MRFF – Stem Cell Therapies Mission – 2023 Stem Cell Therapies Grant Opportunity 

The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) – SCTM - 2023 Stem Cell Therapies Grant Opportunity will provide grants of financial assistance to support medical research and medical innovation projects that:

  • Stream 1 (Accelerator): support the development of novel stem-cell based treatments by disease-focused, multidisciplinary teams that leverage partner funds and can articulate:
    • a final product or therapy
    • a feasible path to market
    • an approach to regulatory processes
    • a competitive advantage over comparable products
    • appropriate consideration of the ethical, legal and social issues associated with treatments
    • a strategy for enhancing sector capacity of key clinical, manufacturing and commercial skillsets
    • potential funding leverage
  • Stream 2 (Accelerator): support large scale projects involving multidisciplinary teams that will focus on pre-clinical screening of new treatments using human tissues made from stem cells, that can articulate:
    • a final product or therapy
    • a feasible path to market
    • an approach to regulatory processes
    • a competitive advantage over comparable products
    • appropriate consideration of the ethical, legal and social issues associated with treatments
    • a strategy for enhancing sector capacity of key clinical, manufacturing and commercial skillsets
    • potential funding leverage
      Research projects may include:
    • screening of novel or repurposed drug candidates, silencing RNAs or therapeutic oligonucleotides or other modifiers of cellular function, including gene editing and base editing
    • personalised identification of appropriate drugs based on patient-specific stem cell–derived tissues

The anticipated outcome of the research is to improve the health and wellbeing of Australians by:

  • Stream 1 (Accelerator): developing novel stem cell-based therapies that have the potential to transform clinical care
  • Stream 2 (Accelerator): generating new treatments that can improve clinical care.

This grant opportunity is being administered by NHMRC on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care.

Further information on the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) is available from the Department of Health and Aged Care’s MRFF website.