Annual Report 2015–2016

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER’S REVIEW
The children’s drawings throughout this year’s Annual Report reflect NHMRC’s
focus on improving the health and well-being of present and future generations,
through research and its implementation into policy and practice.
PART 1 Overview
As the Australian Government’s lead agency for health and medical research since
1937, NHMRC plays a critical national role in supporting the research needed to
address the health issues that face Australia. These issues range from the acute
challenges of today – cancer, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia
and others – to the foreseeable threats of the future from our changing way of life
and the spread of new infectious diseases. In turn, the research we need ranges
widely from the development and trials of new therapies, devices and behavioural
interventions, to understanding health and healthcare disparities across our
society, and exploration of the biological basis of health and the origins of disease.
NHMRC also has a national responsibility to promote the translation of research results into policy and
practice, to produce evidence-based advice in clinical, public and environmental health, and to provide the
framework for research integrity and the ethical conduct of research in humans and animals.
In all of these activities, NHMRC draws on the advice of independent experts and consumer representatives
from around the country and offshore to ensure that public funds are directed to the most significant and
highest quality research and that the guidance we provide is based on sound evidence and ethical principles.
The 2015-2016 Annual Report summarises NHMRC’s work across all of these domains under the broad
themes of our Corporate Plan: investment, translation and integrity.
HEALTH AND MEDICAL RESEARCH INVESTMENT
NHMRC is responsible for the allocation of more than $800 million from the Medical Research Endowment
Account (MREA). In 2015–16, these funds were distributed to researchers in universities, medical research
institutes and hospitals through a range of funding schemes designed to support focussed projects,
large collaborative research programs and networks, partnerships with the health industry and policy makers,
development of ideas with commercial potential, and international collaborative research, amongst others.
A proportion of the MREA was also distributed to support individual high-performing researchers at all career
stages from postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows to senior clinical, public health and biomedical
researchers – all of whom are leaders in their field and provide the training ground for the next generation of
researchers. In this way, NHMRC seeks to ensure not only that the most important research is supported
but also that Australia has the highly skilled capacity it needs to address its health challenges.
In 2015–16, NHMRC has maintained its commitment to expend at least 5% of its research funds on
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research. This target was exceeded again with expenditure on this
critical priority reaching 6.5%. Much remains to be done, however, and an important focus in this triennium
is the building of research capacity among people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent.
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Annual Report of the National Health and Medical Research Council 2015–2016