Funding of medical research in Australia by the National Health & Medical Research Council

Australia invests a smaller percentage of its GDP, and a smaller percentage of total health expenditure, on medical and health research, than nations with which it often compares itself: some 16% of total national R&D expenditure is in the medical and health area (ASTEC). The National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) is an independent statutory body, with Principal Committees in medical and health research, health care, public health, and ethics. The Council is widely representative, meets in public, and is formally reviewed triennially. Its Medical Research Committee (MRC) advises on the distribution of $106 M for research projects, programs, units, and major institutes. Features of MRC's allocative procedures are emphasis on investigator-initiated proposals, extensive review, interviews, reporting in full, and blind determination of funding cut-offs. An extensive training and career support system is maintained, but no NH&MRC funded posts are tenured. There are extensive guidelines on Conflict of Interest, Good Scientific Practice, and Human and Animal Ethics.