The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) was instated to help fund Australian medical research. It has been apparent that the awarding of these disbursements is flawed.

Have first hand examples of administrative or procedural issues with the MRFF? Please contact us.

A thread

The inception of the MRFF gave us two sources of government funding for health and medical research – the @nhmrc grants (which are expertly managed) and the MRFF.

As it turns out, a whopping 65% of these MRFF funds have been awarded without going through a competitive process. This may mean the best science isn’t being funded.

The Federal Government commissioned the McKeon report in 2011 in response to major backlash about funding cuts to the health and medical research sector. The review recommended an incremental increase to about 3% of total health expenditure over 10y, totalling $2-3bn extra/year

Guess how much the Government currently funds health and medical research? A disappointing ~0.5% of total health expenditure, a far cry from the 3% recommendation.

It is clear that we need more funds than we have access to. At the very least, we also need the MRFF funds to go to the scientists that are doing the best research.

At the Australian Society for Medical Research, we are calling on the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) to consider auditing the administration of the MRFF.

Speaking in Melbourne today, ASMR President, A/Prof Hagemeyer said, “The ASMR has written to the ANAO strongly recommending that the planned audit of the MRFF is conducted & we are urging the sector to do the same....

...With sufficient public pressure, we are confident that the audit will go ahead and the transparency and governance mechanisms can be improved for the benefit of the health and medical research sector and the health of the nation”

The Australian Society for Medical Research President, A/Prof Christoph Hagemeyer is available for comment at [email protected]

Please find our full media release here: https://asmr.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/MRFF-Audit.pdf