Frequently Asked Questions

Applicants for our general grant round will receive notification by mid June (for the general grant round). If they are shortlisted to submit a full application, this will be due by the end of July, with three referee reports due by mid August.

NFMRI is looking to support biomedical research projects that advance innovation and enable external collaborations to be formed. We strongly suggest that applicants read our Impact Giving Guide, which outlines our strategy. We are particularly interested in projects that fall within Portfolios 2 & 3.

A unique feature of our Foundation is that we aim to support innovations irrespective of diseases and conditions. We have flexibility to support great ideas across a whole spectrum of diseases and conditions where translation pathways exist and our support can add value.

Our Research Advisory Committee (RAC) looks for more than good science, they also look at the likelihood of success, unmet need, potential for translation, the strength of the team and institution, as well as ability and willingness to collaborate. We also consider other innovations that may already exist in the pipeline. As we are making a social investment, we want to support the development and advancement of innovations that are likely to succeed.

How much do you need? Page 15 of our NFMRI Impact Giving Guide provides a rough guideline of maximum amounts for each portfolio. We strongly recommend that you apply for the funding required to advance your innovation or discovery and not try to fit your application and budget to the amounts available.  Modest requests for projects that strongly align with our mission and strategy are always taken very seriously. Our Board and RAC are very familiar with the costs incurred to deliver good research.

It varies. On average, we provide between $800,000 to $1,200,000 of funding each calendar year, some of which are multi-year commitments. We also partner with other trusts, foundations, donors and government, thereby increasing our ability to support additional projects. Our grants range from smaller, quick studies of around $20,000 – all the way to large, multi-year commitments of up to $400,000. It’s important to bear in mind that large grants may decrease our ability to support a number of smaller projects.

NFMRI has introduced a robust process to receive and review EOIs and grants. Whilst our current grant recipients are included on this site, we have provided some additional information below to assist researchers looking to submit an EOI. Below you will find a summary of EOI trends over the past two years.

Each foundation or funding body has a unique purpose, mission and strategy. For us, it is evident that the way the community benefits from medical research is through access to new medicines, drugs, vaccines, tools, diagnostics etc. After conducting a cross-sector research initiative years ago, it became evident that many of these discoveries were not maximising their potential for translation as the research was predominantly focused on publication metrics, and the collaborations required to de-risk them were simply not taking place. Researchers are generally not able to spend their research funding externally, even if it will help advance their innovation. As such, the Foundation resolved to focus on advancing innovation and supporting external collaborations to de-risk innovations so that they can reach the hands of those in need sooner. Whilst we acknowledge the great work done by others in supporting scholarships, fellowships and basic research projects, it is simply not what we do. We have made a conscious decision to try to become the best at supporting innovations and that is our focus.

As this is a very competitive process, and funding is limited, the Foundation is unfortunately not able to support every great proposal received. We do not have the resources to be able to work with each applicant and provide individual feedback. It is generally a case where there simply isn’t enough funding to support every great idea. Funding decisions have to be made and not all applications can be funded. Whilst we can’t provide specific application advice, our CEO is able to present at research institutions and other events to assist researchers and their institutions understand our strategy and processes. We are also actively working with other donors, trusts and foundations to help increase our ability to support more great projects. Should a project be shortlisted to submit a full application, our CEO will call these shortlisted applicants to provide feedback and questions from our Research Advisory Committee so that their full application has the best possible chances of succeeding.

There is generally one funding round per year, which opens in February and closes around the end of March or early April. However, as we are working with other donors, trusts and foundations, there may be times throughout the year where special funding opportunities are made available. The best way to keep informed of these is to subscribe to our newsletter and to follow us on social media as announcements will always be made via these channels.

As the NFMRI is a charitable organisation, we are required by the ATO and the ACNC to support Australian organisations that are Tax Concession Charities (TCC) and have Deductible Gift Recipient 1 (DGR1) status. Most universities and medical research institutes satisfy these requirements. It is also a requirement of our support that the Intellectual Property (IP) is owned by the researcher’s institution. Once the IP is encumbered, we are no longer able to support the project.

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