National Foundation for Medical Research and Innovation (NFMRI) applauds the vision and strategy articulated for the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF)
The release of the Australian Medical Research and Innovation strategy 2016 -2021 has broadcast the key issues facing the funding of medical research and innovation in Australia and provided a strategic pathway for governments and the private and not – for – profit sector to consider.
Our Board fully endorses the strategy proposed for the MRFF and the objectives articulated which mirror closely the vision and mission of NFMRI. For several years, we have sought to decrease the time and costs of bringing Australia’s world class medical research to the benefit of patients and society more broadly.
We share particularly the MRFF’s objectives to drive collaboration and innovation across the medical research pipeline and healthcare system by seeking to complement, not compete with, alternative funding channels and support mechanisms.
We fully endorse the need for ‘transdisciplinary research collaboration’ “to better encourage adoption of the requirements for successful commercialisation in both the academic and business environment”.
We welcome the realisation of the opportunity presented by MRFF, acting in concert with the Biomedical Translation Fund, to help bridge the ‘twin valleys of death’ where translation and commercialisation of valuable research can often fail.
We will continue to engage with our research partners and philanthropic supporters to encourage an holistic view of the role of funding to more effectively meet the needs of the sector and the needs of commercial partners, We agree with the assumption in the statement that “The potential for co-investment by the MRFF along shared national research agendas ….. is significant”.
We would be happy to consider future co-funding opportunities with MRFF and introducing our funders to the opportunities that such collaboration may enable.
In the past, we have referred to helping get the “rubber to hit the road”. With MRFF’s vision and strategy in mind, we as the Board of NFMRI look forward to enabling the wheels of effective change to move faster.
In closing, we look forward to our continued collaboration across the medical research sector with philanthropists, researchers, and commercial partners, to realise the vision of MRFF to create “a health system fully informed by quality health and medical research”.
– NFMRI Board