PM Transcripts

I announce today that the Coalition Government will allocate $367 million from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to Australia';s world-leading health and medical research in 2002.
The 2002 funding allocation represents the most substantial and comprehensive investment in Australia';s health and medical research ever undertaken.
An investment of this magnitude was made possible by the Coalition Government';s $614 million allocation in the 1999 Budget that doubled NHMRC funding over six years.
Under the NHMRC';s revamped funding system, the allocation includes Project, Programme and Fellowship Grants.
Project Grants provide Australia';s outstanding health and medical researchers with unprecedented funds to pursue their research goals.
The New Programme Grants provide more funds for longer-term grants and bigger teams of researchers to target health and medical research needs.
Australians are entitled to expect health and medical research to provide new prevention measures, new treatments and cures, and growth of industries based on the knowledge gained from research. We are now well placed to deliver these vital outcomes.
I would like to thank Professor Alan Pettigrew, inaugural CEO of the NHMRC, and Professor Warwick Anderson, Chair of the Research Committee, for their work in establishing the new streamlined grants programme.
The NHMRC is continuing to lead the way in funding internationally recognised world-class health and medical research, for the benefit of all Australians. Increasingly, this research is forming the basis of an innovative biotechnology industry in Australia and will ensure Australia maintains its place at the cutting edge of international health and medical research.
Nationally, the 2002 allocation is funding 408 Project Grants ($143 million), 16 New Programme Grants ($115 million) and 46 Fellowship Grants ($25.5 million), totalling $283.5 million. The remaining $83 million includes Training Awards, Career Development Awards, Partnership Grants, Block Funded Institutes, establishing the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Vaccine Centre, National Research Capacity, Burnet Awards, the Transitional Institute Grant, Equipment Grants and Population Health Capacity Building.
Full details of the 2002 funding allocation will be provided by the NHMRC shortly.