This meant established, older researchers were far more successful than younger researchers, even if both had put forward the same proposal. For large collaborative projects across multiple institutions in Australia to address complex medical themes, investigators will apply for a specific grant scheme enabling large and ambitious programs over five years. Finally, strategic grants to address national needs will continue.
For example, support for research into areas such dementia will be maintained and a specific funding scheme will be dedicated to clinical trials or commercialisation of medical devices or therapies in Australia.
The restructured grant program will hopefully enable Australia to avoid further drop-out of early- and mid-career researchers. This is essential to keep the diversity of research programs in Australia. By capping the number of grants per researcher, and promoting new ideas without scrutinising the CV of the investigators, women and early career researchers will be better placed to compete fairly with well-established researchers.
This means the best and most innovative ideas that have the greatest potential for breakthrough in medical research will win. Hopefully these new grant programs will also significantly reduce gender bias in academia and enable talented women researchers to shine. The new grant structure will have a negative effect on collaboration between researchers due to the cap on the number of grants held. This could also lead to perverse effects.
For example, instead of a laboratory head sending in one grant application, they may encourage all of the academics in the lab to apply to be more competitive.
This could mean far more applications each year, the exact opposite of what we would hope. With good intentions, similar changes occurred in the Canadian grant system program in The changes take steps to address precarious employment for researchers, opportunities for EMCRs via the new Ideas Grants stream and the short-termism which has been an obstacle to optimal long-term research planning and outcomes.
We also are concerned to ensure that caps on the number of applications that can be made by researchers do not limit their opportunities. We also note that the NHMRC has remained silent on mechanisms to incentivise or encourage strategic workforce development in the health and medical research sector aimed at supporting greater commercialisation of research and more effective leadership of research laboratories.
The onus will fall to employers to develop the leadership, management and entrepreneurship skills of their research staff. Ashley May 26, in Latest News , Scientists 0. So what do the new grant program arrangements look like? Ideas Grants to support innovative projects for researchers at all career stages; and Strategic and Leveraging Grants to support research that addresses identified national needs.
Dependent on individual scheme. Maximum number of each grant type that can be held 1 1 Up to 2b Not capped relative to Investigator, Synergy and Ideas Grants. What changes have been implemented to enable the system to better support innovation, collaboration and greater equity, and address the serious workforce issues raised by scientists and researchers? Precarious employment and a dysfunctional short-termism The changes include a general shift to longer-term grants of up to 5 years. Gender equity Under the new model, the peer review of Investigator Grants and Synergy Grants will focus primarily on track record relative to opportunity.
Time spent on applications and low grant success rates- caps on application numbers The new caps are intended to reduce the time researchers spend on applications and to address low grant success rates. Encouraging a more innovative, less conservative approach to grant funding The former grant model had been criticised for emphasising track record at the expense of innovation and significance thereby entrenching conservative approaches to the selection of successful grants.
Encouraging an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach Under the new model, Synergy Grants are intended to support multidisciplinary teams of investigators to work together to answer major research questions.
The NHMRC says research translation will be supported by the following: Investigator Grants will provide opportunities for translational researchers whose salary is from a non-NHMRC source such as clinician researchers to obtain a five-year research package.
Synergy Grants will promote multidisciplinary research that may lead to translational outcomes Development Grants, Partnership Projects and Centres of Research Excellence will continue to have a focus on translation. Next steps Information on timing of implementation of the changes is available here. Member Login Members Login Here. Grant type. A suite of templates and proformas to assist you in compiling your application will be made available here when the next round is fully open.
Information on Program Grant interviews is shown in the Key Dates section. Short-listed applicants must make themselves available for an in-person interview to be scheduled commencing the week 11 September Scheme and RGMS queries nhmrc research. Round coordinator Lisa Bolton. Skip to menu Skip to content Skip to footer.
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