Women’s Health Research Catalyst Grants Program (Australia)

The intent of the Women’s Health Research Catalyst Grants is to help bridge the identified gaps, generate innovation and discovery whilst laying groundwork for other research initiatives in the Women’s Health Reform package that will lead to a cultural change across the sector, and facilitate big, bold systemic changes.

Key gaps in the Victorian research environment have been identified through a capability and capacity assessment as part of the Women’s Health Reform Package. These include the following:

• Women’s health research can be siloed into specific groups, and sex and gender are not consistently or regularly used as variables of comparison in health and medical research.
• Biological determinants of sex in many conditions experienced by all sexes are not well established or known as most research has historically investigated a male body and generalised to female and intersex bodies.
• Historically, many conditions which solely, differently or disproportionately impact women have not received the focus and funding they deserve.

Purpose

• The grants are designed to encourage or support:
  • Research in general disease/condition areas to expand to include different sex and/or gender comparison, for example, inclusion of male and female sex derived/biopsied cells, inclusion of female and male animals, inclusion of women and gender-diverse people in human research.
  • Research into underfunded or under-researched conditions which are women-specific conditions, conditions that disproportionately impact women, or conditions that differently affect women.
  • Work towards generating cross sector collaboration and partnerships and attracting larger, federal or philanthropic investment for the above categories.

Funding Information

• A total of $1.5 million will be allocated towards women’s health research projects in 2024-25 financial year.
• The grants offered are comprised of $50,000 to $150,000, according to the identified needs and aims of each individual project.
• Each project will last for up to 12 months.

Eligibility Criteria

• The successful applicant must be:
  • From a Victorian Administering Institute and be performing their research primarily in Victoria.
  • Performing research in a health and medical research field, including discovery, pre-clinical, clinical or lived experience research.
  • Have ethics approval for the proposed project or will apply for appropriate ethics approval as the first step if successful.
• All areas if health and medical research will be considered, however, some target areas have been identified as priority areas that need increased understanding in how sex and/or gender influence conditions or health areas. Proposals in the following areas will be given special consideration. These include (but are not limited to):
  • Sexual and reproductive health
  • Cardiovascular health
  • Oncology
  • Chronic Pain
  • Neurodegenerative conditions
  • Autoimmune and inflammatory conditions
  • Musculoskeletal health
• Prioritisation will be given to:
  • Applications that have at least 50% of women on their research team.
  • Researchers/research teams not previously performing research in sex and/or gender differences.

Assessment Criteria

• All applications will be assessed based on the benefits delivered to the department’s clients and business based on the following criteria:
  • Alignment to the grant objectives outlined in the Purpose section of this document.
  • Potential benefits to the community and/or the understanding of sex and/or gender as variables of difference.
  • Novelty or innovation in the issue addressed or experimental design.
  • The risks associated with supporting the activity and feasibility of the outcome.
  • Duplication of effort, coordination with similar or complimentary activities.

For more information, visit Victorian Department of Health.