Latest news and stories
Research Excellence: Understanding membrane protein structures
Dr Alastair Stewart, Head of the Institute’s Structural Biology Laboratory at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute (VCRI) focuses his research on understanding the mechanisms of how cells transport drug molecules using cyro-electron microscopy technology. Based within VCRI’s Innovation Centre, Dr Stewart’s research involves generating detailed information on the function of membrane protein structures, providing a template to better understand drug interactions within the body. Read on to find out more about Dr Stewart’s research, in his own words.
Tracker - 11 September 2023
Welcome to Tracker, NHMRC’s fortnightly newsletter with the latest information on major activities and funding opportunities.
$1.5 million for research collaboration to develop a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder screening tool
A project in partnership with community organisations to explore the national expansion of a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) screening program is one of eight research collaborations sharing in over $10.5 million in NHMRC partnership funding.
Preventing infectious diseases in early childhood education and care services
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is seeking the views of early childhood educators, parents, carers, and experts in public health, environmental health, food safety and infectious disease as part of a review of the Staying healthy: Preventing infectious diseases in early childhood education and care services resource.
Research Excellence: trialling women's testosterone therapy
Professor Susan Davis AO, Head of the Monash University Women’s Health Research Program, focuses her research on understanding the role of sex hormones, particularly testosterone, in women’s health. Her program of research involves a series of innovative, complementary clinical trials to determine if the hormone can serve as a new therapy to protect against leading causes of ill health in postmenopausal women. Read on to find out more about Professor Davis’s research, in her own words.
Tracker - 28 August 2023
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Over $9 million for collaborative research projects to improve health care access and equity
A project in partnership with community organisations to guide the effective use of medication that reduces the risk of contracting HIV is one of seven research collaborations sharing in over $9 million in NHMRC Partnership Project funding.
Tracker - 14 August 2023
Welcome to Tracker, NHMRC’s fortnightly newsletter with the latest information on major activities and funding opportunities.
Research Excellence: predicting gastric cancer
Dr Doug Tjandra is an advanced trainee in gastroenterology at The Royal Melbourne Hospital with an interest in preventing gastrointestinal cancers and immunotherapy-related complications of the gastrointestinal tract and liver.
Tracker – 31 July 2023
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Donor milk study one of 28 projects to share in $73 million Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies funding
Research teams from across Australia will share in almost $73 million from Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to conduct studies addressing topics such as the benefits of donor milk for pre-term babies, culturally inclusive pregnancy to early childhood services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and preventing e-cigarette use among young people.
Research excellence: understanding the first few weeks of pregnancy
Professor Jose Polo’s work in epigenetics spans diverse fields, including cellular reprogramming, embryogenesis, neurobiology, immunology and cancer. His Synergy Grant brings together a multidisciplinary team who will combine the latest advances in models of early development, genetics and molecular biology to determine how the early placenta produced by the embryo burrows into the uterus and keeps developing during the entire pregnancy.
NHMRC statement on iBlastoids
Regulation of research involving human embryos and embryo-like structures in Australia.
Tracker – 17 July 2023
Welcome to Tracker, NHMRC’s fortnightly newsletter with the latest information on major activities and funding opportunities.
Research Excellence: rapidly detecting emerging viruses
It is challenging to contemplate, but the world can expect to experience pandemics like COVID-19, and perhaps even larger in scale, in the future. Professor Eddie Holmes is developing a pandemic radar to rapidly detect emerging viruses and determine which are most likely to have pandemic potential. His research focuses on understanding the fundamental mechanisms of virus ecology and evolution, as well as how viruses jump species boundaries to emerge and cause disease in new hosts.
$5.5 million in funding for research projects to address the impact of loneliness in chronic disease
Over $5.5 million in targeted funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) will be shared across four research teams to investigate ways to identify and support people with chronic disease who are experiencing loneliness and social isolation.
$3.5 million in targeted research funding to improve dementia care in culturally diverse communities
Three expert teams will share in almost $3.5 million in funding from Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to improve clinical pathways for the diagnosis, early intervention, treatment and management of dementia for people from diverse cultural, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds.
Tracker – 3 July 2023
Welcome to Tracker, NHMRC’s fortnightly newsletter with the latest information on major activities and funding opportunities.
Excellence in ethics and integrity
Reverend Kevin McGovern, recipient of the 2023 NHMRC Ethics and Integrity Award, is one of Australia’s leading ethicists, active in education, research and policy for over 25 years. Throughout his professional life as a parish priest, academic and community leader, Reverend McGovern has brought to innumerable discussions and debates the highest quality and intensity of consideration. His reputation for the courage of his convictions and his openness and respect for others with a diversity of views is unparalleled.
Tracker – 19 June 2023
Welcome to Tracker, NHMRC’s fortnightly newsletter with the latest information on major activities and funding opportunities.
Tracker - 5 June 2023
Welcome to Tracker, NHMRC’s fortnightly newsletter with the latest information on major activities and funding opportunities.
Tracker special edition - MRFF – MREA consultations
Improving alignment and coordination between the Medical Research Future Fund and Medical Research Endowment Account.
Excellence in consumer engagement: optimising the lives of people with aphasia
The Queensland Aphasia Research Centre (QARC) brings together people with aphasia, their families and friends, clinicians and researchers in the collaborative development of innovative and novel health interventions that transform lives. At NHMRC's Research Excellence Awards in March, QARC received the 2023 NHMRC Consumer Engagement Award, which recognises an individual, a group of individuals or an organisation that has made a long-term contribution to consumer and community involvement in health and medical research.
