Diabetes Community Priorities Grants Program in Australia

Deadline: 28-Feb-25

Through the Diabetes Community Priorities Grant scheme, Diabetes Australia aims to support projects with potential for significant impact to address the unmet needs and challenges that have been identified by people living with and at risk of diabetes and their carers; with the goal to reducing the burden of diabetes on people and the health system.

Applications must clearly articulate the excellence of their project which includes consumer and community involvement or evidence it addresses an unmet need of the intended end user and considers the proposed translational path to achieve impact.

Strategic Goals

• The Diabetes Australia Diabetes Community Priorities Grants are intended for all types of research including basic, clinical, public health/policy, or health services research. Diabetes Australia focuses on all diabetes types and is dedicated to reducing health inequities and addressing needs of priority populations at greater risk of diabetes including:
  • Socioeconomically disadvantaged
  • Regional, rural and remote
  • Culturally and linguistically diverse
  • First Nations People
  • People with a disability and/or comorbidities
  • Youth, Elderly and Pregnancy

Priority Research Topics

• Strategic Goal 1 – Prevent Diabetes
  • Improve screening, diagnosis and awareness of all types of diabetes, including less common types.
  • Better understand causes or triggers of diabetes and develop effective strategies and policy to change them.
  • Develop greater risk stratification to better understand who is at risk of diabetes and how it can be delayed or prevented.
  • Better understand the link between diabetes and the gut and other hormones, nutrients, metabolome and microbiome, including the role of inflammatory processes.
  • Reduce health inequities through co-design development and implementation of prevention programs and supports that target high risk groups including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, people with low health literacy and people living in rural and remote parts of Australia.
• Strategic Goal 2 – Live Well with Diabetes
  • Research and translate the most effective diet, exercise and behavioural interventions, education programs, therapeutic treatments, and/or delivery approaches including technology-enabled interventions and models of care to best manage diabetes, related health issues and improve quality of life. Including a focus on targeting different diabetes subtypes, diverse communities, individual heterogeneity, with consideration of other health conditions, physiological states and life stages.
  • Research and translate the most effective diet, exercise and behavioural interventions, education programs, therapeutic treatments, and/or delivery approaches including technology-enabled interventions and model of care to achieve and maintain remission of type 2 diabetes.
  • Understand the impact of remission interventions on other health and social outcomes.
  • Improve screening and awareness of diabetes related comorbidities and complications.
  • Improve public, health and education system awareness, knowledge, support and response to diabetes and related issues including detection and response to hypoglycaemia.
  • Better understand the link between diabetes and other health conditions including mental health, other autoimmune disorders, and polycystic ovary syndrome.
  • Progress development of personalised management and treatment approaches based on individual responsiveness, preferences, cultural, economic, geographical context and life stage.
  • Improve healthcare services for diabetes through data linkage and integration of evidenced-based tools and technologies to achieve greater coordination, access and health outcomes
• Strategic Goal 3 – Reduce health & financial impacts
  • Develop and improve technologies and treatments including glucose-monitoring and insulin delivery to reduce diabetes management burden and make them easier to use.
  • Understand how health technologies can support standard care and reduce the financial burden of diabetes.
  • Understand how health technologies can be integrated and achieve greater environmental sustainability.
  • Advance policy-related research to reduce health inequities and improve access to technology, health care and treatments including cost-effectiveness.
  • Develop and test systems to improve remote monitoring and access to diabetes services and support self-management.
  • Improve digital diabetes education tools and evaluate the long-term effectiveness, including cost-effectiveness of tailored education programs.
  • Understand the health economics of diabetes – the costs of living with diabetes and related physical and psychological impacts.
  • Increase understanding of the psychosocial impacts of diabetes on families and social networks and how this can be reduced.
  • Reduce the financial costs of diabetes and related physical and mental health impacts.
  • Reduce diabetes stigma and the psychological, social and relationship impact of diabetes.
  • Reduce the impact of diabetes in vulnerable populations at high-risk.
• Strategic Goal 4 – Find a Cure
  • Better understand the biological, physiological and environmental causes and triggers of type 1, type 2, gestational and other types of diabetes in order to find a cure.
  • Explore beta cell regeneration discoveries including benefits of stem cell technology and islet cell transplantation.
  • Identify and implement strategies to reverse insulin resistance and improve insulin absorption and/or insulin secretion to restore normal blood glucose response.
  • Understand the link between diabetes and other health conditions.

Funding Information and Duration

• A limited amount of funding is available for 2025-26 with an upper limit of $100,000 available per grant and projects expected to be complete within 2 years. A minimum of four grants will be available.

Eligibility Criteria

• Diabetes Australia Research Program grants are available to non-profit and public sector organisations concerned with the promotion of health care, education and/or medical research in the area of diabetes.
• The applicant at the time of grant offer, does not have any outstanding reports from other grants, including participation in the DARP Impact Survey for DARP Grant recipients since 2008.

Application Requirements

• The application form must be used and completed in its entirety; any incomplete forms may not be accepted. Only one application per Responsible Investigator (RI) may be submitted for a Diabetes Community Priorities Grant. The applicant (RI) must have secured the appropriate approval from the supporting organisation prior to submitting an application. The accuracy of the information in the application is solely the responsibility of the applicant and the supporting organisation (institution).
• Any proposed research involving humans or animals, must conform to the general principles set out by the NHMRC. Note: successful applications requiring ethics approval will need to provide proof that approval has been granted before any funding will be provided.
• All personnel whose salaries are funded under the application will be subject to the conditions of employment of the organisation by which they are employed. It is the responsibility of the RI to ensure that the salaries of all personnel listed in the budget are appropriate and include on-costs.
• Applications that include equipment costing over $5,000 or conference travel will be ineligible.

For more information, visit Diabetes Australia.