Children’s cancer and epilepsy research will be prioritised in a long-awaited release from the nation’s unspent medical research fund, as the government moves to correct a chronic shortfall of investment in Australian research.
But the promised $1 billion in annual grants from the Medical Research Future Fund will not be delivered in full to researchers for another four years, even as another half a billion dollars is poured into the $25.4 billion fund.
This masthead revealed in January that more than nine in 10 researchers were rejected from government-funded innovation grants in 2025 while the research fund sat on billions of unspent money. About half of researchers with top-rated applications were missing out as more applicants competed for the same $650 million pool each year, with approvals falling over consecutive years.
The medical research fund, established by the former Coalition government, was meant to disburse about $1 billion a year once it reached maturity at $20 billion, which it hit in 2020.
Crossbench MPs, science bodies and medical associations have been lobbying the government to release more money to maintain Australia’s research success on the global stage, boost productivity and give researchers greater job security.
The funding boost comes as former top bureaucrat and chair of the National Health and Medical Research Strategy, Rosemary Huxtable, warned more action must be taken to address “critical issues of sustainability, outdated infrastructure and workforce risks” in the sector.
The government’s budget commitment of another $508.5 million over four years means research grant funding will reach the record $1 billion in annual investment by the 2030-2031 financial year.
Health Minister Mark Butler on Thursday billed the move as a transformation of health and medical research.
“Our investments will support our health and medical research sector by making funding more stable, boosting job security, and fostering a world-class research culture,” he said in a statement.
About half of the extra funds earmarked in the budget will establish the Australian Cancer Research Program to co-ordinate study of cancers with low survival rates and those affecting children and teens, while the Precision Health Research Program will marshal grants to improve genomic healthcare and genetic testing.
The Australian Epilepsy Project – which is establishing a national standard of care for the condition – will get $30 million, and the Australian Centre for Accelerating Diabetes Innovations will get $14.6 million as the first beneficiaries.
The fund’s inflated value means disbursements could lift by as much as $1.4 billion annually for the next 10 years without making a dent in its base, according to Parliamentary Budget Office costings commissioned by independent MP Monique Ryan last year.
Ryan said on Thursday she was pleased to see an increase in spending after years of campaigning, but called for an explanation for why the promised $1 billion was not being released immediately.
“The reality is that the health minister could release those funds tomorrow,” Ryan said. “[The funds] still continue to accrue additional money within that account.”
She said institutions and researchers remained at risk while greater funding was delayed.
“We’ve heard that as many as one in five medical research institutes in Australia is in danger of going broke in the next five years. So the concern is that we could lose more between now and 2030.”
Alongside the funding announcement, the government released the inaugural 10-year National Health and Medical Research Strategy, prepared by former finance department secretary Rosemary Huxtable.
“The strong and consistent view from the sector is that action is required now if Australia is to maintain its global position as a leader in health and medical research, and if, as a nation, we are to take advantage of research and innovation to deliver greater wellbeing, health equity, economic growth and a sustainable health system,” Huxtable said in a letter to the minister when she tabled the strategy in March.
The strategy is designed to guide long-term government investment in health research.
“Additional funding, and targeted use of existing funding, will be required to deliver its ambition,” Huxtable said.
Among the strategy recommendations are greater investment in high-risk, high-reward funding streams, rural and regional research, and Indigenous-led research.
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Brittany Busch is a federal politics reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.