Public Call – Research priorities in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health 2025

Overview

Your views matter

NHMRC invites stakeholders and members of the public to submit research priorities in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, which may form the basis of a Targeted Call for Research (TCR).

A TCR is a one-time solicitation for grant applications to address a specific health issue. It is intended to stimulate or advance research in a particular area of health and medical science that will benefit the health of Australians. Information must be provided to substantiate the nominated priority and how the research could contribute to improved health outcomes.

Proposed TCRs must:

• Address a significant research knowledge gap or unmet need for which there is the potential to greatly advance our understanding of the issue; and/or
• Link to Australian Government Priorities, such as the Closing the Gap government strategy.

Topics that have recently been the subject of an NHMRC or Medical Research Future Fund grant opportunity are less likely to be funded through this process.

NHMRC’s commitments

The NHMRC Corporate Plan 2024-25 identifies Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health as one of our four Health Priorities. NHMRC supports research that will provide better health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Furthermore, NHMRC is committed to allocating at least 5% of the Medical Research Endowment Account to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research and has set an additional target of 3.4% of grants led by Chief Investigators A of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent.

NHMRC’s work has been guided by a strategic framework set out in Road Maps 1, 2 and 3 (current version Road Map 3: A Strategic Framework for Improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Through Research (2018)). 

NHMRC has funded six previous research calls in response to public calls like this, one in 2016 and 2022.