Welcome to Tracker, the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) fortnightly newsletter with the latest information on major activities and funding opportunities.
Draft National Health and Medical Research Strategy
NHMRC is working closely with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing to develop a National Health and Medical Research Strategy (The National Strategy). The National Strategy aims to build on Australia’s strengths in the health and medical research sector, fill any gaps, and continue to attract researchers and investors to Australia.
On Tuesday 27 August 2025, the Minister for Health and Ageing announced the release of the draft National Strategy for public consultation.
Consultations will include submissions, state and territory roundtables, workshops and webinars. Here are some ways to be involved:
- By making a written submission
- By making a short video
- By responding to the guiding questions in the online survey.
- By attending a webinar.
Before providing feedback, we invite you to read the draft National Strategy and the guiding questions for submissions [DOC.X, 198KB], both available on the Department’s consultation hub.
Speaking of Science - Achieving better outcomes in women's sexual and reproductive health: The SPHERE CRE journey
For the estimated 6 million women of reproductive age living in Australia, access to high quality care that simultaneously optimises their health and achieves the best possible outcomes remains fraught and inequitable.
This Women’s Health Week, NHMRC is hosting Head of the Department of General Practice at Monash University and lead of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health in Primary Care (SPHERE), Professor Danielle Mazza AM for Speaking of Science.
Professor Mazza will discuss SPHERE, and the impact it has had on improving the quality, safety, and capacity of primary health care services to achieve better outcomes in women’s sexual and reproductive health.
There will be a Q&A session at the end, so we encourage you to attend and ask questions!
The webinar will take place on Thursday 4 September 2025 from 3:00PM–4:00PM AEST.
Have your say on the draft revised Statement on Consumer and Community Involvement in Health and Medical Research
Public consultation began in July on the draft revised Statement on Consumer and Community Involvement in Health and Medical Research (the Statement), consisting of nationwide roundtables facilitated by the Kids Research Institute Australia, and an online survey.
The roundtables are almost finished, with 20 of 24 now complete. Thank you to everyone who has been involved and submitted an expression of interest so far.
There is still the opportunity to complete the online survey. Visit the NHRMC consultation hub to have your say. Submissions close on Sunday 21 September 2025.
Keep up to date with the latest on consultation activities, by subscribing on NHMRC’s website.
Public call for submissions: research priority areas in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health
We want to hear from you! NHMRC is mid-way through its public call asking for research priority areas in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, specifically where is there a significant research knowledge gap or unmet need?
Further details and submissions can be made on NHMRC’s consultation hub webpage.
Submissions close on Monday 15 September 2025.
$72 million for new Centres of Research Excellence
The Minister for Health and Ageing, the Hon Mark Butler MP, announced the funding outcomes for the 2025 Centres of Research Excellence grant opportunity on Saturday 30 August 2025.
Through these grants, 24 research leaders and their teams will be supported to undertake projects that lead to better health outcomes for Australia and our region. Outcomes include 2 grants for One Health research co-funded by NHMRC and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that will address challenges affecting the Pacific and/or Southeast Asia.
Find out more in the media releases available on the Ministers’ media centre and NHMRC news centre. Outcome data can be downloaded from NHMRC’s outcomes page.
Ideas Grants 2025 – assessments phase closed
The assessment phase of peer review for the 2025 Ideas Grants scheme has now closed. NHMRC would like to thank the 872 Ideas Grants peer review members for the time and valuable expertise they committed to the process.
Over the coming weeks, we will be performing an outlier score screening to identify instances where a reviewer’s score significantly differs from the scores provided by other reviewers on an application. Where outliers are identified, NHMRC will review assessment comments to confirm alignment with the scores given and if required, allow reviewers to revise their assessment.
Additionally, NHMRC will provide peer reviewers the opportunity to review de-identified comments provided by other reviewers on the same application, to increase transparency and accountability of the peer review process.
Curing stomach ulcers - impact case study
NHMRC has recently published a new impact case study. It describes how NHMRC funded researchers at the University of New South Wales played key roles in the Nobel Prize winning discovery that stomach ulcers are ultimately caused by a bacterial infection and that such ulcers can be cured using antibiotics. This discovery has led to the virtual elimination of peptic ulcer disease in Australia, and throughout the world where treatment is available.
Read more about this and other positive impacts arising from NHMRC grant funding in our impact case studies.
Dementia Guidelines - public information webinar
Monash University has been funded by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing to update the 2016 Clinical Practice Guidelines and Principles of Care for People with Dementia.
Monash University invites participants to join a webinar exploring the key considerations shaping the Dementia Guidelines and why they matter.
Join the webinar to:
- Hear a project update
- Meet some of the clinicians and researchers involved in guideline development
- Gain insight into the clinical context of the guidelines, the priority populations included, and the role of allied health.
This webinar is relevant to:
- People living with dementia, and their families and carers
- People interested in dementia
- People working in dementia practice, support, and research.
The webinar will be held via Zoom on Tuesday 14 October 2025 from 4:00PM to 5:00PM AEDT.
Register for the webinar here.
Excellent Paper in Neuroscience Award – applications now open
The Network of European Funding for Neuroscience Research (NEURON) has launched 2 parallel calls for the 2025 Excellent Paper in Neuroscience Award (EPNA), which recognises outstanding contributions from early career researchers in the field of neuroscience.
The award includes a prize of €3,000 and an invitation to present the winning paper at a neuroscience conference, with travel support provided.
Two EPNA calls are open for applications:
- The EPNA Biomedical call focuses on mechanisms of resilience and vulnerability to environmental challenges in mental health
- The EPNA ELSA call addresses ethical, legal, and social aspects of neuroscience—a category introduced for the first time in 2024.
EPNA is targeted to early career researchers who are sole first authors of original research articles published in international peer reviewed journals. Eligible articles must be relevant to disease related, translational neuroscience, and the research must have been conducted in a European research area networks NEURON participant country.
Applications for both the ELSA and biomed EPNA calls must be submitted to the NEURON Secretariat using the online application form available on NEURON’s webpage.
Applications for both calls close on 15 October 2025 at 4:00 AM AEDT (5:00 PM UTC-GMT).
For further information visit NEURON’s webpage.
Key NHMRC grant program dates
NHMRC grant opportunities are funded through the Medical Research Endowment Account (MREA).
The following opportunity is opening soon:
- 2025 Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies grant scheme
- Applications open on Wednesday 10 September 2025
- Minimum data due on Wednesday 8 October 2025 at 17:00 AEDT
- Applications will close on Wednesday 5 November 2025 at 17:00 AEDT.
- The following resources will be available on GrantConnect once the scheme opens:
- 2025 Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies Grants Guidelines
- 2025 Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies Grants Peer Review Guidelines.
- 2025 Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies Grants Grant proposal template.
For further information email help@nhmrc.gov.au.
Key dates
Refer to Funding schemes and calendar.
Tracker
See previous editions of Tracker.
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