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Led by the CEO, our leadership and governance ensure NHMRC operates effectively and efficiently at all levels. This allows us to remain focused on the health care areas that matter most to Australia. Our leadership team has considerable experience in research strategy and programs, evidence-based medicine, research policy and translation, and corporate operations. We use their collective skills to develop strategic initiatives to improve Australian health and support health research.

NHMRC is committed to building and strengthening the capacity and capability amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health researchers. We do this through funding, events and educational opportunities. Read about some of the capacity and capability initiatives we are involved with.

Birthing on Country services offer a culturally safe, holistic approach to the design of maternity services for First Nations peoples and a strategy to improve maternity care outcomes.

In the early 1970s, Professor Lex Doyle watched as ventilators were introduced in Australian hospitals to help premature babies breathe.

Haemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn (HDFN, also known as Rh Disease) can occur during pregnancy when a pregnant woman’s immune system produces antibodies that attack their fetus’ red blood cells (RBCs). Once a major cause of fetal and newborn mortality, today HDFN is almost non-existent in Australia due to routine antenatal blood grouping and antibody screening, and the use of prophylactic Rh D immunoglobulin and appropriate clinical management of mother and baby. Guidelines, initially produced by NHMRC on behalf of the Department of Health and Ageing, have assisted with translation of the research on Rh D antibody screening and Rh D immunoglobin into clinical practice.

During the mid-20th century, epidemics of hospital-based and antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus aureus – or golden staph – were causing serious illness and death in hospitals internationally, and one strain was a particular problem in maternity hospitals. NHMRC-funded bacteriologists working at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPA) in Sydney made important contributions to knowledge about how to identify strains of golden staph and how to control its spread.

Over the past century and throughout the world, viral hepatitis emerged as a significant public health issue afflicting hundreds of millions of people and causing severe ill health, liver damage, cancer and death.1

Professor Wai-Hong Tham was one of four distinguished female researchers to receive 2022 NHMRC Elizabeth Blackburn Investigator Grant Awards. Her award was for the highest ranked female recipient (Leadership category) in the Basic Science research area of the Investigator Grants scheme. Professor Tham is Head of the division of Infectious Diseases and Immune Defence at WEHI and co-Chair of the WEHI Biologics Initiative. 

Deciding to commit to a research life is brave – so is committing to do the hard research. Professor Cath Chamberlain says with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, in particular, 'we are going to need to take some more risks to do things differently'. 

Professor Patrick Sexton is the Professor of Pharmacology at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and is the Director at the ARC Centre for Cryo-electron Microscopy of Membrane Proteins. Professor Sexton is a leader in progressing our understanding of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), particularly allosteric modulation and biased agonism, and applying cryo-EM to study structure and dynamics of GPCRs. He is a Clarivate Analytics highly cited researcher and an elected Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society (BPS). Professor Sexton is also the co-founder of Septerna Inc and DACRA Tx and has been the recipient of many awards for his scientific contributions that have had major impacts on biological chemistry research.

Professor Yvonne Cadet-James, the pioneering researcher, academic, mentor, registered nurse and midwife is celebrating a 25-year legacy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research at the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Preterm birth occurs in approximately 1 in 10 infants globally. It causes about three-quarters of near-birth deaths and more than half of newborn deaths.

Professor Katy Bell is a clinical epidemiologist and health services researcher at the Sydney School of Public Health. Professor Bell’s research evaluates the clinical effectiveness of healthcare, with a focus on medical tests used for screening, diagnosis and monitoring chronic disease. She is an NHMRC Fellow, and a member of the Medical Services Advisory Committee Evaluation Sub-Committee which critically assesses the evidence supporting applications for new listings on the Medical Benefits Scheme. The quality and impact of Professor Bell’s work has been recognised by awards including a Robinson Fellowship through the University of Sydney (2023) and an Australasian Epidemiological Association Mid-Career Researcher Professional Development Prize (2022).

Professor Jane Pirkis is the Director of the Centre for Mental Health and Community Wellbeing at the University of Melbourne. With a background in public health, Professor Pirkis has worked in the area of suicide prevention for over 25 years, contributing to knowledge about which interventions are effective in preventing suicide. Professor Pirkis’s work has also emphasised media-based interventions and interventions that involve restricting access to means of suicide. Professor Pirkis is the recipient of The University of Melbourne’s Marles Medal (2021) and is also the recipient of a Distinguished Alumni Award at the University of Tasmania (2017) and has received a Lifetime Research LIFE Award through Suicide Prevention Australia (2010).

Professor Richard Lewis and his team from the Institute of Molecular Bioscience at University of Queensland made a notable discovery early in their research after a lab assistant observed one could milk cone snails for venom much more quickly if you gave them 'a poke or two'.

Webinar on sex, gender, variations of sex characteristics and sexual orientation in health and medical research

We invite you to join us in-conversation with some of Australia’s health and medical powerhouses as part of an extraordinary series of speaker events, brought to you by NHMRC.

The Healthy Environments and Lives National Research Network (HEAL) was announced at the end of 2021 with a grant of $10 million over five years, as an NHMRC Special Initiative to provide national and international leadership in environmental change and health research. HEAL formally starts in May 2022; a lot of groundwork has been done to create the foundations for a large and diverse collaboration to deliver its ambitious work plan over the next five years and beyond.

The following resources may help you to find out more about e-cigarettes. Evidence reviews used to inform the CEO Statement on Electronic Cigarettes can be downloaded from the CEO Statement tab.