Deadline: 22-Nov-22
The Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR) has launched the applications for Round 6 of the Victorian Medical Research Acceleration Fund that provides funding support to accelerate health and medical research and fast-track innovative projects from research to real-world impact.
The Victorian Government’s investment in medical research has helped Victoria to emerge as a world leader in cutting-edge health and medical research – driving growth in the sector, creating jobs and supporting incredible breakthroughs in treatment and care.
The VMRAF Program is designed to capitalise on Victoria’s comparative advantages in research, increase the efficiency of the Victorian health system and further enhance the Victorian economy. It aligns with the vision of the Health and Medical Research Strategy 2022-2032 to support Victoria’s thriving medical research community in solving global health challenges and advancing the Victorian economy.
Streams
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Round six of the VMRAF Program will be opened in September 2022 and will include two streams:
- The Foundation Stream; and
- The Public Health and Health Inequalities Stream.
Objectives
Stream specific objectives
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Foundation Stream – objectives for each tier of the Foundation Stream are:
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Tier 1 – Early-stage research
- Support innovative early-stage health and medical research that will bring health and economic benefits to Victoria
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Tier 2 – Research translation
- Provide direct funding to ‘fast-track’ the translation of health and medical research into health and economic outcomes
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Tier 1 – Early-stage research
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Public Health and Health Inequalities Stream – objectives for each tier of the PHHI Stream are:
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Tier 1 – Early-stage research
- Support innovative early-stage medical research into public health inequalities that will bring health benefits to priority populations in Victoria
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Tier 2 – Research translation
- Provide direct funding to ‘fast-track’ the translation of research addressing public health inequalities into practices to achieve better health outcomes for priority populations in Victoria.
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Tier 1 – Early-stage research
General Objective – an objective across all streams and tiers of the VMRAF Program is to facilitate collaboration between health services, medical research institutes, universities and industry that will maximise innovation, support talent retention, improve the likelihood that the funded projects will be successful, and increase the likelihood that the outputs of health and medical research are beneficial to the Victorian economy and the health of Victorian’s.
Pillars
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These stream specific and general objectives align with the four pillars of the Health and Medical Research Strategy 2022-2032.:
- Talent
- Collaborate
- Big Ideas
- Generating Outcomes.
Funding Information
- The VMRAF Program offers a total of $5 million (GST exclusive) of grants. $3 million of the total grant funding is available across the two tiers of the Foundation Stream and $2 million of the total grant funding is available across the two tiers of the PHHI Stream.
- Tier 1: Up to $100,000 (GST exclusive).
- Tier 2: Up to $500,000 (GST exclusive).
Outcomes
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The expected outcomes of this VMRAF Program are:
- Medical research is moved to proof-of-concept stage faster and the benefits of health and medical research are delivered to the public faster (Tier 1 both streams)
- The products of medical research are better targeted to the needs of priority populations in Victoria (Tiers 1 and 2 of the PHHI Stream)
- Research collaborations improve the targeting of early-stage research to likely end-users (Tier 1 of both streams)
- Research collaborations support the translation of research into more commercially attractive products (Tier 2 of both streams).
Eligibility Criteria
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Applicants must meet the following criteria, as assessed by DJPR, to be eligible for the Program:
- Must be an organisation in the health service, education or research sectors (Eligible Sectors) or an organisation that has a commercial relationship with an organisation in one of the Eligible Sectors (as determined by DJPR);
- Hold an active Australian Business Number (ABN);
- Have current insurance policies: Public Liability (of at least $20 million) and Professional Indemnity (at least $5 million);
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Be one of the following entity types:
- Acompany incorporated pursuant to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and registered with the
- Australian Securities and Investment Commission;
- An incorporated association incorporated pursuant to the Associations Incorporation Reform
- Act 2012 (VIC) or equivalent legislation of another Australian jurisdiction;
- education body established by statute;
- Apublic health service established under the Health Services Act 1988 (Vic); or
- Other incorporated entity approved by DJPR.
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Applicants must attest that:
- They can comply with the Co-Contribution Funding requirements specific to their application (in accordance with these guidelines) and provide evidence of this capability in the application;
- They will participate in future VMRAF Program evaluation activities;
- They will deliver the funded project in collaboration with a Collaborative Partner; and
- Research activities will predominately be led from and conducted in Victoria.
Specific Criteria
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The following criteria apply to certain categories of Applicants:
- Applicants that are medical research institutes or industry and health services organizations are invited to each apply for funding for up to four projects, that are independent of each other.
- Universities are invited to apply for up to four research projects per faculty
- The Applicants to which these rules apply will need to provide assurance to DJPR that their institutes, organisations or faculties have sufficient resources and can undertake multiple concurrent projects (if approved).
- Applicants who have previously applied to an earlier round of the VMRAF Program and were unsuccessful are eligible to reapply.
For more information, visit DJPR.
For more information, visit https://djpr.vic.gov.au/medical-research/funding