Tracker - 22 May 2023
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Research Excellence: A vision for the elimination of tuberculosis
Professor Greg Fox is a respiratory doctor and clinical triallist at the University of Sydney and Director of the Sydney Vietnam Institute who is contributing to the momentum towards tuberculosis (TB) elimination. Professor Fox received the 2021 NHMRC David Cooper Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies Award, recognising the highest ranked recipient in the Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies scheme.
Budget 2023-24
Support for excellent health and medical research in Australia continues in the 2023-24 Budget handed down on 9 May 2023.
Tracker - 8 May 2023
Welcome to Tracker, NHMRC’s fortnightly newsletter with the latest information on major activities and funding opportunities.
Research excellence: Transforming midwifery in the Asia-Pacific region
Professor Caroline Homer AO is a midwife and maternal and newborn health researcher. Her research addresses maternal and newborn health issues, especially the role of midwives in improving outcomes in limited-resource settings, with a focus for more than 20 years on the Asia-Pacific region.
$7.9 million for research collaboration on policy and practice
Projects aiming to improve leadership equity in health care, mental health, children’s wellbeing and patient safety are among those sharing in $7.9 million in grants for research collaboration with health sector partners across Australia.
Tracker - 24 April 2023
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Research Excellence: New antibody therapies against malaria and COVID-19
Professor Wai-Hong Tham was one of four distinguished female researchers to receive 2022 NHMRC Elizabeth Blackburn Investigator Grant Awards. Her award was for the highest ranked female recipient (Leadership category) in the Basic Science research area of the Investigator Grants scheme. Professor Tham is Head of the division of Infectious Diseases and Immune Defence at WEHI and co-Chair of the WEHI Biologics Initiative.
Research boost to foster cooperation on chronic disease prevention in the Asia-Pacific
Research that aims to improve health promotion strategies for children in Fiji is one of four projects to share in over $5 million in funding from Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) as part of an international and collaborative scheme.
Tracker - 12 April 2023
Welcome to Tracker, NHMRC’s fortnightly newsletter with the latest information on major activities and funding opportunities.
Research Excellence: Identifying gaps and solutions needed for HIV elimination
Dr Tafi Marukutira is a medical doctor and public health researcher, specialising in infectious diseases epidemiology. Dr Marukutira received the 2022 NHMRC Frank Fenner Investigator Grant Award (Emerging Leadership), which recognises the highest ranked recipient in the Emerging Leadership Level 1 Investigator Grant category within the Basic Science or Public Health research areas, for his work on equitable access to HIV care and treatment.
Translating medical research into improved health care in the Top End
Northern Australia’s expertise in translating health and medical research into improved health care has been recognised through an accredited Research Translation Centre, now one of 11 accredited centres nationally.
Tracker Special: NHMRC awards
Welcome to a Tracker Special to acknowledge the recipients of this year's NHMRC Research Excellence Awards and Biennial Awards.
Celebrating excellence and dedication in Australia’s health and medical research sector
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has celebrated outstanding contributors to Australian health and medical research with its Research Excellence and Biennial Awards announced in Canberra this evening.
Rising stars of dementia research funded to collaborate with experts in Japan on shared challenge
Three expert teams will share in $1.5 million of NHMRC-administered funding to undertake research with Japanese collaborators into causes of dementia and factors that may prevent or delay its onset.
Tracker - 27 March 2023
Welcome to Tracker, NHMRC’s fortnightly newsletter with the latest information on major activities and funding opportunities.
Tracker - 14 March 2023
Welcome to Tracker, NHMRC’s fortnightly newsletter with the latest information on major activities and funding opportunities.
Communities driving health care research
“It’s about coming with an open mind and heart, and willingness to deeply listen to community… to have any preconceptions challenged and re-learn ways of doing research.”
– Dr Veronica Matthews , co-lead investigator, STRengthening systems for InDigenous healthcare Equity (STRIDE)
Tracker - 27 February 2023
Welcome to Tracker, NHMRC’s fortnightly newsletter with the latest information on major activities and funding opportunities.
$5 million for Indigenous-led Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander maternal and child health research project
A research team led by clinical psychologist Associate Professor Yvonne Clark will receive almost $5 million in NHMRC-administered funding for a project to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing during pregnancy, birth and the early years.
Improving carer wellbeing and empowering Indigenous communities
Associate Professor Dina LoGiudice is a geriatrician and clinical researcher with a special interest in dementia and ageing well. For close to two decades, she has been studying the impacts of ageing and dementia in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
See also 10 of the Best
Smiles saved with a major improvement in dental health of young Aboriginal children
For much of his professional life in the United Kingdom, Professor Anthony Blinkhorn has focussed on improving the oral health of children in poorer communities through collaborative approaches with government agencies. This work saw him appointed as Chair of Population Oral Health at the University of Sydney in 2007, funded by the NSW Health Centre for Oral Health Strategy.
See also 10 of the Best
Tracker – 13 February 2023
Welcome to Tracker, NHMRC’s fortnightly newsletter with the latest information on major activities and funding opportunities.
Mind the gap – Filling in the missing evidence for massive blood transfusion policy
Professor Jamie Cooper AO is Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University, and Senior Specialist in Intensive Care at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne.
See also 10 of the Best
Developing immunity to cancer
Immunologist Dr Jason Waithman leads the Cancer Immunotherapy Group at the Telethon Kids Institute in Western Australia. See also: 10 of the Best
Healthier hearts in the tropical north
Professor Anna Ralph is a practicing medical specialist and leads the Global and Tropical Health division at Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin.
See also 10 of the Best
Unravelling genomes to find an answer
Autoimmune diseases account for one of the largest burdens of chronic disease on our health system. According to Professor Chris Goodnow FAA FRS, there are more than 100 autoimmune diseases that collectively affect 10% of people.
See also 10 of the Best