Full Cost of Research

Page banner – courtesy of the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute

Delivering ground-breaking research discoveries is critical, however it is expensive.

Medical research institutes require at least 64 cents for every $1 spent on research – in 2023, institutes had to find an additional $786.2 million to cover the gap between indirect funding received and the full costs of research.

While AAMRI members are successful at securing competitive research grants, there is an unavoidable and hidden cost to this success, as competitive grants do not provide the full funding required to undertake the research.

This means that funding for all critical support activities, such as commercialisation, legal costs, business development, tech transfer, data storage, cyber security and state-of-the-art facilities, needs to additionally be sourced by institutes and thereby limits the ability of the sector to undertake high quality research and support their workforce – particularly for early- and mid-career researchers.

What we’re doing

In October 2025, AAMRI launched its Half the Funding. Half the Future campaign, raising awareness that the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) was not being fully utilised to support Australian researchers and institutions.

The campaign was supported across the research community, including through more than 7,600 emails sent to Federal decision-makers via a dedicated letter-writing tool, and an open letter signed by Nobel Laureates and more than 100 additional supporters.

In the 2026-27 Federal Budget, the Federal Government committed additional funds to increase MRFF disbursements each year from 2026-27, with the stated aim of reaching $1 billion annually by 2030-31.

In May 2026, the Federal Government also announced a $128 million package to begin supporting indirect costs through the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), describing the package as an important step toward a stronger and more sustainable research system.

AAMRI looks forward to continuing to work closely with the Government on next steps to make recommendations of how this funding could be best allocated to sustainably support the increasing costs of conducting medical research in Australia.