Research support

MRFF 2025 Maternal Health and Healthy Lifestyles Grant Opportunity

Key dates for MRFF 2025 Maternal Health and Healthy Lifestyles

  • Proposals open in Sapphire: 06 Aug 2025
  • UQ R&I NOI Close: 12 November 2025 (MyResearch NOIs are now open: log in to MyResearch here: Welcome - MyResearch Portal and select the round “MRFF 2025 Maternal Health and Healthy Lifestyles” to start your application.)
  • Minimum data requirements in Sapphire: 5pm ACT time 19 November
  • Applications due to UQ R&I: 19 November 2025. (Please note that Content review will only be available for applications submitted for review by 12 November 2025)
  • Applications close: 5pm ACT time 3 December 2025

Overview

Consistent with the MRFF Act, the objective of this grant opportunity is to provide grants of financial assistance to support medical research and medical innovation projects that:

  • Stream 1 (Targeted Call for Research): develop, implement and/or evaluate interventions to prevent or manage perinatal mental ill-health 
  • Stream 2 (Targeted Call for Research): develop, implement and/or evaluate holistic approaches that support healthy development for children aged 2-5 years 
  • Stream 3 (Targeted Call for Research): 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. 

For the purposes of this grant opportunity, adolescents and young adults are defined as people who are 12-24 years of age. Middle-aged people are defined as people who are 40-65 years of age.

The amounts available for a single grant in each Stream are as follows: 

  • Stream 1: There is no minimum grant amount and the maximum grant amount available for a single grant is $3.0 million 
  • Stream 2: There is no minimum grant amount and the maximum grant amount available for a single grant is $2.0 million 
  • Stream 3: There is no minimum grant amount and the maximum grant amount available for a single grant is $3.0 million

How to apply

Internal notice of intent process

All researchers intending to submit an application are required to log their application in MyResearch. Please see below for instructions.

Step 1. Sapphire updates and scheme reading

  • Register for Sapphire and update your full profile 'My Profile and CV'. The Grant Opportunity will be run through the new National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grants management system, Sapphire, which replaces RGMS. If any team members are new to Sapphire and need a login/password, start early. The NHMRC require at least three working days to create new Sapphire accounts. 
  • Familiarise yourself with the key MRFF, NHMRC and The University of Queensland (UQ) documentation.

Step 2. Completing the application

Step 3. UQ R&I internal review and feedback

  • Ahead of internal review, ensure all online components are complete and valid in Sapphire and CIA has initiated the Certification process. Application errors will be signalled and can be corrected during the Certification stage.
  • To initiate internal review, email UQ R&I at mrffgrants@research.uq.edu.au.
  • Internal review by UQ R&I/feedback provided. The assigned grants officer will work with you through successive review/feedback rounds until the application is finalised and compliant.

Step 4. Final submission

  • Certify the application in Sapphire.
  • UQ R&I will complete final review and submit the application to NHMRC.

Letters of Support

Signing for all letters of support from UQ is co-ordinated through the Research Office. All Letters of support for MRFF applications, including those led by other institutions, must be accompanied by a completed Application Certification (see link below) and authorisations of any enumerated contributions or additional UQ staff beyond the lead CI listed in the letter.  We strongly recommend working with your local school/institute research professionals to complete this process.

To provide time for review and signature, we ask that UQ researchers submit draft letters to mrffgrants@research.uq.edu.au no later than two weeks before the external closing date.

Partner Letters

We encourage applicants to provide drafts of partner letters of support for review by the Research Office before organising their final signature to ensure eligibility and compliance. A template Letter of Support is provided below.

Non-UQ Lead Applications

  • The administering organisation should provide you with a draft letter of support. UQ information from the CEO letter below may assist you in completing the letter.
  • Complete an Application Certification (see link below) and get it countersigned by your Head of School/Institute.
  • Submit both to mrffgrants@research.uq.edu.au, along with evidence for any additional co-contributions.

MyResearch Pilot Information

MyResearch Projects will be using the MRFF 2025 Maternal Health and Healthy Lifestyles round as their second Pilot for Pre-Award grants rounds.

MyResearch NOIs are now open. Simply log in to MyResearch and select the round “MRFF 2025 Maternal Health and Healthy Lifestyles” to start your application.

Log in here: Welcome - MyResearch Portal

Pilot focus

  • The Notice of Intent (NOI) and Funding Application Certification (FAC) form will be replaced with an in-system version (“MyResearch Application”) in the Applications section of MyResearch.
  • Heads of Units will be required to review and approve the in-system version of the FAC (“application”) within MyResearch, rather than signing the word document.
  • The MyResearch Projects team is testing NOI functionality in the system. We understand some applicants may have already completed an NOI and apologise for any duplication this may cause.

What this means for you

Depending on your role, you will have tasks to perform in the MyResearch system, for example:

  • Applicant – complete your NOI and FAC in MyResearch.
  • Local Research Support – support the Researcher in completing the application (FAC) in MyResearch Application and Head of Unit during the grant round.
  • Head of Unit Advisor – after the application (FAC) is submitted by the Researcher, you will be notified to leave a message for the Head of Unit with any relevant information.
  • Head of Unit – approve the full application (FAC) in MyResearch.
  • Faculty and Institute Research Manager – use MyResearch reporting to communicate application and post-submission data.

How support will be provided

Role-based instructions/guides will be available on the MyResearch website at Competitive Grant Funding Pilot.

Help & questions:

MyResearch system troubleshooting - email my-research-help@uq.edu.au

Readership and researcher support

Before applying, we recommend you:

Key documents

Before applying, please review the full suite of documents available from GrantConnect, the Australian Government grants information system and:

NHMRC

UQ

 

Contact UQR&I

Scheme and Sapphire queries

Round coordinator
Pre-Award Health Team