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Funding for Australian Researchers to improve research data facilities and systems
MRFF 2020 Primary Health Care Research Data Infrastructure Grant Opportunity
What do you get?
Grants of between $1 million and $2 million for medical research using data infrastructure in primary care settings to improve access, quality, safety and efficiency.
Who is this for?
An eligible organisation in selected health care settings.About the program
The 2020 Primary Health Care Research Data Infrastructure grant opportunity is part of the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and the Research Data Infrastructure Initiative. This opportunity looks to fund the creation or extension of national research data infrastructure.
It will support world-class health and medical research in Australia. The opportunity focuses on strategic investment in:
- data registries
- biobanks
- data linkage platforms
The fund will help researchers to collect, share and analyse data more widely. This will help:
- make evidence-based care easier for health professionals
- drive efficient use of resources
- support advances in healthcare
Research data infrastructure
Research data infrastructure has a specific definition for this grant opportunity. It refers to infrastructure and tasks that will enable the better use of health and medical research data.
Infrastructure include:
- facilities
- equipment
- systems
- services
Data tasks include:
- data generation
- manipulation
- curation
- access
It also includes activities that:
- help data to exchange securely
- help data to be better understood and used with confidence
- build the digital health capacity of the workforce
Primary health care setting streams
You must also select one or more of the primary health care setting streams that the research project falls under:
- Stream 1: Residential aged care
- Stream 2: Urban general practitioner-led practices
- Stream 3: Rural general practitioner-led practices
- Stream 4: Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs)
- Stream 5: Other settings including, but not limited to, nurses, allied health professionals, midwives, pharmacists, dentists, and Aboriginal health workers
Intended outcomes
The intended outcome of the research funded by this grant opportunity is to improve the health and wellbeing of Australians. By developing digitally-enabled models of primary health care, improved patient outcomes may include:
- reducing avoidable hospitalisations
- supporting earlier diagnosis of chronic conditions
- improving mental health care and outcomes
- improving compliance with medication regimes
- improving adherence to interventions amongst patients with complex and/or chronic conditions
- improving primary health care data linkage to enhance the quality of care such as the support for artificial intelligence-enabled general practitioner session data coding
Eligibility
What are the eligibility criteria?
To be eligible you must:
- have an Australian business number (ABN)
- be incorporated in Australia
You must also be one of the following entities:
- a medical research institute
- a university
- a corporate Commonwealth entity
- a corporation (including businesses and not for profits)
- a state or territory government
- a state or territory government entity
We encourage joint applications provided you have a lead organisation who is the main driver of the project and is eligible to apply.
We can only accept applications where you can provide:
- details of your nominated Chief Investigator A (CIA), the person who will take the lead role in conducting the project
- details of all members of your research team listed as Chief Investigators (CIs)
- evidence from your board (or chief executive officer or equivalent if there is no board) that the project is supported, and that you can complete the project and meet the costs of the project not covered by grant funding
- letters of support from each project partner, where applicable
You are not eligible to apply if you are:
- an individual
- partnership
- unincorporated association
- any organisation not included in section 3.1 of the guidelines
- trust (however, an incorporated trustee may apply on behalf of a trust)
- a non-corporate Commonwealth entity
Applying
How do you apply?
The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) 2020 Primary Health Care Research Data Infrastructure grant opportunity is closed to applications.
We assess your application against the eligibility criteria. Then, an independent committee of experts will assess eligible applications against the assessment criteria. Only eligible applications will proceed to the assessment stage.
You should provide detail and supporting evidence that is relative to the project. You should consider the project size, complexity and grant amount requested. The sample application form displays character limits.
The program delegate will make the final decision. They'll take into consideration the recommendations from the independent committee of experts.
We will assess your application based on the weighting given to each criteria.
- Assessment criterion 1: Project impact (40% weighting)
- Assessment criterion 2: Project methodology (30% weighting)
- Assessment criterion 3: Capacity, capability and resources to deliver the project Capacity, capability and resources to deliver the project (30% weighting)
- Assessment criterion 4: Overall Value and Risk of the Project (non-weighted)
Scoring information for all assessment criteria can be found at Appendix C and Appendix D of the grant opportunity guidelines.
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.
Need help?
Let us answer your question over the phone, email or live chat.
- Phone:
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Open Hours:
Monday – Friday, 8am – 8pm across Australia
- Website:
Key documents
MRFF grant management resources
Reporting templates are available from the MRFF grants management webpage. The page also provides other resources for MRFF grant administration, including current policies and relevant forms and templates.
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View the latest reporting templates on the MRFF grant management webpage
Department of Health and Aged Care