Funding for Australian Researchers to improve research data facilities and systems

The initiative will fund the creation or extension of national research data infrastructure. It’ll focus on strategic investment in data registries, biobanks and data linkage platforms to support world-class health and medical research in Australia.

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

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

How do you apply?

You should read the grant opportunity guidelines and sample grant agreement before you apply. 

To apply, you must submit your application through the online portal. You’ll need to set up an account when you first log into the portal. The portal allows you to apply for and manage a grant or service in a secure online environment.