Enablers and Enabling Initiatives

Workforce

Improving funding stability and job security through innovative funding models and workforce planning, increasing productivity and creating a research-positive culture.

The research workforce is a cornerstone of a country’s progress and resilience. Australia’s talented health and medical researchers are crucial to achieving our strategic Goals.

The Australian Health and Medical Research Workforce Audit⁸⁸ outlines the profile of our 39,000 active health and medical researchers, and the almost 20,000 Australian with research training who currently work in non-research roles.

The Audit confirms well recognised challenges and opportunities.

What we know

• 69% of the HMR workforce are working in traditional research environments such as universities and medical research institutes (MRIs).
• Many health and medical researchers transition to other sectors, with government and healthcare being the most common.

Figure 1 image description

Employing sector	Current researchers	Former researchers
University	44%	21%
Medical Research Institute	25	16%
Clinical setting	16%	13%
Private sector	7%	20%
Non-profit	5%	14%
Government	4%	31%
Other	0%	5%

• Career pathways for clinician researchers from all disciplines face critical challenges, especially in obtaining funding and securing workplace support for protected research time.
• The HMR workforce are generally older than the Australian workforce, restricting opportunities for EMCRs.

Figure 2 image description

Age	Health and medical research workforce	General workforce
Under 25 yrs	3%	14%
25–34 yrs	19%	23%
35–44 yrs	28%	22%
45–54 yrs	26%	20%
55–64 yrs	18%	15%
65–74 yrs	5%	4%
75 yrs or older	1%	1%

• Geographic spread is irregular, with the HMR workforce underrepresented in regional and remote areas and having limited reach beyond major cities.
• The interplay between the formulation of Research Training Program funding to universities, the number of PhD graduates being trained, and the pressure this places on funding programs as graduates seek to enter the workforce, is not well understood.
• Job insecurity is a major concern, with many on fixed-term or casual contracts. This is a key factor, alongside work-life balance, leading researchers to contemplate leaving the sector and underscoring the need for more reliable funding sources to retain talent.

Workforce Enabling Initiative

An Australian Health and Medical Research Workforce Plan.

Develop an Australian HMR Workforce Plan to provide a framework for attracting, retaining and developing a diverse health and medical research and translation workforce.

A Workforce Plan could address

1. Future-proofing the Australian HMR workforce. The ageing profile of the Australian HMR workforce highlights the importance of retaining EMCRs as active workforce members, and of fostering science literacy in schools to sustain a pipeline of fresh ideas. Initiatives across Commonwealth and state and territory governments, universities and MRIs provide funding, support and engagement for researchers at crucial stages of their careers. Continuing to build on these initiatives and evaluating and growing the types of support that are most impactful will ensure a consistent, harmonised approach to developing our most talented young researchers.
2. Building an adaptable and responsive workforce. Ensuring people can move successfully into and out of the research workforce, and between different parts of the sector, will build an adaptable and responsive workforce. Approaches will require partnership with stakeholders to broaden the curriculum of Australian higher degree by research programs to further enhance cross-disciplinary skills beyond traditional research prospects, into alternative careers outside academic research.
3. Creating pathways for clinician researcher training and development. The research workforce plan will seek to improve existing nation-wide pathways for clinician researcher trainees, which are currently disjointed and inconsistent. Further, methods to routinely evaluate the time commitment that clinically appointed professionals devote to research activities must be established.
4. Clarifying definitions of the people and organisations that form the Australian health and medical research workforce. A range of approaches can be leveraged for long term monitoring, better clarity and confidence when auditing the research workforce and evaluating the Workforce Plan, such as adjustments to the ABS standard for occupation classification to improve accurate workforce categorisation or working with health service providers to identify measures of embedded research activity.
5. Improving alignment between the current and future workforce needs of the sector and the training of higher degree by research students. Consideration of the workforce needs, future funding opportunities and career pathways of the sector will help to moderate the flow of PhD graduates to ensure that young researchers are equipped with the right skills and have access to opportunities to build secure research careers.
6. Improving workforce diversity and security through grant funding. Elements of grant funding initiatives can create more security or allow longer term planning (across fields of research and types of researchers). The design of future grant opportunities can offer equitable, gender balanced career development opportunities for researchers across the country, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers (see also Focus Area 3 and Funding Enabling Initiative).

What it could achieve

• A more planned, adaptable and resilient research workforce, better prepared to navigate uncertain futures and career transitions.
• Retention of EMCRs and a balanced age profile in the HMR workforce that is more representative across geography, gender and population groups.
• Strengthened clinician researcher pathways and enhanced quality and safety of healthcare through evidence-based practice and innovation.
• Greater job security and long-term planning for researchers through evidence-informed adjustments to funding models to better align graduate output with workforce needs.

