Research support

MRFF Frontier Health and Medical Research Program

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Key Dates

  • Release of Guidelines: 16 December 2022 (updated March 2026)
  • Expressions of Interest (EOI) open: 13 February 2023
  • UQR&I Information Session (link to previous session and slides)

MRFF Assessment Round 8: 

MRFF Assessment Round 9: 

Overview

The MRFF's Frontier Health and Medical Research Opportunity will provide $490 million over 10 years for ambitious, exploratory and ground-breaking programs of research (‘moonshots’) that deliver treatments for serious and incurable health conditions through a series of linked projects.

The application process for this continuously open grant opportunity is in two stages:

  1. applicants can submit an expression of interest any time over the life of the grant opportunity until the expected close date of 31 March 2027
  2. shortlisted applicants can submit full applications for a project of up to 5 years by invitation only.

The grant opportunity has been redesigned to:

  • refine the focus of the grant opportunity to support earlier stage research with a 10-year time horizon for the program of research (called a ‘moonshot’) to reach the market (up from the previous 5-year time horizon)
  • replace a full application at the first stage with a short expression of interest, to minimise workloads for applicants and assessors, and award funding only as an outcome of a second, invitation only, full application stage
  • use a continuously open application process to give research teams the flexibility to prepare and submit their expressions of interest when it suits their programs of research
  • sequentially fund a series of linked projects (constituting a program of research) that build toward a ‘moonshot’ – an ambitious, exploratory and ground-breaking program of research that utilises health technology to address a challenging clinical problem, and thereby aims to develop a novel treatment for, or means of prevention of, a current or predictable future serious and incurable health condition
  • revise the assessment process to support novel, early stage, future-looking projects by focussing on impact, novelty and the strength of the research team in the first, expression of interest stage, and then feasibility and implementation in the second, full application stage
  • provide up to $25 million of funding to programs of research, reflecting a quantum of support that would be effective and appropriate for investments in earlier stage research with a focus on preparing for private investment.

How to Apply

Step 1: Internal Notice of Intent (NOI)

UQ researchers interested in applying for or developing an application into the MRFF Frontier Health and Medical Research Program (Frontiers) are required to submit a Notice of Intent to the UQ Research Office. The NOI is used to capture information on UQ's pipeline of Frontiers Program Expressions of Interest and will remain open for future founds.

Submit UQ Notice of Intent

Step 2. Scheme reading

  • Access the full scheme documents at Grant Connect or Business.gov. Login or registration will be required.
  • Familiarise yourself with the key Department of Health, Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and UQ documentation. It is especially important to familiarise yourself with the Grant opportunity guidelines. 

Step 3. Begin the application

  • Sign into the business.gov.au grants portal and start a new application. Register for an account with your UQ email address if you have not used the portal before.
  • When starting a new application, please enter UQ’s ABN and respond ‘Yes’ to “Are you a charity registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC)?”. If you answer this question incorrectly, you may have to start a new application.
  • Work through and familiarise yourself with the sections of the application. The online application has substantive sections in addition to multiple required attachments. Use the MRFF and UQ templates that are provided at the bottom this page to complete the application. 
  • Parts of the application form require details about UQ. If these have not already been provided to you, please contact the Research Office at mrffgrants@research.uq.edu.au for these details. 
  • Letters of support are required for all partner organisations, including organisations with CIs on the application. UQ R&I strongly advises applicants to start collecting these early using the template below, as this process is a bottleneck for many applications.

Step 4. UQ R&I internal review and feedback

  • Ahead of internal review, ensure all application components are complete/valid and add grants-manager@research.uq.edu.au as the primary contact email in your application within the portal.
  • To initiate internal review, email your completed MRFF Funding Application Certification form (below) to UQ R&I at mrffgrants@research.uq.edu.au and let us know your application is complete and ready for review.

Do not submit the application in the portal at this stage.

  • UQ Research Office will review your application and provide you with feedback as requested in your NOI (eligibility & compliance; refinement; or content grantscraft).

Step 5. Final submission

  • When the Research Office has confirmed that your application is complete and fully compliant, the final submission should be completed by the Chief Investigator (CI). 
  • Please contact us early if you believe there may be a problem with submitting the application. 

Readership and researcher support

Before applying, we recommend you:

Key documents

MRFF/government documents

UQ

 

Scheme queries

Round coordination
Pre-Award Health Team