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NHMRC Partnerships For Better Health:
Creating effective collaboration between policy and research
On this page
- » Why partnerships matter
- » What are NHMRC Partnerships?
- » Who can be a partner organisation?
- » How will NHMRC Partnerships work?
- » What will NHMRC Partnerships mean for decision makers?
- » What will NHMRC Partnerships mean for researchers?
- » How does this initiative fit within the overall work of the NHMRC??
- » Contact for further information
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Why partnerships matter
The health and health care of Australians could benefit enormously from a more effective integration of evidence into policy. It has the potential to improve the quality of health policy, services and programs and to make better use of limited resources.
In the past, the gap between policy makers and researchers has impeded the development of policy informed by the results of high quality research. Policy makers have often had to make decisions in the absence of reliable evidence. They have frequently struggled to identify research that is helpful and timely in answering the questions that they need answered. Often they have found that research has not been designed or reported with policy and decisions makers’ needs in mind.
It’s important to have good networks that embrace both policy makers and researchers, and this initiative will help to build those networks by bringing together both groups to address current and future policy challenges.
Philip Davies, Deputy Secretary, Australian Department of Health and Ageing
On the other hand, researchers have faced significant barriers in attempting to have their research influence the policy and decision making process. There has been a lack of systems and structures to support researchers engaging in the policy development process. They have sometimes felt that their contributions are not appreciated or welcome.
These problems have been identified in many places around the world. Many countries have recognised the need for concerted, systematic efforts to build better connections between the two worlds of research and policy. Developing sustainable, effective partnerships between researchers and those who are the decision and policy makers helps lead to more effective policies, and thus to better health and better health care for the community.
What are NHMRC Partnerships?
NHMRC Partnerships represent a major new focus for the NHMRC. They aim to lead to more effective connections between decision makers who design policy and researchers, and to improve the availability and quality of research evidence to help inform the policy process.
“Understanding how to improve the safety and quality of our complex health care systems needs the best quality research. This NHMRC initiative will give a huge boost to this essential research.” Professor Chris Baggoley, Chief Executive, Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
NHMRC Partnerships will help create partnerships among decision makers, policy makers, managers, clinicians and researchers. It will provide funding and support to create new opportunities for researchers and policy makers to work together, to define research questions, undertake research, and interpret the findings.
By building Australia’s capacity to produce applied research of high quality science, it will help provide answers to the complex and difficult questions that decision makers face when designing policies that affect Australians’ health and health care.
NHMRC Partnerships will focus on informing the decisions that influence health and well-being through changes in the delivery, organisation, funding and access to health services. They will not include the evaluation of clinical interventions on patients (e.g. new treatments, diagnostic techniques, pharmaceuticals or surgical procedures).
$108 million has been allocated over the first two years of this initiative.
Who can be a partner organisation?
The NHMRC takes a broad perspective on this question. We encourage applications involving partner organizations whose decisions and actions affect Australians’ health, health policy and health care delivery. They include organisations such as:
- those working in federal, state, territory or local government - in the health portfolio or in other areas affecting health, such as treasury, urban planning, education or transport
- those working in the private sector, such as employers, private health insurance providers or private hospitals
- major non-government organisations and charities
- community organisations, such as consumer groups
- provider and professional groups.
- The NHMRC wishes to support substantial research in this area and therefore partners are likely to be larger organisations or consortia.
How will NHMRC Partnerships work?
It is anticipated that the NHMRC Partnerships will initially fund two types of awards: NHMRC Partnership Projects, and NHMRC Partnership Centres for Research Excellence.
NHMRC Partnership Projects
NHMRC Partnership Projects will support collaborations between researchers and policy or practice agencies. Applications for these awards will be a joint effort by researchers and agencies and the NHMRC will ensure that parties have appropriate formal agreements regarding matters such as intellectual property and publication of findings.
These awards are envisaged as being similar in value and conditions to the NHMRC Project Grants. It is anticipated that cash and/or in-kind contributions would be provided by the policy/practice partner organisation. Researchers, in collaboration with partner organisations, will have about four and a half months in which to prepare applications following a formal call for proposals. A call for proposals opened on 26 July 2008.
NHMRC Partnership Centres for Research Excellence
NHMRC Partnership Centres for Research Excellence will be established as leaders in scientific research relevant to policy and practice. The Centres will not necessarily be funded to address a particular health issue, but rather to develop research capacity in designated areas of interest to one or more partner policy agency. The Centres will work on large scale programs of research and have in place strategies to meet the needs of the partner agency for evidence from research. It is anticipated that NHMRC and selected partner agencies will call for applications from researchers for a series of designated centres. NHMRC will be seeking research teams with outstanding track records, the capacity to work closely with policy agencies and the ability to recruit excellent researchers nationally and internationally.
These Centres will require significant funding and financial flexibility. It is anticipated that cash and in kind contributions would be provided by the partner organisation/s.
NHMRC funding in five year blocks is proposed. However, Centres will be encouraged to attract additional funding from other sources, and to use such funding to become viable as independent entities. It is anticipated that applications for these Centres will be called early in 2009.
What will NHMRC Partnerships mean for decision makers?
The schemes will support decision makers by providing evidence from research to assist in developing more effective policies to help improve Australians’ health and health care.
Decision makers will benefit from having access to top researchers and to research that addresses short, medium and long term policy issues. They will be able to contribute to the definition of important research questions, and be supported in analysing their needs for evidence, and in planning and evaluating their policies, programs and services.
What will NHMRC Partnerships mean for researchers?
NHMRC Partnerships will create new funding opportunities for researchers, and enable them to carry out substantial research programs, publish policy-relevant research in leading journals, and have access to funding to support training, mentoring and partnerships. The schemes will enable researchers to draw on and create teams from various disciplines, including the social sciences (such as economics, education, epidemiology, ethics, management, psychology, and sociology), as well as medical and engineering sciences. They will also develop a better understanding of how their work is viewed by those who use it.
As a researcher and as a clinician, there’s often a degree of frustration about how the health system runs. This is a real opportunity for us to have an impact on policy, and thus influence the health of large numbers of people.
Professor James Best, Professor of Medicine, University of Melbourne
How does this initiative fit within the overall work of the NHMRC?
The NHMRC is the leading agency for funding health and medical research to build a healthy Australia. The NHMRC Partnerships initiative will build on the NHMRC’s fundamental goal of supporting excellent research and on its existing investment in investigator initiated research through Project and Program Grants, the Capacity Building scheme in Population Health and Health Services Research, and strategic research through Requests for Applications in areas of health priority.
The NHMRC Partnerships initiative will help the NHMRC to realize its mission of setting the agenda for research that will inform policy in the future.
Contact for further information
Enquiries about the NHMRC Partnership Projects call can be directed to maryanne.haslam@nhmrc.gov.au