Funding

Ensuring sufficient funding that is strategically coordinated across government, industry, not for profit and philanthropic sectors.

Having a sufficiently funded system that is strategically coordinated is fundamental to achieving our strategic Goals.

What we know

• Health and medical research receives funding from Commonwealth, state and territory governments as well as from the private sector, not for profit organisations and charities. Currently, there is limited interaction and coordination between funding entities.
• Health and medical research funding crosses areas from basic science and discovery to priority driven research, translation, commercialisation and implementation. There are dedicated funds for infrastructure and equipment and to support the workforce at various stages of their careers.
• Australian Government funding is provided through the NHMRC and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s MRFF; the ARC; the Department of Education through research block grants and the National Critical Infrastructure Support program; the Department of Industry, Science and Resources through the CSIRO, the Biomedical Translation Fund and Cooperative Research Centres. States and territory governments play an important role in funding research and infrastructure support along with not for profit philanthropic agencies and private/industry sources.
• Based on data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW),⁹⁶ in 2022–23, an estimated $7.4 billion was spent on health and medical research:
  • the Australian Government contributed $5.8 billion (78.4%)
  • state and territory governments an estimated $1.1 billion (14.4%)
  • non-government sector an estimated $0.5 billion (7.2%)
• The average annual real growth rate over the decade (2012–2022) was 2.3%.

Figure 3 image description

Year	Australian Government	State and territory governments	Non-government
2012–13	4.9746	0.5509	0.3730
2013–14	5.3524	0.5928	0.3568
2014–15	4.9132	0.5315	0.3545
2015–16	4.8768	0.6222	0.3559
2016–17	5.0522	0.6830	0.4208
2017–18	4.9291	0.6723	0.4595
2018–19	5.3773	0.6731	0.4553
2019–20	5.6657	1.0129	0.4604
2020–21	5.7850	0.9591	0.4782
2021–22	6.0787	0.9476	0.4643
2022–23	5.7768	1.0619	0.5304

Funding Enabling Initiative

Design innovative funding models.

Leverage or re-design current funding mechanisms that channel funding for research across healthcare, educational and industry settings.

How we could do it

1. Develop a national health and medical research resourcing statement. Modelled on the existing science, research and innovation (SRI) budget tables,⁹⁷ the statement can comprise an accessible data resource that includes government and non-government sources of health and medical research funding, information on where the funding is going and trends over time. Coordinated across funding agencies, the resourcing statement will generate more informed discussions on funding requirements and whether these are fit for purpose for current and future requirements. Developing this resource will require the following key actions:
   • Identifying all sources of health and medical research funding in Australia.
   • Working with funders to encourage and enable data sharing. Examples of effective data partnerships managed overseas can be adapted for use in Australia (e.g. Centre for Improving Data Collaboration, National Health Service, England).⁹⁸
   • Ensuring consistent data capture practices related to research processes within each funding agency to accurately monitor trends.
   • Designing the data resource to be accessible, user friendly and regularly updated.
2. Re-design current funding models to accommodate an optimally sized health and medical research sector and to leverage and consolidate funds.
   • Invest in more co-funded grant opportunities to provide larger scale, crosscutting funding on priority issues. This action will require collaboration between funders, particularly government departments and the not for profit philanthropic and private/industry sector.
   • Creation of dedicated, cross-disciplinary grant schemes, collaboratively supported by funding agency partnerships (such as the ARC and NHMRC) that will incentivise and provide resourcing for research activity that does not otherwise fit within traditional disciplinary boundaries.
   • Smarter design of grant opportunities that are fit for purpose. Establish a funding model that has the right balance of funding for smaller, short-term investigations of high-risk, innovative ideas and larger, longer term grants for more established programs of research in priority areas (e.g. Centres of Research Excellence, platforms and networks). This action will require funders to work together with researchers to best understand the needs of the sector.
   • Ensure balanced investment into discovery and priority-driven research that address areas of national need, consider risk and strategic opportunities. 

What it could achieve 

Development of a health and medical research funding resourcing statement will provide: 

• Greater transparency of funding data including the source, amount and where investments are directed.
• Enhanced ability to monitor funding trends over time for policymakers, researchers and funders.
• Ability to design a more fit for purpose funding model to suit current and future needs. 

Re-designing current funding models will lead to: 

• A more collaborative and less competitive funding structure that encourages and rewards collaborative, cross-disciplinary research for greater social and economic impact.
• Researchers with better insight about where to apply for their respective fields of research and career stages.

