Posted: 26 October 2023
Closes: 1 December 2023
The Victorian Medical Research Acceleration Fund (the VMRAF) was first launched by the Victorian Government in 2017. The VMRAF is designed to capitalise on Victoria’s competitive advantages in research, increase the efficiency of the Victorian health system and improve health outcomes for Victorians.
The VMRAF provides $3 million per annum to support and accelerate health and medical research by providing one-off grants to successful applicants. 113 projects have received funding through the 6 previous rounds of the VMRAF, providing $20.4 million to the Victorian health and medical research sector.
Round 7 of the VMRAF will deliver $3 million in one-off grants to support early-stage research (Tier 1) and ‘fast-track’ the translation of research into health and economic outcomes (Tier 2).
Round 7 of the VMRAF will run alongside Round 3 of the mRNA Victoria Research Acceleration , administered by the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions (DJSIR).
Round 7 of the VMRAF will be administered by the Department of Health (the department).
Applicants can only apply for one program (the VMRAF or the mRNA Victoria Research Acceleration Fund).
Program objectives
Round 7 of the VMRAF will include one $3 million Foundation Stream, which consists of 2 tiers of funding:
Tier 1 – Early-stage research
Support innovative early-stage health and medical research that brings health and economic benefits to Victoria.
Facilitate collaboration between health services, medical research institutes, universities and industry that maximises innovation and improves the likelihood that the funded project will be successfully translated.
Up to $100,000 (GST exclusive) is available per project.
Tier 2 – Research translation
Provide direct funding to ‘fast-track’ the translation of health and medical research into health and economic outcomes.
Facilitate collaboration between health services, medical research institutes, universities, and industry to become investment-ready and stimulate translational activities.
Up to $500,000 (GST exclusive) is available per project.
Broader objectives
The VMRAF aims to facilitate collaboration between health services, medical research institutes, universities and industry that maximises innovation, supports talent retention, improves the likelihood that the funded projects will be successful, and increases the likelihood that the outputs of health and medical research generate health outcomes for all Victorians.
These program objectives align with the four pillars of the Health and Medical Research Strategy: 2022-2032 – Talent, Collaborate, Big Ideas and Generating Outcomes.
Outcomes
The expected outcomes of the VMRAF 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)
- research collaborations improve the targeting of early-stage research to likely end-users (Tier 1)
- research collaborations support the translation of research into more commercially attractive products (Tier 2).
Promoting gender equality
Under the Gender Equality Act 2020 (Vic), the department must promote gender equality. The VMRAF seeks to promote gender equality by encouraging the participation and inclusion of women in applicant project teams.
The VMRAF allocates a proportion of the assessment criteria weighting in favour of applicants with project teams that include at least 50 per cent of members who identify as women or applicants with project teams that are led by a Chief Investigator (CI) who identifies as a woman.
