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NHMRC plays a vital role in advancing health and medical research translation in Australia, supporting the uptake of research findings into public policy, health systems and clinical practice, while enabling the commercialisation of research discoveries within and beyond the health system.

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NHMRC'S role in research translation

Achieving impact through research translation requires coordinated effort across the health and medical research system. Under its legislated functions,1 NHMRC supports and enables this ecosystem by: 

  • Funding and accrediting health and medical research to ensure excellence and an evidence‑based approach from discovery through to application.
  • Issuing and endorsing evidence-based health advice and guidelines.
  • Advising on strategies to improve health outcomes.
  • Building long-term capacity and capability to support sustainable research translation and commercialisation.

NHMRC actively supports and provides guidance to those who implement health policy or practice and/or commercialise research discoveries, including researchers, consumers and communities, health services, policymakers, regulators, industry and other funders. This role complements those of other governments and non-government organisations involved in research translation and commercialisation.

NHMRC stewards public investment to maximise public benefit from research translation and commercialisation by supporting pathways with strong potential to improve health outcomes, enhance system efficiency and advance equity. While these pathways differ in risk, timeframe and type of return, all can deliver significant public benefit when aligned with health system and population needs.

NHMRC supports investigator-initiated and community-initiated research and capacity building through the full administration of the MREA.  It also administers selected programs funded through the MRFF, which targets priority-driven, mission-oriented research. NHMRC will work closely with MRFF teams to identify and address gaps in the research translation and commercialisation pathways, reduce duplication, and support more integrated approaches to achieving impact.

Accordingly, the Strategy focuses on actions which are achievable within NHMRC’s remit and capabilities.

NHMRC’s current research translation activities

Partnerships between researchers and end-users

Research is embedded in the system when the research organisation/researcher and end-users are both part of the decision-making and implementation process.

NHMRC plays an important role in strengthening connections between the research and health sectors. Embedded research integrates research activities into routine care to generate and apply the best available evidence in a timely and efficient way. While strong links between researchers, health services, consumers and community, and industry partners are essential, embedded research also relies on fit-for-purpose study designs aligned to clinical workflows and supportive health system settings. By integrating research and care, embedded research increases translation and impact and reduces costly duplication between research and service delivery.

NHMRC undertakes a range of activities, in addition to funding translational research, to foster partnerships and ensure research is embedded in the health system, such as:

It should be noted that NHMRC acknowledges the different ways of referring to the end-users of research, for example, some distinguish between end-and next-users. Translation is a complex, non-linear process. In this Strategy, the term ‘end-user’ is used in a broad sense to include consumers, communities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, as well as providers of healthcare and health-related systems, professionals and policymakers.

Building capacity and capability

To translate research into improved health outcomes for Australians, we need those responsible for translation to have the requisite knowledge and skills.

NHMRC encourages and builds capacity and capability in research translation, including in the science of implementation. Current capacity and capability building activities include:

  • Providing funding to build the research, research translation and effective end-user involvement capability of researchers.
  • Accrediting Research Translation Centres (RTCs), where a key criterion is the ability to build capability of health professionals in research and research translation.
  • Building capacity and capability of consumers and community in effective involvement in research and its translation, and peer review.
  • Encouraging researchers to consider translation by assessing research impact in applications across grant schemes.

The use of high-quality research

Access to research outcomes drives stronger public policy, stronger health systems and a stronger knowledge economy. An important role for NHMRC is to encourage the use of high-quality research evidence in all areas of health and health-related policy and practice.

NHMRC funds translational research, including implementation science, to support the uptake of research evidence into practice, policy and products. High-quality research underpins high-quality evidence. When end‑users apply that evidence to decision‑making, it improves the quality of decisions and leads to better health outcomes.

In addition to funding high-quality research to produce the best available evidence, NHMRC also:

  • Promotes strong research governance and quality through guidance such as the NHMRC Good Institutional Practice Guide, which supports institutions to create environments that enable high‑quality, ethical and well‑managed research.
  • Develops and approves high-quality evidence-based guidelines and advice for clinical practice and public and environmental health, which can be adopted by state and territory regulatory bodies.
  • Supports open access to the outputs of NHMRC-funded research, including publications and data, and promotes best practice in evidence development, synthesis and analysis.
  • Encourages the use of high-quality research by publishing impact case studies illustrating how research evidence has been developed and used.
  • Through various grant schemes, NHMRC requires applicants to identify the research evidence that has informed the design of their research proposal.

References

1 Australian Government Federal Register of Legislation. National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992, 20 March 2024. https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A04516/latest/text (accessed 21 April 2026).