Science, research and innovation (SRI) budget tables⁹⁷

The SRI budget tables report the Commonwealth Government’s investments in R&D, science and innovation. Updated annually, the dataset is an interactive dashboard which is easily accessible.

Impact of large-scale funding from multiple sources – National Bowel Cancer Screening Program⁹

Australia was the first country in the world to implement and sustain a national population-based colorectal cancer screening program using faecal immunochemical tests. NHMRC began ongoing funding for key colorectal cancer researchers in the 1970s to develop testing technology and later to demonstrate the health service implementation of screening practices. Many other organisations (including government, philanthropic, industry and international) went on to provide funding for the research.

Data and Advanced Technology

Building capability in emerging technologies, AI and data, that is accessible and linked.

Technological solutions that leverage Australian health and medical research data assets are essential for research that stimulates economic growth, enhances national security and improves public services.

Throughout our consultations, stakeholders described opportunities and challenges related to health data assets and capabilities or skills to access enabling technologies.

The CSIRO AI Trends for Healthcare⁹⁹ report identifies the opportunities and challenges facing the continued and inevitable integration of AI in Australia’s healthcare sector, from clinical decision support to administrative tasks.

What we know

• Key challenges for Australia include our national competitive advantage in international markets, current duplication of infrastructure and its associated costs, limited capacity to share data and technology and a mismatch in workforce skills.
• International counterparts and coalitions are strengthening biodata capabilities and prioritising AI enabled advances, overcoming barriers that persist across Australian jurisdictions.
• A range of national plans, strategies and initiatives related to health data and digital healthcare are currently underway, but these are not well connected into health and medical research
• The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) has produced the National Digital Health Strategy 2023–2028⁷⁸ that will implement a range of initiatives focused on achieving 4 key outcomes for a health system that is digitally enabled, person-centred, inclusive and data driven. These are supported by recent implementation of Sharing by Default legislation¹⁰⁰, designed to ensure health information follows individuals through the system.
  • The Australian National Data Integration Infrastructure initiative¹⁰¹ provides a platform for data access, research and analysis, using best practices in data integration and governance.
  • The National Healthcare Interoperability Plan 2023-2028¹⁰²  outlines a national vision to share consumer health information in a safe, secure and seamless manner and identifies 44 actions across 5 priority areas relating to identity, standards, information sharing, innovation and measuring benefits.
  • The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) Health Studies Australian National Data Asset (HeSANDA)¹⁰³is an example of sector-driven approaches to synchronise, align and build national data sharing capability.

Data and Advanced Technology Enabling Initiative

Build on current initiatives to develop and reform access to data, digital assets and advanced technology across the nation, freeing up secondary use of data for research purposes.

How we could do it

1. Undertake nationwide mapping of data and digital assets and investigate how to overcome barriers currently restricting shared and open access, aligned with the objectives of key national frameworks. Develop cross-Commonwealth protocols for secure data capture and sharing to better integrate insights across relevant agencies (for example: ABS, AIHW, ADHA). Work towards international and cross-jurisdictional agreements for health data sharing that address regulatory and system interoperability and linkage, with nationally consistent implementation of opt-out consent.
2. Create dedicated cross-disciplinary funding schemes. Ensure specific grant programs that require collaboration across disciplines are incentivised, by resourcing research activity that does not otherwise fit within traditional disciplinary boundaries, or which may currently be restricted by policy settings (see Funding Enabler).
3. Cultivate workforce skillsets and capabilities that adapt to changing environments. Expand training pathways and cross-disciplinary collaborations to enable health and medical research access to core technical skills including programming, statistics and mathematics, machine learning, data manipulation and analysis, data visualisation and big data tools.
4. Outreach and support for data literacy and data citizenship, to improve community, researcher and care provider understanding of personal data and its use, access, sharing and ownership. Build trust in how health and research data is shared, especially for communities that are often left out. This means keeping personal information safe, using AI responsibly, and making sure research leads to real improvements in healthcare to deliver benefits that people can see and on which they can rely.
5. Prioritise research that overcomes technical and systemic barriers to the development and use of AI applications in clinical environments. Coordinated investment into advanced technology R&D that aids development of mature, highly functional AI tools specifically suited to Australian care settings, as well as programs to accelerate organisational readiness and reduce cultural resistance.

