Funding to explore innovative ideas and make discoveries of great potential in research healthcare

You are not eligible to apply if you are:

• an individual
• a partnership
• an unincorporated association
• any organisation not identified as eligible
• a trust (however, an incorporated trustee may apply on behalf of a trust)
• a non-corporate Commonwealth entity

We'll assess your application against the eligibility assessment criteria. Only eligible applications are then referred to an independent committee. This will be the MRFF Frontier Health and Medical Research Advisory Committee. It will then make recommendations on the merit of each application to a program delegate. If your application is successful, we'll award a grant to develop a detailed research plan. Once you complete your research plan, we'll refer it to the committee. We'll expect you to take part in due diligence activities.

The committee will assess the following against the assessment criteria:

• Your research plan.
• Your associated due diligence report.
• Your presentation.

They will also compare them to other eligible applications. The committee will recommend which projects can proceed with implementing the research plan.

The program delegate will make the final decision. Their decision will include the recommendations from the independent MRFF Frontier Health and Medical Research Advisory Committee.

To be competitive you must score highly against all of the assessment criteria.

Assessment criteria for applications:

Assessment criterion 1: Project Impact (34% weighting)

• Assessment criterion 2: Project methodology (33 weighting)
• Assessment criterion 3: Capacity, capability and resources to deliver the project (33% weighting)
• Assessment criterion 4: Overall value and risk of the project (non-weighted)

Assessment criteria for research plans:

• Assessment criterion 5: Alignment with the application and delivery performance (30% weighting)
• Assessment criterion 6: Methodology and implementation (35% weighting)
• Assessment criterion 7: Capacity, capability and resources to deliver the project (35% weighting)
• Assessment criterion 8: Overall value and risk of the project (non-weighted)

Please refer to Appendix C and D of the grant opportunity guidelines for further information about assessment scoring and a rating scale.

If your application is successful, you’ll receive a written offer. If you’re unsuccessful, we’ll notify you in writing and give you the chance to discuss the outcome with us.

Successful applicants must enter into a grant agreement with the Commonwealth.

The grant agreement will specify the:

• reporting requirements
• payment schedule
• milestones necessary to receive payments

We’ll make payments according to an agreed schedule set out in the grant agreement. Payments are subject to satisfactory progress on the project.

We’ll make payments by direct credit into a nominated bank account.