Regional, Rural and Remote Health Equity

Almost a third of people in Australia live in regional, rural and remote (RRR) areas. They are more likely than their metropolitan counterparts to experience inequality in health outcomes, including life expectancy, due to limited access to healthcare and other social determinants. 

There is excellent and innovative research occurring in RRR areas, however there are barriers to growing this research capacity. These barriers include research workforce shortages, as identified in the Australian Health and Medical Research Workforce Audit, infrastructure gaps, physical distances, increased costs and limited resources. Research time for clinician researchers in RRR areas is also often constrained by their commitment to providing critical health care services to their community. The specific health challenges faced by RRR communities are not homogenous and better understanding of local issues and challenges is therefore necessary to effectively address health inequity in RRR areas. Supporting the growth of place-based RRR health research is therefore a key factor in addressing this inequity and supporting RRR communities to access high-quality care. 

Objective and commitment

The 2025–26 NHMRC Corporate Plan identifies research that promotes health equity in RRR communities as an area where focused NHMRC initiatives can make a significant contribution to building a healthy Australian community. 

We are committed to promoting health equity in RRR areas by supporting and facilitating health and medical research that benefits local people and communities. This is based on the following principles:

• increased opportunities for those living in RRR communities to participate in research, including access to clinical trials, will promote health equity
• place-based research conducted in RRR health service delivery organisations improves organisational performance, staff retention and patient outcomes
• research that is led by local researchers, responds to RRR community needs and/or includes participants in RRR locations promotes translation of findings to address RRR health inequity
• research conducted in RRR areas involves additional challenges and requires specialised local knowledge, experience and expertise
• strengthening research workforce capacity in RRR areas will contribute to more equitable health outcomes for RRR communities.

Research support

We continue to strengthen our focus on RRR Australia by supporting research that addresses the unique health needs of RRR communities, including through targeted grant opportunities and strategic funding streams.

In addition to funding for RRR research through regular NHMRC schemes, several NHMRC grant schemes in recent years have provided quarantined funding for RRR researchers. This includes the RRR-specific stream in the 2024 Collaborations in Health Services Research grant opportunity, which focused on researchers in regional, rural and remote areas identified through the Modified Monash Model. Additionally, the Research Translation Centre Grant Opportunity provided funding support for the Research Translation Centres, including the 5 based in RRR areas, to improve health systems and services across Australia. 

Based on the information available, only a small number of applications to NHMRC have a specific focus on RRR health, but these have a comparable success rate to applications overall. This supports the fact that there is research excellence in RRR areas, but further capacity building is required to boost research investment in RRR health. 

Advice and Peer Review

RRR research can have several challenges that are not experienced, and thus are potentially less well understood, by researchers in metropolitan areas. We encourage researchers in RRR areas and/or those with RRR research expertise to nominate and participate in peer review. Researchers can nominate themselves to be considered for NHMRC peer review via the self-nomination form in Sapphire and guidance is available.

To optimise matching RRR peer reviewers with relevant applications, we encourage RRR researchers to indicate their RRR expertise in their Sapphire Profile by selecting the above Fields of Research and Research Keywords.

Upcoming activities and further resources

We continue to promote health equity by exploring options to support regional, rural and remote health research.

Upcoming activities

Sustainably building the capacity of the RRR research workforce is integral to facilitating embedded research, strengthening the evidence base for rural and remote health systems and supporting clinical trial access and delivery in RRR areas. We are focusing on developing an initiative to support place-based research that promotes health equity for RRR communities. More details to come.

Further resources 

Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) report on funding for rural, regional and remote health research
MRFF Grant Opportunities
Office of the National Rural Health Commissioner
National Rural Health Alliance 
Australian Rural Health Education Network (ARHEN)
Australian Teletrial Program
Australian Health Research Alliance