This grant opportunity aimed to fund research that improves awareness and would provide further guidance for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of anal cancer for both consumers and healthcare professionals. Its focus could encompass, but was not limited to, the development and implementation of screening methods, innovative prevention strategies, testing technologies, and health promotion approaches to more broadly address anal cancer.

Applications received during the call were peer reviewed by an expert panel. Following peer review, 4 applications were funded by NHMRC. Details of the awarded grants are in the Funding outcomes table.

Table: Funding outcomes
App IDChief Investigator AApplication titleAdministering InstitutionBudgetGrant duration
2046217 Professor Lei Zhang Using Artificial Intelligence to improve tolerability, accuracy and availability of High-Resolution Anoscopy Monash University $1,638,910.15 5 years 
2047111 Dr Isobel Poynten Optimising the uptake and accuracy of anal cancer screening in people living with HIV in Australia University of New South Wales $3,330,157.91 5 years 
2049705 Associate Professor Claudia Rutherford WISER Study- Women's Initiative for Sexual health, Education and Raising awareness of anal cancer The University of Sydney $596,887.32 4 years 
2049723 Associate Professor Jonathan Hallett PREVENT Anal Cancer: Assessing HPV Prevalence Reduction with Extended Vaccination in Non-HPV Naïve MSM - A Natural Experiment Curtin University $1,074,797.45 3 years