Burnet Institute is strongly supportive of new priorities formulated by the Australian Medical Research Advisory Board (AMRAB) that will help guide future funding investments from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).

In addition to announcing the new priority focus areas, AMRAB has also provided guidance on how the priorities should be tackled and recommendations on implementation for the MRFF.

The new priorities are:

1. One health – antimicrobial resistance
2. Global health and health security
3. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health
4. Ageing and aged care
5. Digital health and intelligence
6. Comparative effectiveness research
7. Primary care research
8. Clinical research capacity
9. Consumer driven research
10. Drug repurposing
11. Public health interventions
12. Translational research infrastructure

Burnet Institute Director and CEO Professor Brendan Crabb AC said the priorities are a sensible evolution, and he welcomed the strong emphasis on the emerging problem of antimicrobial resistance.

“For a sector that relies on long-term thinking and action, consistency and evolutionary sharpening of priorities is far preferred to a radical change every few years, and MRFF priorities Mark II has delivered on that front,” Professor Crabb said.

“We are strongly supportive of all the priorities, they chart a way forward that will help transform health in this country and beyond, and that will help promote improved translation of medical research into health solutions.

“We applaud the work of Minister Hunt and Professor Ian Frazer and his MRFF Advisory Board in getting to this point.”

The MRFF is a Federal Government initiative set up in 2015 and on target to reach $20 billion by 2020-21.

It is designed to address emerging health priorities by investing in research areas such as digital health, drug discovery, indigenous health and ensuring we get new treatments into hospitals faster.

When the MRFF reaches the full $20 billion, it will be providing approximately $1 billion per year in medical research funding.

Combined with the existing annual investment in health and medical research through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the MRFF will effectively double the Australian Government’s investment in health and medical research.

The new priorities will guide more than $614 million dollars of new medical research investment over the next two financial years.