Medical research institutes face threat of financial collapse within five years, experts warn

Stakeholders are urging the Australian Government to take immediate action in the upcoming Federal Budget to safeguard the future of the nation’s health and medical research sector.

According to the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes’ (AAMRI) 2025-26 Federal Pre-Budget Submission, the institutes are confronting the greatest threat to their viability: a significant funding shortfall that has pushed the sector to the brink.

Professor Elizabeth Hartland AM, President of AAMRI, warned, “If funding to support the full costs of medical research is not immediately and substantially increased, many Australian medical research institutes will not be financially viable in five years – that is the reality we face.”

She added, “It won’t be a question of if, but when, Australia starts losing its competitive edge in biomedical innovation, its life-saving discoveries and its brightest minds to better-funded and better-organised jurisdictions overseas.”

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) released the final outcomes of its 2024 grant schemes at the end of November.

A/Professor Sof Andrikopoulos, CEO of the Australian Diabetes Society, said “So far, I have only heard of rejections and colleagues getting Cat 6 unfunded!”

He explained that receiving a Category 6 unfunded result is a clear sign of insufficient funding. “This is not a reflection of how good, or competitive the application is. It shows that the budget for NHMRC has not changed over the past 10 years,” he said.

In 2013, the NHMRC funded 1,226 projects with $812 million. By 2023, that number dropped to 686 projects with $908 million, meaning that fewer projects were funded despite no substantial increase in the budget when factoring in inflation, wages, and rising costs. In fact, NHMRC funding has gone backwards in real terms.

AAMRI’s submission highlights key priorities to ensure the sector receives the recognition and funding it deserves: increasing the NHMRC’s budget to fully cover researchers’ salaries and urgently boosting support for medical research institutes to cover the full costs of their life-saving work. Currently, for every dollar institutes receive through government grants, an additional 64 cents must be raised to cover both direct and indirect costs of research.

Dr Saraid Billiards, CEO of AAMRI, stressed that “Medical research is not a ‘nice to do’ – it’s a strong economic driver, nationally creating thousands of jobs and delivering real returns on investment to the economy.”

She cautioned, “Without a whole-of-government approach in investing in medical research, the Australian community, particularly some of our most vulnerable, will be denied access to new treatments and life-saving services.”

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