Record female representation on new NHMRC Council

Leadership & Management: The Morrison Government has announced the membership of the Council of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

The new Council will play a key role in supporting the NHMRC in its mission of building a healthy Australia. The Council will serve a three-year term to June 2024 and will be chaired by Professor Caroline Homer AO.

Membership of the Council brings together expertise in biomedical science, clinical and public health, nursing, health care training and the medical profession, as well as business and consumer perspectives, and expertise in the health needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Eleven (11) of the 15 non-ex-officio members are women, a record in female membership of the Council.

ANDHealth is delighted to announce that CEO and Managing Director, Bronwyn Le Grice, has been appointed by the Hon Greg Hunt, the Australian Minister for Health and Aged Care, as a member of the National Health and Medical Research Council for the 2021-2024 triennium.

“It is deeply humbling to receive this appointment,” Le Grice commented. “The NHMRC represents the highest level of leadership in the funding of health and medical research and training, in providing advice on improving health outcomes, through prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease and the provision of health care, and it is deeply flattering to be asked to play a small role in this very big purpose.”

Gavin Fox-Smith, Chair of ANDHealth, applauded the appointment. “As a dedicated digital health and commercialisation professional, Bronwyn’s appointment recognises the increasingly important role of technology and digital health in the future of Australia’s healthcare system and the need for our health and medical research to result in translation into improvements in the health and wellbeing of all Australians.”

New Chair, Professor Caroline Homer AO, is an internationally-renowned midwifery researcher, scholar and leader in maternal and newborn health care and service delivery. With more than 25 years’ experience in clinical practice, research, education and international development, she is Co-Program Director of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health at the Burnet Institute and an Emeritus Professor of Midwifery at the University of Technology Sydney. Professor Homer is current Deputy Chair of the Australian Medical Research Advisory Board and Chair of the NHMRC’s Peer Review Analysis Committee. She was a member of the Council in 2018–2021 and has previously been a member of the NHMRC’s Research Committee and Chair of the NHMRC’s Women in Health Science Committee.

The Hon Greg Hunt MP, Minister for Health and Aged Care, said “I would like to thank the former Chair of the NHMRC Council, Professor Bruce Robinson AC, and all members of the former Council for their contributions and commitment to supporting the work of the NHMRC throughout the previous triennium (2018–2021).”