Grant outcomes for the 2023 NHMRC grant application round will be provided incrementally throughout the year. The outcome datasets may include a small number of schemes for which applications closed in the previous year.
To date, the 2023 NHMRC grant application round has resulted in the commitment of more than $227.3 million to fund 152 grants for health and medical research.
Results of NHMRC grant application rounds
| Previous application rounds | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 20201 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Commitments in 2020 were lower than expected due to the delay of the Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies Grant round and Synergy Grant rounds impacted by COVID-19. | ||||||||||
| Total commitments ($ million) | $812.0 | $780.6 | $896.1 | $828.8 | $877.7 | $783.3 | $923.2 | $760.2 | $986.1 | $900.0 |
| Total number of new grants | 1,226 | 1,090 | 1,132 | 1,056 | 1,103 | 1,045 | 857 | 740 | 777 | 725 |
A summary of results for grant application rounds, for each year, is also available from the Download section below.
Information on the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) can be found at Department of Health and Aged Care - MRFF.
Factsheets
Factsheets provide a quick reference point to key statistics on the outcomes of the grant rounds. See Downloads section below for:
- Investigator Grants Outcome Factsheets
- Ideas Grants Outcomes Factsheets
- Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies Grants Outcomes Factsheets
- Synergy Grants Outcomes Factsheets
Timing of announcements
We do not advertise grants’ announcement dates in advance because there are several points of uncertainty in timing from grant opportunity opening until public announcement that can affect the timing of a grants’ announcement.
What delays during the peer review process can affect the timing of a grants’ announcement?
- Applicant extensions and, in limited circumstances, NHMRC extending the closing date of a grant opportunity can delay peer review commencement.
- Reviewers requiring extensions to complete their assessments because of circumstances beyond their control.
- NHMRC seeking additional peer reviewers to reach the target number of assessments for each application because some peer reviewers are no longer able to provide assessments or fail to respond to NHMRC’s correspondence.
What can happen after peer review to delay a grants’ announcement?
- The funding recommendations process can only commence once all assessments are received. This process includes ensuring all quality assurance checks are completed and can take several weeks.
- Advice sought from NHMRC Research Committee (RC) and Council:
- Once the funding recommendations are developed, they are submitted to RC to determine whether they should be recommended to Council. Council is asked to advise whether the funding recommendations should be submitted to the Minister for approval.
- This process can take several weeks depending on the timing of pre-scheduled meetings and the availability of Members.
- Approval by the Minister for Health and Aged Care:
- Once Council’s recommendation is received, NHMRC CEO submits the funding recommendations to the Minister for approval and also seeks approval to release outcomes under embargo. This allows NHMRC to release outcomes to applicants once approved, without waiting for a public announcement.
- This process generally takes 2-3 weeks.
- Public announcement:
- NHMRC works closely with the Minister’s office to support the public announcement of outcomes.
- The timing of a public announcement is dependent on many factors, such as the availability of the Minister(s), the number of grant opportunity outcomes to be announced and the approach to be taken (media release or public event).
Outcomes released under embargo
We routinely release grant outcomes to applicants and their institutions under embargo. Which means that the information must not be shared publicly until we lift the embargo.
During the embargo period, applicants must not publicise the information or post comments about the grant outcomes in public domains such as social forums, websites, journals or newspapers.
The embargo applies to all applicants, including those who have been unsuccessful.
Why are grant outcomes released under embargo?
Embargo ensures the public announcement of outcomes has the greatest possible impact in promoting health and medical research and researchers to the community.
NHMRC releases results under embargo as soon as possible after Ministerial approval so that applicants and institutions can plan accordingly.
What can applicants do during the embargo?
During the embargo period, applicants can share outcomes with the research team and partner organisations (where applicable), but must advise them of the embargo.
Successful applicants can prepare for the research to start on time. This includes seeking necessary approvals (for example, ethics approvals), recruiting staff and making arrangements with partner organisations. Successful applicants can add grants to their CV for review (for example, as part of a new grant application) provided they add the words 'under embargo'.
Research projects can commence if the embargo continues past the commencement date.
Notification that an embargo is lifted
NHMRC will notify Administering Institutions through an RAO Alert when an embargo is lifted. Once this occurs, applicants may share outcomes publicly.
