Medical Research Support Program (Australia)

The program provides support for the indirect costs of research based on success in competitive National Health and Medical Research Council grant schemes.

The program supports the growth of a sustainable and highly productive medical research sector in NSW. Through this investment, NSW Health aims to attract and retain the best researchers, and support the state’s capacity to deliver world class medical research.

Aims

• The Medical Research Support Program aims to:
  • Support excellence in health and medical research through the delivery of high-quality outputs
  • Promote critical mass in health and medical research as part of the effective use of resources
  • Monitor and help ensure the financial sustainability of participating institutes.

Funding Information

• Total funding of up to $40 million per annum will be awarded over the four-year funding period (2024- 2028).
• There will be two terms: Period 1 (2024–2026) and Period 2 (2026–2028). Funding allocations for Period 1 will be determined at the start of the Program. Allocations for Period 2 will be determined following a mid-term review in 2026. In Period 1, the fixed pool of funding will be shared between eligible applicants based on their average annual NHMRC income in the preceding three years (2021–2023) and their tier allocation.
• Institutes will be allocated to tiers based on average annual eligible competitive grant income as follows:
  • Tier 1: ≥ $15 million
  • Tier 2: ≥ $10 million
  • Tier 3: ≥ $3 million

Eligibility Criteria

• To receive funding from the MRSP, organisations must demonstrate that they meet All eligibility criteria:
  • Located in NSW 
    • The applicant organisation must be located in NSW.
  • Health and medical research is the primary purpose of the organisation 
    • Conducting health and medical research must be the primary purpose of the organisation. This does not exclude organisations that carry out other activities such as teaching and consultancy that are secondary to the research function. It does, however, exclude organisations for which research is a subsidiary function, for example, pharmaceutical companies whose primary purpose is to manufacture and sell pharmaceuticals.
    • Evidence of the applicant’s purpose may include its mission statement and annual reports.
  • Organisational independence 
    • The applicant organisation must be a discrete organisational entity with independent management, governance and processes, demonstrated by:
    • legal recognition of the organisation as a discrete operational entity
    • an independent board or equivalent body that is not legally controlled by a university, local health district, specialty network, and/or a public or private health care facility
    • organisational mechanisms to determine its own research direction and strategy, including a director with clear responsibilities regarding the organisation’s research direction and activities
    • identifiable infrastructure and overall organisational budgets, and control over how funds are spent, including externally audited financial statements
    • an intellectual property policy that is congruent with the National Principles of Intellectual Property Management for Publicly Funded Research (NHMRC, 2021)
  • Conducting high-quality research at sufficient scale 
    • The applicant organisation must be conducting high-quality research at a sufficient scale, as demonstrated by an average annual income from eligible competitive grants of at least $3 million over the period 2021–2023. Nationally competitive health and medical research grants from the following sources are eligible for inclusion:
      • Australian Research Council
      • Cancer Australia
      • Medical Research Future Fund
      • National Health and Medical Research Council

Restrictions

• MRSP funding is to be used for the indirect costs of research only. Funding may not be used to fund research projects or capital works. Funding may not be used to support activity where a statewide asset already exists (e.g. biobanking).
• Recipients will be required to report on expenditure to ensure funds are used for eligible purposes only.

For more information, visit NSW Government.