Tracker - 16 December 2024

CEO Message

The staff of NHMRC and I thank you, our subscribed Tracker readers, and the health and medical research sector more broadly, for your ongoing interest and engagement in our activities this year. Your active involvement in peer review, public consultations, our Council, principal and working committees, attendance to our webinars and forums and much more make a positive contribution to our agency and the sector. 

Next year holds great opportunity, with important consultations being planned to support the development of National Health and Medical Research Strategy and provision of advice to NHMRC and the Department of Health and Aged Care’s Health and Medical Research Office by the new joint NHMRC-AMRAB Committees. 

NHMRC will continue to focus on a number of key activities, including optimisation of peer review, finalising revisions to the Statement on Consumer and Community Involvement in Health and Medical Research, piloting the introduction of a question about how the proposed research will benefit Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander health for applicants in the Centres of Research Excellence 2025 grant opportunity, implementation of the Statement on Sex, Gender, Variations of Sex Characteristics and Sexual Orientation in Health and Medical Research, plus a lot more equally important activities.

I hope you all can enjoy a restful break with family and friends over the summer and I look forward to working with you in 2025. 

Almost $6 million to support Australian participation in international collaborative research 

Funding outcomes for the 2024 NHMRC e-ASIA Joint Research Program were announced on Friday 13 December 2024. NHMRC is investing almost $6 million to support Australian participation in leading international collaborative research that focuses on health issues that span Australia and the East Asian region.

The NHMRC e-ASIA 2024 JRP call supports Australian researchers to collaborate with partners in the East Asian region and allies under 2 funding streams – health research on the topic of ‘infectious disease and immunology (including antimicrobial resistance)’ and food and health on the topic of ‘personalised nutrition’.

The media release for this announcement is available on NHMRC’s News Centre. Outcome data can be downloaded from the outcomes page.

Nominations open for NHMRC’s Biennial Awards

Do you know a researcher who is an excellent leader in their field or who has made outstanding contributions to the health and medical research sector?

There are 6 award categories, including a brand-new award for 2025: 
•    Consumer Involvement Award 
•    Ethics and Integrity Award 
•    Research Quality Award 
•    Science to Art Award 
•    Outstanding Contribution Award* 
•    Peer Review Excellence Award (NEW)*.
Nominations for the 2025 Biennial Awards are open and close on Friday 31 January 2025 at 17:00 AEDT.

*Nominations for these awards are by invitation only and will be identified by the office of NHMRC.

Speaking of Science: International Day of Persons with Disabilities

The United Nations (UN) International Day of Persons with Disabilities promotes community awareness, understanding and acceptance of the estimated 1.3 billion people with disability worldwide and to celebrate their achievements. 
This December, NHMRC was delighted to take part in the movement towards creating a more sustainable world that looks to a future that calls for persons with disabilities to actively shape the conditions of their lives through their active participation, representation and inclusion.

For our ‘Speaking of Science’ webinar, centred around International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we were joined by Professor Jackie Leach Scully, Adam Johnstone and Yvonne Parnell to discuss how all of us can make an impact in promoting community awareness, understanding and acceptance of people with disability and celebrate their achievements. 
They also shared their insights from a health and medical research perspective on how the sector can better incorporate the voices and needs of people with disabilities in their research practices. 

We have some exciting things in the pipeline for next year’s Speaking of Science series and we can’t wait to speak more science with you all in 2025. Until then, enjoy our most recent instalment for International Day of Persons with Disabilities available now on our website. 

Review of the 2016 Statement on Consumer and Community Involvement in Health and Medical Research: stakeholder reports available

NHMRC and the Consumers Health Forum of Australia (CHF) are reviewing the 2016 Statement on Consumer and Community Involvement in Health and Medical Research (the Statement).

The Australian Health Research Alliance (AHRA) facilitated nationwide in-person and online workshops to discuss the revised Statement. NHMRC ran an online survey in parallel, where stakeholders could provide a written submission and the responses are published on NHMRC consultation hub.

Reports on the feedback received through the workshop and survey are published on AHRA’s website and NHMRC’s website.

NHMRC and CHF are working together on a draft revised Statement, which will be released for public consultation in 2025. Stakeholders will have an opportunity to provide feedback. 

To receive updates, please subscribe to the Consumer Statement contact list or contact priorities@nhmrc.gov.au for any questions.
 

National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research – update

NHMRC anticipates the planned update to the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research 2023 (National Statement) will be released in early 2025, with the revised guidelines coming into effect 6 months after release. 

The 2025 update of the National Statement includes a fully revised Section 4 and minor selective changes to other sections of the document. For further information please contact ethics@nhmrc.gov.au  

Minor amendments and corrections to the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines

Minor amendments to the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (the Guidelines) have been made to align the Guidelines with the September 2022 updated guidance on microbial water quality. Minor corrections have also been made to improve clarity and consistency. 

The Australian Drinking Water Guidelines webpage has links to the latest version of the Guidelines, an accompanying administrative report and a question and answer resource.

Guidelines for Guidelines – new modules

Two new draft NHMRC Guidelines for Guidelines modules have been released for public consultation: 
•    Updating
•    Evidence to Decision.

You are invited to view the drafts using the links above and provide comments on the draft modules via email to clinicalguidelines@nhmrc.gov.au

Comments will close on Monday 3 February 2025 at 17:00 AEDT.

Invitation for public submissions: Australian Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Psychosocial Difficulties in Adults with Moderate-to-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

The University of Tasmania is seeking NHMRC approval under section 14A of the National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992 for its Australian Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Psychosocial Difficulties in Adults with Moderate-to-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.

The guideline provides recommendations on treating adults with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury, focusing on various mental health, behavioural, and social-cognitive difficulties.

Consultation on the draft guideline is now open until Friday 31 January 2025.

For more information and to access the draft guideline and make a submission please visit the Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment website.
 

Evaluation of NHMRC’s large scale priority-driven grant opportunities

NHMRC funds priority-driven research in response to identified health priority areas through relevant and targeted research initiatives. 

NHMRC commissioned ORIMA Research to evaluate the effectiveness of these large-scale grant opportunities in fostering national collaboration.

The findings provide an evidence base to identify the best practice approaches to designing future priority-driven grant opportunities to achieve national research collaboration. The findings of the evaluation are published in this report.
 

Forecast opportunities: 2025 international collaborative research grant opportunities  

NHMRC is considering participating in the following international collaborative research grant opportunities:

• 2025 NEURON funding call on ‘Interdisciplinary approaches to the neuroscience of pain’
• 10th Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) funding call on ‘strengthening health systems’. 

For details on the NEURON grant opportunity, refer to the forecast opportunity on GrantConnect and  NEURON’s website.

For details on the GACD grant opportunity go to GrantConnect and the GACD call webpage.

Key NHMRC grant program dates

NHMRC grant opportunities are funded through the Medical Research Endowment Account (MREA).

Opening soon:

The Partnership Projects grant opportunity

The Partnership Projects grant opportunity will open on Wednesday 8 January 2025 and will have 3 peer review cycles (PRCs) in 2025: 
•    PRC 1 applications close on Wednesday 2 April 2025 
•    PRC 2 applications close on Wednesday 6 August 2025 
•    PRC 3 applications close on Wednesday 26 November 2025. 

Further details will be available on GrantConnect from the grant opportunity opening date.

Open for applications: 

Targeted Call for Research: Addressing the Needs of People with High Healthcare Service Utilisation 2024.

The objectives of this grant opportunity are to address the needs of people with high healthcare service utilisation and develop improved understanding of patient journey, where critical issues are for people to access timely and appropriate care in diverse geographical locations and in different sectors of the health care system. 

•    Minimum data due on Wednesday 26 February 2025 17:00 AEDT
•    Applications close on Wednesday 12 March 2025 17:00 AEDT.
 

Further details on this grant opportunity are available on GrantConnect.
 

Key NHMRC grant program dates

Please see the Funding schemes and calendar page.

Sapphire feedback form

NHMRC is pleased to launch a new Sapphire feedback form aimed at enhancing user engagement by gathering user feedback to guide Sapphire improvements.  

Emails from Sapphire, triggered by a user action (e.g. submission of an application), will include a link allowing users to participate in an optional 2-minute survey. By participating, users can provide feedback on their experience within Sapphire which will play a crucial role in helping NHMRC understand and identify strengths and potential areas for improvement. 

Responses are confidential and can be submitted anonymously. If you have any questions, please contact help@nhmrc.gov.au 
 

NHMRC impact case study: Preterm births and omega-3

Preterm births and omega-3

Preterm birth, occurring before 37 weeks, is the leading cause of death in newborns and early childhood globally. It is also associated with numerous health issues, including developmental delay, cerebral palsy, hearing and visual impairments, and psychiatric disorders. 

NHMRC-funded researchers discovered that omega-3 supplementation during pregnancy reduces prematurity, and adding omega-3 to infant formula enhances infant cognitive development.
Consequently, from 2021, the Australian Government began recommending omega-3 supplementation for pregnant women. Global regulatory changes were also implemented to establish minimum omega-3 levels in infant formulas, improving the safety and quality of infant formula sold. 

Read more about this and other positive impacts arising from NHMRC grant funding in our impact case studies.