Chief Executive Officer
This section of the site contains a range of information about the NHMRC Chief Executive Officer
NHMRC Chief Executive Officer
Professor Warwick Anderson AM
Professor Anderson brings to the position of CEO extensive experience in health research leadership and management. He has made a strong contribution to the activities of the NHMRC since 1991, including chairing the NHMRC's Research Committee for two three-year terms between 1997-2003.
Professor Anderson's previous appointments included Head of School of Biomedical Sciences at Monash University (2001 - 06) and prior to that, Deputy Director, of The Baker Institute.
Professor Anderson obtained a Bachelor of Science (Hons) from the University of New England in 1968 and his PhD from University of Adelaide in 1972. He then spent three postdoctoral years at the Harvard Medical School in the USA, before returning to the University of Sydney and then The Baker Institute.
He has published over 150 scientific papers, primarily in the area of hypertension and renal physiology and has made significant contributions over many years to the community, research societies and numerous Boards and Committees.
For his service to health and medical research through leadership roles with the National Health and Medical Research Council, to the development of medical science at Monash University, and to hypertension and renal physiology research, Professor Anderson was made a Member of the Order of Australia in January 2005.
In April 2006 the Minister for Health and Ageing, the Hon Tony Abbott MP appointed Professor Anderson as the Chief Executive Officer of the NHMRC. The appointment commenced on 7 June 2006, and is for a five-year term until 2011.
NHMRC Chief Executive Officer’s message
Building on the strengths of Australasian health research for improved health
Health care is probably Australia's largest single industry. Like all industries, research and innovation are essential. There is much to learn if we are to better prevent ill health and better maintain good health throughout life, to more effectively deliver health care based on evidence of what works, and if we are to discover new therapies and cures. How do we ensure that Australia's health and health care improves, and that the knowledge needed is gained and transferred to further improve the practice of health care?
First, a strong research effort is needed and health and medical research has become one of Australia's strongest and most successful areas of research. All Australians should be proud of the achievements of our researchers, with Nobel Prizes for Physiology or Medicine won in the last half century by Barry Marshall and Robin Warren (2005), Peter Doherty (1996), John Eccles (1963), and Macfarlane Burnett (1960). Other researchers have been recognised as Australians of the Year for their contributions to health through research. These include Ian Frazer (2006), Fiona Wood (2005), Fiona Stanley (2003), and Sir Gustav Nossal (2000).
Australian health and medical researchers also perform outstandingly against the international benchmark of citations. Independent bibliometric analysis of Australian health research publications shows that Australia greatly exceeds the expected number in the top 1% of citations internationally and many Australian health research areas have up to 2 or 3% of published papers cited in the top 1% internationally.
Another independent indicator of the quality of our research is the support we have received from the world's largest health and medical research funding agency, the United States National Institutes of Health. In 2006, Australia was the third highest recipient of international research funding from NIH, behind Canada and the United Kingdom. On a per capita basis, Australia ranked second.
Australian health research also levers foreign capital into our country. We have recently analysed the outcomes from over 1200 NHMRC grants, and found that the research funded attracted another 28 cents for every NHMRC dollar from overseas, and another 27 cents from Australian sources.
A further measure of success can be seen in the establishment of national and international collaborations. Our researchers reported that 65% worked in collaboration with international researchers, reflected in 35% of publications having at least one international author.
Australian companies have been built upon original discoveries by medical researchers, including Cochlear and Resmed. Ian Fraser's discovery of a vaccine against most forms of cervical cancer (Gardasil) is now contributing to the success of CSL. Warren and Marshall's discovery that a bacterium Helicobacter Pylori is responsible for much gastric disease has not only reduced suffering, but saved the health system significant expense - surgery, hospitalisation, chronic drug treatment with proton pump inhibitors.
Now we face new challenges, to discover the causes of the many diseases that afflict us and to find out through research how to better prevent chronic disease and ill health with its uneven burden. It always seems especially unfair that the poorest and most disadvantaged in our society, and around the world, suffer most from disease and ill health.
Knowledge transfer from research into health care practice and to inform health policies is a challenge faced around the world. A high quality research workforce is an essential component, but is not in itself sufficient. NHMRC is developing new ways of ensuring that Australia's health greatly benefits from the outcomes of research and the leadership roles that researchers play. Watch this space.Professor Warwick Anderson
Chief Executive Officer
National Health and Medical Research Council