The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Preventive and Public Health Research Initiative aims to enable or support research into new ways to address preventive and public health issues in Australia.

The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Preventive and Public Health Research Initiative aims to enable or support research into new ways to address preventive and public health issues in Australia.

The objective of this grant opportunity is to provide grants of financial assistance to support medical research and medical innovation projects that:

• Stream 1 (TCR): develop, implement and/or evaluate interventions to prevent or manage perinatal mental ill-health
• Stream 2 (TCR): develop, implement and/or evaluate holistic approaches that support healthy development for children aged 2-5 years
• Stream 3 (TCR): develop, implement and/or evaluate new co-designed and scalable health and wellbeing promotion and/or preventive health approaches to address modifiable risk factors in:

• Topic A: adolescents and young adults
• Topic B: middle-aged people.

The intended outcome of the research is to improve the health and wellbeing of Australians by:

• Stream 1: improving prevention and management of perinatal mental ill-health
• Stream 2: improving healthy development in early childhood to support a strong start to life
• Stream 3: promoting healthy lifestyle and preventive health approaches that address modifiable risk factors in adolescents, young adults and middle-aged people.

Applicants to this grant opportunity must propose research that addresses one of the 3 Streams of research. An application may only be submitted to one of the above 3 Streams. Applicants must specify the Stream to which they are applying in their application.

This grant opportunity is being administered by NHMRC on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.

To be eligible your organisation must be an MRFF Eligible Organisation approved by NHMRC. Information on becoming an MRFF Eligible Organisation can be found on the NHMRC website.

Joint applications are encouraged, provided you have a lead organisation who is the main driver of the project and is eligible to apply.

MRFF grants can only be made to organisations that meet criteria defined in legislation. Because of this, the following types of organisations can apply to become MRFF EOs:

• Medical research institutes – that is, bodies that conduct medical research as a primary purpose, and which are also registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission
• Universities – that is, Australian universities listed in either Table A or Table B of the Higher Education Support Act 2003
• corporate Commonwealth entities – that is, Commonwealth entities that are bodies corporate
• corporations – that is, Australian public companies, Australian private companies, and other incorporated entities.

If your organisation does not meet the requirements for MRFF EO status, you may wish to partner with an existing MRFF EO as a Participating Institution in order to be part of an application for and if successful, receive MRFF funding via an approved MRFF EO.

• Phone: 1300 500 983
• Email: help@nhmrc.gov.au