The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is the Australian Government’s primary health and medical research funding agency. With NHMRC support, Australia undertakes outstanding health and medical research which has contributed to significant improvements in individual and population health.
Government appropriations to the NHMRC's Medical Research Endowment Account (MREA) quadrupled between 2000–01 ($185 million) and 2010–11 ($750 million). Since then, the Government has maintained the funding at about $800 million per annum. The increased investment in medical research and researchers enabled through the quadrupling of the MREA has significantly boosted the size and productivity of Australia's health and medical research sector. However, rapid growth in grant application numbers and rising costs of research have led to funding rates for NHMRC's major grant schemes falling to historical lows.
There is now widespread concern that the high volume of applications for NHMRC funding is having a range of negative effects on Australian health and medical research. For example:
- Researchers are spending a substantial period each year preparing or reviewing grant applications that will not be funded, despite many being of high quality.
- Early and mid-career researchers are being discouraged from pursuing a research career.
- Applicants may be more likely to propose, and peer reviewers more likely to favour, 'safe' research to the detriment of innovation.
In response to these issues, NHMRC reviewed the structure of its research funding and has reformed its grant program.
The changes aim to:
- encourage greater creativity and innovation in research
- provide opportunities for talented researchers at all career stages to contribute to the improvement of human health, and
- minimise the burden on researchers of application and peer review so that researchers can spend more time producing high quality research.
The new grant program reflects the philosophy that health and medical research is best supported by a diverse portfolio of schemes that:
- fund across the spectrum of health and medical research
- invest in people with outstanding research achievement and promise
- support the most innovative research to solve complex problems
- meet specific strategic objectives.
The new program comprises 4 funding streams:
- Investigator Grants, will consolidate separate fellowship and research support into one grant scheme that will provide the highest-performing researchers at all career stages with funding for their salary (if required) and a significant research support package.
- Synergy Grants, will provide $5 million per grant for outstanding multi-disciplinary research teams to work together to answer complex questions.
- Ideas Grants, will support innovative and creative research projects, and be available to researchers with bright ideas at all career stages, including early and mid-career researchers.
- Strategic and Leveraging Grants, will support research that addresses identified national needs. This will include an enhanced Targeted Calls for Research scheme and a dedicated funding stream for Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies. It also includes existing schemes such as Centres of Research Excellence, Development Grants, international collaborative schemes, and Partnerships for Better Health (Partnership Centres and Partnership Projects).
Applications for funding under NHMRC’s new grant program opened in late 2018-early 2019 for peer review in 2019, and funding commenced in 2020.
Funding will continue to be provided based on rigorous peer review of applications to ensure transparency, probity and fairness. Assessment of Investigator Grants will primarily focus on track record (relative to opportunity and peer group), Synergy Grants will focus on the effectiveness of the proposed diverse and multidisciplinary team to address a complex research question, and assessment of Ideas Grants will primarily focus on the science, innovation and significance of the proposed research.
Frequently asked questions for Investigator, Synergy, Ideas and Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies Grant schemes are available on GrantConnect under each grant opportunity.
Fact sheets provide additional information on NHMRC’s new grant program - See 'Downloads' section.
Principles
In implementing the new grant program, NHMRC is guided by a number of principles:
- Excellence: support excellence across the health and medical research spectrum.
- Equity:
- provide opportunities across all four broad research areas
- provide opportunities for talented researchers at all career stages, with different career trajectories and in different research settings
- seek to minimise both disadvantage and selective advantage, and
- avoid tailoring policies to exceptions.
- Transparency: consult and communicate with the research sector.
- Simplicity:
- ensure policies and processes are simple to understand and implement, and
- retain existing policies unless there is a strong case for change.
- Protect NHMRC’s current investment by honouring existing grants.
- Support the seven key principles of the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Guidelines.1
| Grant type | Investigator Grants | Synergy Grants | Ideas Grants | Strategic and Leveraging Grants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose | To support the research programs of outstanding investigators at all career stages | To support outstanding multidisciplinary teams of investigators to work together to answer major questions that cannot be answered by a single investigator. | To support focussed innovative research projects addressing a specific question | To support research that addresses identified national needs |
| Duration | 5 years | 5 years | Up to 5 years | Varies with scheme |
| Number of Chief Investigators | 1 | 4–10 | 1–10 | Dependent on individual scheme |
| Funding | Research support package (RSP) plus optional salary support | Grant of a set budget ($5 million) | Based on the requested budget for research support | Dependent on individual scheme |
| Maximum number of applications allowed per rounda | 1 | 1 | 2 | Not capped relative to Investigator, Synergy and Ideas Grants. Dependent on individual scheme. |
| Maximum number of each grant type that can be heldb | 1 | 1 | Up to 2b | Not capped relative to Investigator, Synergy and Ideas Grants. Dependent on individual scheme. |
| Indicative MREA allocation | About 40% | About 5% | About 25% | About 30% |
a A maximum of 2 applications per round can be submitted by any individual across the Investigator and Ideas Grant schemes.
b A maximum of 2 grants can be held concurrently from the Investigator and Ideas Grant schemes by any individual, with the following exception: Investigator Grant CIAs cannot apply for an Ideas Grant until the final year of their Investigator Grant, based on the original grant end date.
Evaluation of grant program
NHMRC is measuring the impact of the changes to the restructured grant program via an evaluation framework developed by RAND Corporation Australia. The evaluation framework assesses the grant program against its three core aims (above), informed by a review of international practice and NHMRC’s data capabilities. Based on this information, a range of potential metrics have been identified to monitor the grant program covering all stages of the grants process, from application to administration of awards.
Implementation
The metrics outlined in the evaluation framework serve as a broad reference list and not all of the metrics will be feasible for implementation. NHMRC, based on advice from its Principal Committees, will use the framework to prioritise metrics and undertake a phased implementation approach to measure immediate, medium and long term impacts of the new grant program.
