We have published a wealth of information on Australian health and medical research, and on specific issues relating to Australian health and health care. These include statements, strategies, guidelines and other reports – all of which are publicly available.
Search our publications including guidelines, annual reports, corporate plans, reports and 10 of the Best. See more at Resources.
If you are unable to find what you are looking for, you can search for archived publications on the National Library's Australian Government Web Archive (Trove).
Ethical guidelines for cell, tissue and organ donation and transplantation
The Ethical Guidelines for Cell, Tissue and Organ Donation and Transplantation in Australia provide a framework to support ethical practice and inform decision-making by all those involved in Australia’s donation and transplantation system.
10 of the Best – Sixteenth Edition
10 of the Best NHMRC research projects – Sixteenth Edition celebrates the calibre of talent and achievements of Australia’s health and medical researchers.
National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research 2025
The National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2025) consists of a series of guidelines made in accordance with the National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992.
Effective 1 October 2025.
An evaluation of NHMRC funded Dementia and Diabetes research
An evaluation of NHMRC-funded dementia and diabetes research delves into the outputs, outcomes and pathways to impact arising from NHMRC-supported research in the areas of dementia and diabetes by analysing data captured by Scopus-indexed publications. It employs AI-driven analytics and narrative techniques combined with novel bibliometric methods to identify impacts or pathways to impact. The report also benchmarks NHMRC's contributions against major international funders, offering insights from 2000 to 2023.
2019-2024 Review of the Australian Government Rebate on Private Health Insurance for Natural Therapies: NHMRC Process Report
This process report refers to the development of documents that assessed the evidence on the clinical effectiveness of 16 natural therapies: Alexander technique, aromatherapy, Bowen therapy, Buteyko, Feldenkrais, homeopathy, iridology, kinesiology, naturopathy, Pilates, reflexology, Rolfing, shiatsu, tai chi, western herbal medicine and yoga.
For more information, visit Natural Therapies Review 2024.
Embryo Research Licensing Committee Report to Parliament - 1 March to 31 August 2024
The 44th biannual report
NHMRC APS Census Results
NHMRC APS Census Results.
Annual Report 2023-24
This report contains information on NHMRC administration and performance, and a record of our activities for the reporting period 2023–24.
An accessible version of this document is available on the Transparency Portal.
NHMRC Artificial Intelligence Workshop Report
The report from an NHMRC-organised workshop that brought together experts to discuss the opportunities and risks from the use of AI in NHMRC and the Department of Health and Aged Care Health and Medical Research Office (HMRO)-funded health and medical research, and its translation. This was to ensure Australia is well positioned to make the best use of the technologies to improve human health.
Staying healthy guidelines
Staying healthy: Preventing infectious diseases in early childhood education and care services - 6th Edition is a best-practice resource that provides simple and effective ways for education and care services to help limit the spread of infectious diseases.
NHMRC is following a digital-first approach for the 6th edition of Staying healthy. The HTML pages are interactive, easy to navigate, accessible and will always be up to date. NHMRC is not offering hard copies of this publication, however you can download the PDF and print a copy if you would prefer.
Statement on Sex, Gender, Variations of Sex Characteristics and Sexual Orientation in Health and Medical Research
The Statement on Sex, Gender, Variations of Sex Characteristics and Sexual Orientation in Health and Medical Research (the Statement) is a joint initiative of NHMRC and the Department of Health and Aged Care (responsible for implementation of the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).
NHMRC Corporate Plan 2024-25
The NHMRC Corporate Plan 2024-25 presents our strategy for building a healthy Australia, across the strategic themes (purposes) of investment, translation and integrity of health and medical research. The plan also includes our strategic and health priorities, as well as our key activities planned for 2024–25 and over the next few years. The plan describes the operating context in which we work and outlines our performance criteria and targets for the next 4 years.
Prioritisation Process Report for Older Australians
For the review of the evidence for dietary guidance for older Australians.
Published in June 2024.
Embryo Research Licensing Committee Report to Parliament - 1 September 2023 to 29 February 2024
The 43rd biannual report
Evaluation of large scale priority-driven grant opportunities
NHMRC funds priority-driven research in response to identified health priority areas to create a healthier future for Australians through relevant and targeted research initiatives which has included eight large scale one-off priority-driven grant opportunities. Though each grant opportunity was unique in design, each had a common focus of establishing a national collaborative research network.
NHMRC commissioned ORIMA Research to evaluate the effectiveness of these large-scale grant opportunities in fostering national collaboration in order to provide an evidence base to identify the best practice approaches to designing future priority-driven grant opportunities to achieve national research collaboration. The findings of the evaluation are published in this report.
Top 10 in 10 publications policy evaluation report
In 2021, NHMRC undertook a targeted consultation on NHMRC’s assessment of publications. Based on the results of this consultation, NHMRC began implementing a new policy relating to the assessment of publications for its track record-based schemes.
The new policy limited applicants to list no more than 10 of their top publications in the past 10 years. The Top 10 in 10 publications policy evaluation report – which may be downloaded at the bottom of this page – describes the results of a process evaluation that sought to determine whether the policy has been implemented as intended.
10 of the Best – Fifteenth Edition
10 of the Best NHMRC research projects – Fifteenth Edition celebrates the calibre of talent and achievements of Australia’s health and medical researchers.
Guidelines approved under Section 95A of the Privacy Act 1988
The Guidelines approved under Section 95A of the Privacy Act 1988 are issued for the purposes of Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and sections 16B(2) and 16B(3) of the Privacy Act.
Guidelines approved under Section 95AA of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)
The Privacy Legislation Amendment Act 2006 (Cth) made changes to the Privacy Act 1988(Cth) (the Privacy Act) to allow health practitioners to disclose patient’s genetic information, whether or not they give consent, in circumstances where there is reasonable belief that doing so is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to the life, health or safety of their genetics relative(s). The amendments do not oblige disclosure of information but provide the framework for this to occur under the appropriate circumstances.
Guidelines under Section 95 of the Privacy Act 1988
These guidelines provide a framework in which medical research involving personal information obtained by Commonwealth agencies should be conducted, to ensure the information is protected.
Research Impact Track Record Assessment (RITRA) framework Evaluation Report
NHMRC’s Research Impact Track Record Assessment (RITRA) framework requires researchers to report on past research impacts in their applications for Investigator and Synergy Grants and requires peer reviewers to assess and score these reported impacts.
Implementation of this framework is intended to provide an incentive for researchers to consider future impact when planning and conducting research, ideally leading to an increase in the translation of NHMRC-funded research and improved public health.
The RITRA framework evaluation report describes the results of a process evaluation that sought to determine whether the RITRA framework has been implemented as intended.
Embryo Research Licensing Committee Report to Parliament - 1 March to 31 August 2023
The 42nd biannual report
IREC Review Consultation Report
The purpose of this report is to provide a summary of feedback received as part of the national consultation to review NHMRC’s Indigenous Research Excellence Criteria (IREC).
Evidence review strategy - Review of the 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines
Evidence review strategy for the review of the 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines. A summary map of the evidence review process is available in the Downloads section.
10 of the Best – Fourteenth Edition
10 of the Best NHMRC research projects – Fourteenth Edition describes 10 Australian health and medical research projects chosen from among the thousands of NHMRC-funded medical research projects underway in Australia.
Post-implementation review survey results, Postgraduate Scholarships 2019-2022
The following data has been obtained from the 2019-2022 Postgraduate Scholarships (PGS) post-implementation review (PIR) surveys of peer reviewers. This document summarises key trends in these findings and details areas for improvement to better shape PGS peer review practices in the future.
Annual Report 2022-23
This report contains information on NHMRC administration and performance, and a record of our activities for the reporting period 2022–23.
An accessible version of this document is available on the Transparency Portal.
NHMRC Corporate Plan 2023–24
The NHMRC Corporate Plan 2023–24 presents our strategy for building a healthy Australia, across the strategic themes (purposes) of investment, translation and integrity of health and medical research. The plan also includes our strategic and health priorities, as well as our key activities planned for 2023–24 and over the next four years. The plan describes the operating context in which we work and outlines our performance criteria and targets for the next 4 years.
The key elements of our Corporate Plan 2023–24 are summarised in the Plan on a Page.
Prioritisation Process Report
For the review of the evidence underpinning the Australian Dietary Guidelines.
Published in June 2023.
Indigenous Research Excellence Criteria (IREC) Review - Discussion Paper
NHRMC opened a national consultation in 2023 to review the Indigenous Research Excellence Criteria (IREC). This discussion paper was produced to inform the review. It provides information on the IREC and lists the consultation questions.
Embryo Research Licensing Committee Report to Parliament - 1 September 2022 to 28 February 2023
The 41st biannual report.