What it could achieve 

• Reliable and responsible access to de-identified health data for secondary use that accelerates research and innovation.
• Increased national, regional and global cross-disciplinary collaboration.
• Integration of future ready skills across the health and medical research workforce.
• Confidence and understanding across community, research and healthcare environments about responsible use of personal health data.
• Faster development of treatments, better understanding of disease patterns and more inclusive clinical trials.
• Cost savings and health system sustainability, where AI and data analytics streamline administrative tasks and data-driven decision making at individual, community, and national levels.

Infrastructure

Use existing and plan new infrastructure, platforms and networks as shared resources in a sustainable research system.

Ensuring Australia has the right mix of accessible health and medical research infrastructure, located in the right places, will be key to achieving our strategic Goals.

What we know

Funding for research infrastructure is provided through a variety of Commonwealth, state and territory government sources, in a relatively uncoordinated way. Certain Commonwealth schemes, such as National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) are intended to promote broader economic and R&D policies of the Commonwealth Government, while others such as the NHMRC Independent Research Institutes Infrastructure Support Scheme (IRIISS) and state and territory government infrastructure support programs fund infrastructure that delivers specific project, institutional or jurisdictional objectives. There are disparities and gaps in access to research infrastructure funding for some organisations. 

• Procurement, management and maintenance of research infrastructure is increasing in cost and complexity.
• There is a lack of available data about what infrastructure funding is being used for, who is utilising funded equipment and facilities and to which outputs it contributes. While there are examples of precincts and collaborative groups and networks that share information and access to facilities and equipment at the national level, there are other examples where infrastructure is not accessible, risking duplication and waste.
• By consolidating infrastructure, organisations, skills and culture, research precincts are internationally recognised as drivers of research innovation and translation, able to deliver scale and competitive advantage. However, it is important to have the right number, type, location and mix of research precincts for a country of Australia’s size and population to optimise success.
• Access to the infrastructure needed to support translational research and clinical trials within healthcare settings can be challenging in the context of constrained clinical environments where facilities are at maximum utilisation for clinical care.

Research Support Program (RSP) and National Collaborative Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) Program, Education portfolio⁹⁷, ¹⁰⁶; MRFF National Critical Research Initiative¹⁰⁷ and NHMRC IRIISS and Equipment Grants¹⁰⁸ , Health portfolio; estimate based on publicly available data on NSW, VIC, WA and SA government infrastructure and operational funding.¹⁰⁹

Infrastructure Enabling Initiative

An Australian Health and Medical Research Infrastructure Roadmap.

Develop an Australian HMR Infrastructure Roadmap to drive the nationally coordinated development of high performing, fit for purpose and sustainable research infrastructure that supports and encourages whole of ecosystem collaboration.

An Infrastructure Roadmap could

1. Enhance coordination and development of infrastructure across Commonwealth, state and territory governments. Enable Commonwealth and state and territory governments to have visibility of the status of health and medical research infrastructure across Australia and establish a framework through which stakeholders can collaborate and evaluate need to optimise the development and maintenance of new and existing major equipment, facilities and platforms.
2. Support collaboration with industry. Encourage and facilitate local and international industry investment in constructing, manufacturing and maintaining Australia’s health and medical research infrastructure to ensure Australia maintains sovereign capability in critical areas. Consolidating local industry capacity will support Australia’s Future Made in Australia agenda¹¹⁰ and deliver wider economic and productivity gains.
3. Incentivise cooperative, shared approaches to infrastructure development and access across disciplines, institutions and jurisdictions. Reduce the degree to which individual research groups, institutions, precincts, states and territories develop and maintain bespoke research equipment and facilities to deliver cost benefits, reduce waste and create opportunities for wider access to research infrastructure. Enhancing access and support for researchers based in regional, rural and remote areas will be a particular focus.
4. Enhance access to infrastructure and facilities in healthcare settings to support clinical research. Work with Commonwealth, state and territory health infrastructure planning and funding agencies to develop frameworks for guaranteed research access to facilities and infrastructure required to support clinical trials and translational research in healthcare settings, particularly in regional, rural and remote areas, for example through rural and remote hubs.
5. Ensure a fit for purpose workforce. Link to the proposed Australian Health and Medical Research Workforce Plan (see Workforce Enabler) to ensure an appropriately skilled technical workforce to produce, maintain and operate high performing and complex facilities and equipment. This will require identification of current capability gaps and developing training pathways and career development opportunities as future needs and opportunities arise.
6. Future-proof Australia’s health and medical research infrastructure. Collaboration across the sector and with regional partners regarding existing infrastructure, along with cooperative approaches to planning and horizon scanning will deliver a more sustainable, cost effective and fit for purpose health and medical research infrastructure system that is responsive and adaptable to future needs and challenges as they arise. 

