People Support funding

The National Health and Medical Research Council administers over $700 million for health and medical research on behalf of the Australian Government.  Research funding is divided into three streams of Research Support, People Support and Infrastructure Support.

An annual calendar of opening dates for NHMRC’s funding schemes is published on the NHMRC website.

People Support

The People Support Schemes aim to provide funding to support the people undertaking health and medical research in Australia. The funding types available under the People Support Schemes are:

NHMRC Research Fellowships                     

Research Fellowships scheme aims to recruit and support Australia's very best medical and health research talent in full-time research during the most productive years of their research life to further develop as leaders in their field and contribute to the Australian research community through active participation.

NHMRC Practitioner Fellowships

The NHMRC Practitioner Fellowships scheme aims to strengthen health and public health practice and services by providing an opportunity for clinical, public and health services research practitioners to combine a component of research with their professional career, facilitate translation of research outcomes into practice, develop leaders within the research community who contribute to the Australian research community through active participation, and contribute to evidence-based practice and policy development in Australian health systems.

NHMRC Career Development Fellowships

This scheme aims to further develop Australian health and medical researchers early in their career. It will enable investigators to establish themselves as independent, self-directed researchers early in their research career; expand capacity for biomedical, clinical and public health and health service delivery research, and for evidence-based policy development in Australian health systems; and encourage the translation of research outcomes into practice.

NHMRC TRIP Fellowships                            

The NHMRC TRIP Fellowships scheme aims to build capacity in knowledge translation by supporting early-career health professionals to undertake an implementation project to support uptake of research evidence. This is in line with NHMRC’s strategic objective to foster medical research and training and public health research and training throughout Australia (2010-2012 Strategic Plan, Objective 3).  The scheme aims to support health and medical professionals who are at an early stage of their research career, rather than those already established in research.

NHMRC Early Career Fellowships

The purpose of NHMRC Early Career Fellowships is to provide opportunities for Australian researchers to undertake research that is both of major importance in its field and of benefit to Australian health. Early Career Fellowships provide a vehicle for training in basic research either in Australia or overseas (where appropriate), to enable Fellows to work on research projects with nominated advisers. Awards are offered to a limited number of persons of outstanding ability who wish to make research a significant component of their career.

NHMRC Postgraduate Scholarships

The aim of the Scholarships scheme is to support outstanding Australian health and medical graduates early in their career so that they can be trained to conduct research that is internationally competitive and develop a capacity for original independent research. This is usually achieved by NHMRC funding successful applicants to attain a research based postgraduate degree, which may be a PhD, a PhD equivalent degree, or Masters degree.