Research support

MRFF 2022 Indigenous Health Research Grant Opportunity

Key dates for MRFF 2022 Indigenous Health Research Grant Opportunity

  • Release of Funding Rules: 02 November 2022
  • UQ R&I NOI Close: 25 January 2023
  • Applications due to UQ R&I: 01 February 2023
  • Minimum data requirements in Sapphire: 5pm ACT time, 01 February 2023
  • Applications close: 5pm ACT time, 01 March 2023

Overview

The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) has announced a grant opportunity to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through:

  • Indigenous-led research and governance
  • knowledge translation
  • evidence-based change in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practice
  • building on the unique knowledge, strengths and endurance of our communities with particular reference to Country, Culture and Spirituality.

The objective of this grant opportunity is to provide grants of financial assistance to support Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander-led medical research and medical innovation projects that:

  • Stream 1 (Incubator): conduct small-scale developmental projects to establish feasible, evidence-based approaches that demonstrate:
    • Topic A: local, regional or national collaboration to address key priorities as outlined in Priority Areas 1.1 and 1.2 of the Implementation Plan.
    • Topic B: how to overcome barriers to effective maternal health and health care.
  • Stream 2 (Incubator): conduct small-scale developmental projects to establish feasible, evidence-based approaches that demonstrate the nature and timing of interventions to positively alter the life trajectories of our young people, including reductions in disease across the life course.
  • Stream 3 (Incubator):conduct small-scale developmental projects to establish feasible, evidence-based approaches that demonstrate or identify:
    • Topic A: interventions targeted toward the prevention of multimorbidity within Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities.
    • Topic B: interventions that are most effective in reducing the multiple risk factors within Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities that contribute to chronic disease.
  • Stream 4 (Targeted Call for Research or Innovation): conduct targeted primary health care research that will focus on implementation trials to mobilise primary and mental health care research capabilities to:
    • Topic A: improve primary and mental health care service delivery.
    • Topic B: provide sustainable and culturally appropriate models of care, care coordination and operation management to meet community needs.
  • Stream 5 (Targeted Call for Research or Innovation): develop novel collaborative intervention research that connects early life preventable disease and the development of health equity across the life course of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people. Priority will be given to interventions that will impact improvement in early life and wellbeing as well as adult health and healthy ageing.
  • Stream 6 (Incubator): conduct small-scale developmental projects to establish feasible, evidence-based approaches for addressing racism in the health system at multiple levels.

Streams 1, 2, 3, and 6 (incubator grants) are intended to support early stage, small scale research projects that seek to assess the potential and feasibility of novel strategies to address critical or intractable health issues. Streams 4 and 5 (Targeted Call for Research grants) are intended to support projects that progress research that addresses a specific health need. Streams 4 and 5 may be considered for an Innovation grant, if requested. Innovation grants fund smaller scope research projects to allow grantees to build evidence of the feasibility of the project so that it can be more competitive in future funding opportunities.

An application may only be submitted to one of the above six Streams only. A person must not be named as a Chief Investigator (CI) on more than one application submitted to a Stream of this grant opportunity.

Amounts available for a single grant in each Stream are:

  • Stream 1, 2, 3 & 6 (Incubator): minimum $0.2m and maximum $1.0m for a single grant for up to two years.
  • Streams 4 & 5 (Targeted Call for Research): no minimum and maximum $3.0m for a single grant for up to four years.
  • Streams 4 & 5 (Innovation): fix at $0.2m for a single grant for up to one year.

MRFF grants administered by the NHMRC now require valid letters of support from all partner organisations included on the application.  We recommend organising these letters as soon as possible in grant preparation, as arranging signature may take some time.  Please consult the guidelines or the template provided below to ensure that you meet the requirements of a valid letter of support.

How to Apply

Internal notice of intent process

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

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 your completed Funding Application Coversheet to UQ R&I at mrffgrants@research.uq.edu.au.
  • Internal review by UQ R&I/feedback provided (compliance/eligibility/grantsmanship).

Step 4. Final submission

  • Final submission by UQ R&I to NHMRC.

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 UQ R&I

Round coordinator
Pre-Award Health and International Team