Key changes

Applicants need to note the following forecast changes for the Investigator Grants 2026 Guidelines. Further detail is outlined in the Forecast Opportunity published on GrantConnect, which includes an extract of the relevant sections of the Grant Guidelines.

• The ‘Research impact and pathway to impact’ assessment criteria has been revised following NHMRC’s review of its Research Impact Track Record Assessment (RITRA) framework, extensive consultation, and in cooperation with the NHMRC Score Descriptor Working Group (see Section 6 and Appendix B).
• Revisions include streamlining and simplifying the research impact assessment criteria, reducing 3 sub-criteria to 2 (‘Reach and significance’ (10%) and ‘Applicant’s contribution to the impact’ (10%)). These revisions aim to reduce the overlap and confusion expressed in feedback from applicants and peer reviewers and shift the focus of the assessment to the contributions the applicant has made along a ‘pathway to impact’ (see Appendix B).
• Following consistent sector feedback, the score descriptor tables have been revised and reformatted to include greater detail at each description, to better support peer reviewers to understand the expectations of applicants at each score (see Appendix B).
• Performance indicators have been included at Appendix B, to sit ‘above’ the score descriptor tables. The indicators can be used together with the score descriptors to further understand what is expected of applicants at each score. They provide peer reviewers with descriptions that address 3 broad ‘elements’ of independent assessment (quality of the proposed research, the potential for impact, and the demonstrated capability of the applicant). It is not mandatory that peer reviewers use these indicators, they are designed to provide additional support where necessary/appropriate.  
• Given mixed feedback on NHMRC’s proposal to remove the 10-year post PhD eligibility barrier for Emerging Leadership (EL) applicants following public consultation, NHMRC will not be implementing this change for the 2026 round.
• Instead, the Statements of Expectations (SoEs) have been updated to better support applicants to make the best decision regarding which Level to apply for, and for peer reviewers to assess the appropriateness of that selection. Since they were updated in 2021, NHMRC data indicates that the SoEs have been effective at supporting CIs and peer reviewers to understand the most appropriate Level for CIs to apply. These updates also highlight for prospective applicants that there is no evidence that applicants who apply ‘down’ to a Level with less senior researchers are more successful than researchers applying as ‘expected’ (based on year’s post-PhD – adjusted for career disruptions).
• The ‘Leadership’ criterion has been streamlined to simplify the assessment. Applicants are no longer required to provide responses to each of the 4 Leadership elements. Instead, applicants will provide a single leadership narrative that highlights their best leadership examples, framed against one or more of the 4 leadership elements, in a single text field (see Appendix B).
• The ‘Knowledge gain’ criterion has been updated to improve the clarity of the assessment. Applicants are asked to make a clear distinction between their broad 5-year vision/plan and the ‘proposed new research’ they intend to carry out with the Investigator Grant (see Appendix B).

Each year, NHMRC seeks feedback from peer reviewers and applicants on peer review policies and processes. This feedback contributes to a detailed policy analysis to determine whether our grant program is achieving its objectives and if any policy adjustments are required.

Public consultation

NHMRC conducted a public consultation in November 2024 to seek the sector’s comment and input on 3 proposed updates for the 2026 funding round:

• a revised research impact assessment criteria (Investigator and Synergy Grants)
• a revised peer review score descriptor appendix (Investigator and Synergy Grants)
• removing the eligibility requirement for Emerging Leadership (EL) applicants to be less than or equal to 10-years post-PhD pass date at the time of application (the Barrier) (Investigator Grants).

During the survey period, 288 respondents submitted feedback. An analysis of the survey results will be available to download soon from NHMRC score descriptor working group.