Strategic Review of Health and Medical Research in Australia (2012)

The Strategic Review of Health and Medical Research will examine how government policy can be used to improve Australian health and medical research, and make recommendations for a 10-year strategic health and medical research plan to the government in late 2012.

Individuals and organisations can participate in the review. Visit the review website for more information about the review panel and process.

The period for making written submissions ended on 30 March 2012. Thank you to all Discoveries Need Dollars supporters who made a submission to the review. The next phase of the review includes public consultations in all Australian capital cities.

Make your voice heard: participate in a public consultation

The review website advises that public consulations will be held on the following dates:

Meetings will be afternoon sessions, generally commencing at 2pm. Locations will be updated when they are announced.

To receive information about the public consultation phase, please register your interest with the review.

Have your say on the future of Australian health and medical research

You have the opportunity to have your say on the future of Australia’s health and medical research sector. Tell the Strategic Review of Health and Medical Research:

• why you think it is important for Australia to have a strong health and medical research sector.
• how you think the Australian government can best support the health and medical research sector to bring about improvements in Australia’s health and wellbeing.

Discoveries Need Dollars encourages its supporters to voice their opinions about how the Australian health and medical research sector can be strengthened and improved.

What to say: review terms of reference

The review wants to hear your thoughts on why Australian health and medical research is important, and how the health and medical research sector can be improved to enhance our community's health. Strengthening the sector is not simply a matter of increasing government funding: the review is looking at how government funding can be spent more wisely, and how investments from other sectors can be increased.

Submissions should address the review's terms of reference, which have been summarised into four questions:

1. Why is it in Australia’s interest to have a viable, internationally competitive health and medical research sector?
2. How might health and medical research be best managed and funded in Australia?
3. What are the health and medical research strategic directions and priorities and how might we meet them?
4. How can we optimise translation of health and medical research into better health and wellbeing?

Suggestions of areas that are relevant to the review

We have also prepared some suggestions of areas you may wish to discuss. Feel free to address other points that you think are relevant to the review’s terms of reference.

1. Why is it in Australia’s interest to have a viable, internationally competitive health and medical research sector?

• What are the economic benefits of Australian health and medical research, and how are they best measured? A 2011 report (PDF) by Deloitte Access Economics, commissioned by the Australian Society for Medical Research, provides details of the economic benefits of government investment in health and medical research.
• Are there other benefits that are less measurable but still important? You may find inspiration on this point from a December 2011 article about the value of medical research by Professor Doug Hilton, published in The Conversation.
• Why should Australia support research that could be performed overseas?
• How can medical research funding benefit Australian science education?
• Please tell the review committee why medical research is important to you. Personal testimony is a powerful force.

Find out more about why health and medical research is important to Australia, and be inspired the personal stories of Australians who work in medical research, or who value the impact of medical research on their lives.

2. How might health and medical research be best managed and funded in Australia?

• How can the real costs of research be better supported? Currently, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) does not pay for the 'indirect' (but large) costs associated with research, such as electricity, water, administrative assistance, travel to conferences, publication costs, or the costs of shipping experimental reagents between collaborating laboratories. View the NHMRC's policy (PDF) defining "direct research costs", which can be requested in grant budgets, and "indirect research costs", which cannot be requested.
• What is the appropriate balance between state and federal government, philanthropic and industry-funded research funding?
• Can government funding or policy be used to leverage philanthropic and industry funding of research?
• How do we choose who receives medical research funding? Find out more about how the NHMRC distributes funding from its Research Funding Facts Book.
• How can the operation of the NHMRC (and other health and medical research funding bodies) be improved?
• Does the diversity of the research workforce need to be considered or encouraged?
• How is the distinction between the funding of medical research and other science and humanities research determined? How should "non-traditional" medical research areas that may span several research disciplines, such as bioinformatics, be funded? Professor Doug Hilton, writing in Australian Life Scientist, addresses some of the challenges facing non-traditional medical research.
• What publicly-funded infrastructure is needed to support a vibrant research community?
• Is it important for the outcomes of publicly funded research to be freely available to the general public? How should initiatives such as the NHMRC's revised open access policy be funded? Should research funding applications be allowed to budget for publication costs, and for the costs of communicating research findings to the general public?

3. What are the health and medical research strategic directions and priorities and how might we meet them?

• What are Australia’s health and medical research strengths? Can we learn from these strengths to improve ‘weaker’ areas? Learn more about some of Australia's most significant health and medical research successes.
• Should medical research be linked to other determinants of our society’s health, and how do we determine which diseases need the most research?
• Should ‘areas of need’ be focused on, and how should they be chosen?
• How can health and medical research be better applied to 'close the gap' of health inequality between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians?
• How do we select global trends in research to follow?

4. How can we optimise translation of health and medical research into better health and wellbeing?

• How should the balance of basic, translational, clinical and public health research be determined and maintained? The NHMRC website has information about how research funding is currently distributed.
• Should research accessibility be considered in developing other healthcare infrastructure (such as Commonwealth's newly developed personally controlled electronic health records)?
• How can the impact of changes in the health and medical research sector be tracked? Does the sector need a plan for regular evaluation?

Your opinion matters. Participate in the Strategic Review of Health and Medical Research, to create a road map for Australian health and medical research for the next decade.

For more information, you can contact the review secretariat directly, or email us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)