulations to all researchers receiving funding today.”
