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MRFF 2025 Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes Risk Prediction and Data Solutions

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Key dates for MRFF 2025 TTRA – Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes Risk Prediction and Data Solutions 

  • 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 Risk Prediction and Data Solutions grant opportunity will provide financial assistance to support medical research and medical innovation projects that:

  • Stream 1 (Incubator): conduct small-scale projects that identify predictive markers (including, but not restricted to, biomarkers) of disease or complications in: 
    • Topic A: any type of diabetes, including atypical or mixed phenotypes 
    • Topic B: cardiovascular disease in patients with type 1 diabetes 
    • Topic C: cardiovascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes. 
  • Funding available: $0.25-1.0 million total across two years.

 

  • Stream 2 (Targeted Call for Research): conduct multidisciplinary projects that use novel methods to harness multiple existing data infrastructure types in developing and implementing new approaches for the prevention and/or treatment of cardiovascular disease,diabetes (types 1 and/or 2) and/or complications of these diseases. 
    • Topic A: Focused on, but not limited to, cardiovascular disease 
    • Topic B: Focused on, but not limited to, diabetes (type 1 or 2). 
  • Research ‘data infrastructure’ includes clinical quality registries, biobanks, data collections, linkage platforms, data collection from wearables, integrated electronic medical records, use of artificial intelligence and informatics.
  • For applications to Stream 2, the organisation undertaking the majority of the research must be located in a regional, rural or remote area according to the 2019 Modified Monash Model Locator (MM2-7).
  • Funding available: up to $2.5 million total across five years.

Eligibility

  • For both Streams, a person may be named as a CI on a maximum of one application per Topic.
  • Stream 2 - 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: