National Health and Medical Research Council

Please note the information on this page has been provided for historical reference purposes only.

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is addressing the Australian Government's National Research Priority Goals of Preventive Healthcare and Strengthening Australia's Social and Economic Fabric through a program of targeted funding. The program aims to fund innovative research that will generate an evidence base on which policies and programs can be developed to improve the health of socially and economically disadvantaged people.

Background

In December 2002, the Australian Government announced the National Research Priorities in order to align national research effort in four key strategic areas:

• An Environmentally Sustainable Australia;
• Promoting and Maintaining Good Health;
• Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries; and
• Safeguarding Australia.

As Australia's peak body for supporting health and medical research, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has assumed a leading role to address the National Research Priority Promoting and Maintaining Good Health , which comprises the following four priority goals:

• A Healthy Start to Life
• Ageing Well, Ageing Productively
• Preventive Healthcare
• Strengthening Australia's Social and Economic Fabric.

The NHMRC is funding a program of research to address the priority goals of Preventive Healthcare and Strengthening Australia's Social and Economic Fabric , which will address the two goals together.

The Preventive Healthcare and Strengthening Australia's Social and Economic Fabric program will encompass social science, humanities, health and medical research to produce outcomes that contribute directly and indirectly to improved health for the Australian population through evidence-based primary prevention strategies.

The predominant causes of premature death and ill health in Australia are chronic diseases whose onset can be prevented or delayed by preventive measures*.

* Australian Department of Health and Ageing (DOHA), Annual Report 2002-03, p35

There is a large body of extant research on the links between lifestyle (diet, physical activity, smoking, alcohol and other drugs), socio-economic factors (income, employment status, education, family and community networks) and environmental factors (water quality, housing and exposure to pollutants) in the development of ill health and chronic disease. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in particular, the link between poor socio-economic status and increased morbidity and mortality is well documented**.

** The health and welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, 2003 , Trewin D and Madden R, Australian Bureau of Statistics and Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, pxiii

However, there are gaps in knowledge about the precise mechanisms by which socio-economic disadvantage translates into poor health outcomes and what policies, programs and services can be put in place to correct the situation.

Better health outcomes can be achieved by addressing gaps in knowledge, improving the effectiveness of preventive health measures and strengthening the social and economic fabric through the creation of health promoting social and physical environments.

Total funding of $10 million over 5 years has been allocated to support this research program. It is envisaged that most proposals will be of larger scope and longer duration. However, proposals of smaller scope and duration will also be considered. This research program has been designed to support collaborative teams in conducting multi-disciplinary and cross-sectoral research.

Prevention Working Group

The NHMRC has established the Prevention Working Group to develop this program of research. The Working Group reports to the NHMRC's Research Committee through the Strategic Research Initiatives Working Committee. The Working Group is to identify key research questions and develop a framework for quality, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary research focussing on primary prevention covering factors influencing Australia's social and economic fabric.

The research will be guided by the following principles. It should:

• be strategic in orientation and capable of developing new and important knowledge or research capacity in key areas of need;
• be structural in looking at social institutions and how these shape the social and economic fabric;
• be of the highest quality (as determined by peer review);
• be oriented to primary prevention ; and
• facilitate collaboration between researchers, citizens, policy makers and healthcare providers and actively involve researchers from a wide range of disciplines in order to build on and extend current knowledge.
• See information on the Working Group

Call for expressions of interest

A call for expressions of interest for the Preventive Healthcare and Strengthening Australia's Social and Economic Fabric program closed on Friday 28 October 2005.

Further information