MRFF 2025 Stem Cell Therapies

Key dates for MRFF 2025 Stem Cell Therapies

Proposals open in Sapphire: 28 February 2025
UQ R&I NOI Close: 23 July 2025
Minimum data requirements in Sapphire: 5pm ACT time 23 July 2025
Applications due to UQ R&I: 30 July 2025
Applications close: 5pm ACT time, 20 August 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 (Priority area 1.3; Targeted Call for Research): conduct early stage clinical trials (Phase I/IIa) of new stem cell therapies, including:
- exploratory (pilot) studies to assist the design of clinical studies that will evaluate the safety and preliminary efficacy of novel stem cell–based treatments
- clinical studies such as Phase I/IIa trials for novel stem cell–based treatments to demonstrate safety and/or initial efficacy.

Stream 2 (Priority area 3.1; Targeted Call for Research): conduct research that focuses on the following priority areas for the stem cell sector:
- appropriate ethical and regulatory frameworks
- ownership and use of cells and cellular products
- community understanding and expectation in stem cell therapies, including approval processes
- health economics assessments and evaluations.

A person must not be named as a Chief Investigator (CI) on more than one application submitted to a Stream this grant opportunity.

Available funding

Stream 1: There is no minimum grant amount and the maximum amount available for a single grant is $5.0 million.
Stream 2: There is no minimum grant amount and the maximum amount available for a single grant is $1.5 million.

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.

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

Log into Sapphire and complete 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 Certification 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.

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 Funding Application Certification (see 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 would 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 a generic Funding Application Certification, 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.

Readership and researcher support

Before applying, we recommend you:

Contact your faculty or institute research manager for advice on peer readership programs.
Join the UQ R&I Mailer to stay up to date with round developments.
Access the UQ R&I Grants Library, a helpful resource of past successful proposals.
If offered, attend UQ R&I information sessions and access PowerPoint presentations from presentations and slides.

Key documents

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

Grant Connect GO7561
MRFF webpage
MRFF Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Strategy 2020-21 to 2023-24