Championing long-term partnerships with consumers and community in health and medical research.

The Consumer Involvement Award recognises an individual or an organisation that has made a long-term contribution to consumer and community involvement in health and medical research.

An open call for nominations is held every 2 years.

Nominees are considered strong advocates for health and medical research and inspirational role models for consumer involvement, who want to improve and support community interactions with research. They will highlight their long-term commitment and contribution to consumer and community research practices in the following areas:

  • Advocacy – a voice for health consumers and people with lived experience
  • Leadership - a role model who is committed to co-design and shared decision-making to deliver on research outcomes
  • Impact – to improve the quality of health by demonstrating meaningful consumer engagement in research practices
  • Innovation – a driven and creative approach to community involvement in research to improve human health
  • Influence – ability to affect peers to enact best-practice behaviours.

The award winner is selected by the NHMRC CEO based on the above selection criteria. The CEO may seek additional nominations and/or consult others on the nominees in making their selection.

Past winners

  • 2025: Professor James St John
  • 2023: The Queensland Aphasia Centre
  • 2021: Ms Anne McKenzie AM
  • 2019: Dr Michelle Banfield