What it could achieve 

• Increased national, regional and global collaboration across disciplines, sectors, jurisdictions and communities.
• Reduced infrastructure and indirect research costs
• Long term, sustainable investment in precincts and other collaborative infrastructure modalities that support research, translation and capacity building activities.
• Economic and productivity gains for government, industry, investors and the health and medical research workforce.
• Research and health system infrastructure that is adaptable for future needs.

References

⁹ NHMRC Impact Case Studies. Screening to prevent bowel cancer. www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/resources/impact-case-studies/screening-prevent-bowel-cancer (accessed 16 July 2025)

⁷⁸ Australian Digital Health Agency (2023). National Digital Health Strategy 2023-2028. www.digitalhealth.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/national-digitalhealth-strategy-2023-2028.pdf (accessed 16 July 2025)

⁸⁸ Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (2024) The Australian Health and Medical Research Workforce Audit – October 2024. www. health.gov.au/resources/publications/mrff-the-australian-health-and-medicalresearch- workforce-audit?language=en (accessed 16 July 2025).

⁹³ Medical Schools Council. Staffing levels of medical clinical academics. www. medschools.ac.uk/what-we-do/championing-clinical-academia-and-research/ clinical-academic-survey/ (accessed 16 July 2025).

⁹⁴ Dental Schools Council. Clinical academic staff survey. www.dentalschoolscouncil. ac.uk/clinical-academia/clinical-academic-staff-survey/ (accessed 16 July 2025).

⁹⁵ NHMRC (2021). Investigating clinician researcher career pathways project: Summary Report to the NHMRC Chief Executive Officer, December 2021. www.nhmrc.gov.au/ sites/default/files/documents/reports/21650_nhmrc_-_project_summary_report_ ff_1.pdf (accessed 16 July 2025).

⁹⁶ Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Health expenditure Australia 2022– 23. www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/health-welfare-overview/health-welfareexpenditure/overview (accessed 9 July 2025).

⁹⁷Australian Government Department of Industry, Science and Resources (2024). Science, research and innovation (SRI) budget tables 18 October 2024. www. industry.gov.au/publications/science-research-and-innovation-sri-budget-tables (accessed 9 July 2025).

⁹⁸ NHS England. The Centre for Improving Data Collaboration. transform.england.nhs. uk/key-tools-and-info/centre-improving-data-collaboration/ (accessed 9 July 2025).

⁹⁹ CSIRO (2024) AI Trends for Healthcare. aehrc.csiro.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/AI-Trends-for-Healthcare.pdf (accessed 16 July 2025).

¹⁰⁰Parliament of Australia (2024) Health Legislation Amendment (Modernising My Health Record—Sharing by Default) Bill 2024. www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_ Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r7290 (accessed 16 July 2025).

¹⁰¹Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australian National Data Integration Infrastructure. www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/ndda/infrastructure (accessed 16 July 2025).

¹⁰² The Australian Digital Health Agency. Connecting Australian Health Care: National Healthcare Interoperability Plan 2023–2028. www.digitalhealth.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/national-healthcare-interoperability-plan-2023-2028.pdf (accessed 16 July 2025).

¹⁰³ Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). Health Studies Australian National
Data Asset (HeSANDA). ardc.edu.au/program/health-studies-australian-nationaldata-asset/ (accessed 16 July 2025). 

¹⁰⁴Global Biodata Coalition. globalbiodata.org/ (accessed 16 July 2025).

¹⁰⁵ Evidence Synthesis Infrastructure Collaborative (ESIC). evidencesynthesis.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESE/overview?mode=global (accessed 16 July 2025).

¹⁰⁶Australian Research Council. Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities Selection Report for Funding Commencing in 2025. www.arc.gov.au/fundingresearch/funding-outcome/selection-outcome-reports/linkage-infrastructureequipment-and-facilities-selection-report-funding-commencing-2025 (accessed 16 July 2025).

¹⁰⁷Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) grant recipients. www.health.gov.au/resources/ publications/medical-research-future-fund-mrff-grant-recipients?language=und (accessed 16 July 2025).

¹⁰⁸National Health and Medical Research Council. Outcomes of funding rounds. www.nhmrc.gov.au/funding/data research/outcomes (accessed 16 July 2025).

¹⁰⁹Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. Funding
Landscape Review 2024 (unpublished). 

¹¹⁰Future Made in Australia 2024-2025. treasury.gov.au/policy-topics/future-made-australia (accessed 18 July 2025).

¹¹¹ National Critical Research Infrastructure initiative. www.health.gov.au/our-work/mrff-national-critical-research-infrastructure-initiative (accessed 21 August 2025).