National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research 2023
The National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2023) consists of a series of guidelines made in accordance with the National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992.
NHMRC grants with international collaborators 2012 to 2021
The purpose of this report is to provide a descriptive analysis of the scope and reach of the National Health and Medical Research Council's (NHMRC) international collaborations across all grant schemes over the past 10 years.
International Engagement Strategy 2023–2026 – strategic opportunities
Developed through consultation with other Australian Government agencies, our Strategic Opportunities report outlines more specific and targeted initiatives that National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) could undertake to achieve the actions and goals set out in the International Engagement Strategy 2023–2026.
10 of the Best – Thirteenth Edition
10 of the Best NHMRC research projects – Thirteenth Edition describes 10 Australian health and medical research projects chosen from among the thousands of NHMRC-funded medical research projects underway in Australia.
Embryo Research Licensing Committee Report to Parliament – 1 March to 31 August 2022
The 40th biannual report
Annual Report 2021-22
This report contains information on NHMRC administration and performance, and a record of our activities for the reporting period 2021–22.
An accessible version of this document is available on the Transparency Portal.
Consultation report: Options to reach gender equity in the Investigator Grant scheme
This consultation report provides the outcomes of NHMRC’s national consultation on options to reach gender equity in the Investigator Grant scheme.
NHMRC Corporate Plan 2022–23
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Corporate Plan 2022–23 presents our national strategy for health and medical research aligned with our three strategic purposes of investment, translation and integrity. The plan also includes our strategic priorities and health priorities and outlines our key activities planned for 2022–23 and over the next four years. In addition, the plan describes the operating context in which we work and our performance criteria and targets for the next four years
Reconciliation Action Plan 2022-24
Our commitment to improving the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples covers all aspects of NHMRC’s responsibilities, as well as contributing to the Australian Government’s National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2021-2031.
NHMRC renewed our Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in collaboration with Reconciliation Australia about turning good intentions into real actions and rising to the challenge of reconciling Australia. A RAP is a business plan that uses a holistic approach to create meaningful relationships, enhance respect and promote sustainable opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.
Our previous Reconciliation Action Plan 2016-2018, is available on the National Library's Australian Government Web Archive.
Discussion paper: Options to reach gender equity in the Investigator Grant scheme
The Discussion Paper: Options to reach gender equity in the Investigator Grant scheme presents 4 options to offset the systemic disadvantage faced by women in health and medical research, as reflected in the attrition of female applicants with seniority in the Investigator Grant scheme.
Embryo Research Licensing Committee Report to Parliament – 1 September 2021 to 28 February 2022
The 39th biannual report
2022 NHMRC CEO Statement on Electronic Cigarettes
The safety and health effects of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are contested. Public health officials have expressed concern at the growing uptake of e-cigarettes, particularly amongst young people. NHMRC has reviewed the current evidence to provide public health advice on the safety and impacts of e-cigarettes.
Gain-of-Function Research Review: Report
At the request of the Minister for Health and Aged Care, the National Health and Medical Research Council has undertaken a review of gain-of-function research in Australia.
The Executive Summary from the review report, and a copy of the full report, is available below.
Embryo Research Licensing Committee Report to Parliament - 1 March to 31 August 2021
The 38th biannual report
Investigating clinician researcher career pathways
This report was initiated by NHMRC’s Health Translation Advisory Committee. It contains the results of three connected research projects conducted between 2018 and 2019 which NHMRC commissioned to better understand the career pathways of clinician researchers.
Report on qualitative research about career pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clinician researchers
Clinician researchers are health professionals engaged in both patient care and research.
As such, they are uniquely placed to provide insights into their clinical practice and research, implementing evidence-based, best practice for their patients, and addressing clinically relevant problems through research.
The Health Translation Advisory Committee (HTAC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) have previously explored concerns related to clinician researcher career pathways through a research project undertaken by ORIMA Research in 20191; however only 1% of research respondents identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. As such, the NHMRC’s Principal Committee Indigenous Caucus (PCIC) and HTAC identified the need to undertake a project specifically with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clinician researchers, to better understand their specific career experiences, enablers and barriers, as well as supports required to attract and retain this audience as clinician researchers.
Survey of clinician researchers: Survey findings Report
Clinicians who combine clinical practice with research are an increasingly important,
but poorly understood, strategic resource for the translation of research into practice. There is limited information available about the career pathways of clinician researchers, and the reasons why some clinicians leave or choose not to enter research.