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MRFF 2025 Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes Models of Care

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Key dates for MRFF 2025 TTRA – Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes Models of Care 

  • Proposals open in Sapphire: 2 July 2025
  • UQ R&I NOI Close: 01 October 2025
  • Minimum data requirements in Sapphire: 5pm ACT time 08 October 2025
  • Applications due to UQ R&I: 9 October 2025
  • Applications close: 5pm ACT time 5 November 2025

Overview

This MRFF 2025 Targeted Translation Research Accelerator – Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes Models of Care grant opportunity will provide financial assistance to support medical research and medical innovation projects that conduct large-scale multidisciplinary projects to develop, implement and validate technology-augmented patient-centred models of care for people with cardiovascular disease AND/OR diabetes (types 1 or 2), through co-design with consumers and health services that:

  • augment face-to-face care with remote patient monitoring, digital therapeutics or devices focus on an identified geographic area or priority population 
  • embed co-design with consumers and health services in all aspects of research design and implementation 
  • include a cost-effectiveness analysis and appropriate key health outcomes in the proposed methodology to inform progression of the research 
  • may include approaches for early diagnosis, secondary and/or tertiary prevention. 

Funding is available in two Streams based on the disease focus, and each Stream has Topics based on the geographic location of the organisation undertaking the majority of the research or on the priority population identified:

  • Stream 1: people with cardiovascular disease OR diabetes (types 1 or 2) 
    • Topic A: The organisation undertaking the majority of the research is based in any area according to the 2019 Modified Monash Model locator (MM 1–7)
    • Topic B: The organisation undertaking the majority of the research must be located in, and the Chief Investigator A and 50% or more of all Chief Investigators and all research participants must be primarily resident in, a regional, rural or remote area according to the 2019 Modified Monash Model locator (MM 2–7)
    • Topic C: The proposed research focuses on the health of First Nations peoples and demonstrates leadership by First Nations researchers and communities
    • Topic D: The proposed research focuses on the health of people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds and demonstrates co-leadership by individuals from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds in the design and implementation of the research.
  • Stream 2: people with BOTH cardiovascular disease and diabetes (type 1 or type 2), through co-design with consumers and health services.
    • Topic A: The organisation undertaking the majority of the research is based in any area according to the 2019 Modified Monash Model locator (MM 1–7)
    • Topic B: The organisation undertaking the majority of the research must be located in, and the Chief Investigator A and 50% or more of all Chief Investigators and all research participants must be primarily resident in, a regional, rural or remote area according to the 2019 Modified Monash Model locator (MM 2–7)
    • Topic C: The proposed research focuses on the health of First Nations peoples and demonstrates leadership by First Nations researchers and communities
    • Topic D: The proposed research focuses on the health of people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds and demonstrates co-leadership by individuals from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds in the design and implementation of the research.

An application may only be submitted to one of the above two Streams.

The maximum funding available for both streams is $5 million over five years.

Eligibility

For all applications: 50% or more of the Chief Investigator team must be Early to Mid-Career Researchers (within 10 years of their PhD award date, excluding career disruptions).

Stream 1 Topic B and Stream 2 Topic B: the Chief Investigator A, 50% or more of all Chief Investigators, and all research participants, must be primarily resident in a regional, rural or remote area according to the 2019 Modified Monash Model Locator (MM2-7) for at least 12 months prior to the closing date for the grant opportunity.

How to Apply

Internal notice of intent process

All researchers intending to submit an MRFF application are required to submit a mandatory internal Notice of Intent. NOIs will be collated centrally and distributed to Faculties and Institutes in order to provide maximum support to the UQ research community.

Submit Notice of Intent.

Step 1. Read the guidelines and create an application

  • Familiarise yourself with the key MRFF and UQ documentation – see below.
  • Applications are submitted via Sapphire. 
    • If you already have a Sapphire account, log into Sapphire and review / update your profile.
    • If you do not have a Sapphire account, please register. Note that requests for Sapphire accounts / activations are not instantaneous, so we recommend you register as soon as possible.
  • Create an application in Sapphire and use the Research Team section to invite your co-investigators to join the proposal.

Step 2. Complete the application

  • Log into Sapphire and complete the application sections, according to the Guidelines.
  • Upload all relevant attachments.

Step 3. Submit application for internal review

  • Ahead of internal review, ensure all Sapphire components are complete.
  • Certify your application to RAO in Sapphire. To do this, select 'Certification' from the left-hand menu within the application and follow the steps to submit the application to the Research Office. Application errors will be signalled and can be corrected at this stage.
  • To initiate internal review, email your completed Funding Application Certification Form and Grant Proposal (in .docx format) to UQ R&I at MRFFgrants@research.uq.edu.au.
  • UQ R&I will review your application in accordance with your NOI (eligibility and compliance +/- grantscraft) and provide feedback.
  • Review cycles will continue until the application is compliant with MRFF requirements.

Step 4. Final submission

  • Certify your application to RAO in Sapphire.
  • With your approval, UQ R&I will submit your application to the MRFF.

Letters of Support

Letters of support may not be required for all applications. Please review Section 7.4 of the Guidelines to determine if they are needed for your application. 

Partner Letters

If you are partnering with other (non-participating) organisations that are required to provide letters confirming their contributions to the project, we encourage you to use the templates below to draft letters, and provide drafts for review by the Research Office before organising final signature to ensure letters meet MRFF requirements. 

UQ Letters

Signing for all letters of support from UQ is co-ordinated through the Research Office. To provide time for review and signature, please submit the documents noted below to mrffgrants@research.uq.edu.au no later than two weeks before the external closing date.

We strongly recommend working with your local school/institute research staff to complete this process.

To request signature of a letter of support from UQ, please provide the following to the RO:

  • a fully signed Certification Form (see below)
  • confirmation of any enumerated contributions or additional UQ staff beyond the lead CI listed in the letter.
  • A draft letter utilising the templates below. If another organisation is leading the application, they should provide you with a draft letter of support; however,  UQ information from the CEO letter template below may assist you in completing the letter.

Key documents

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

MRFF Documents

UQ Templates

Readership and researcher support

Before applying, we recommend you: