AAMRI welcomes ongoing support for medical research in the latest Federal budget

The Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI) welcomes tonight’s budget delivered by the Labor Government.

The Federal Government has outlined its ongoing support for the health and medical research sector tonight.

AAMRI President Professor Kathryn North and CEO Dr Saraid Billiards welcome the new and ongoing investments announced in this evening’s budget.

AAMRI will continue to work with the Federal Government to ensure the sustainability and future proofing of Australia’s medical research sector. This includes supporting mid-career researchers.

“Our mid-career researchers are tomorrow’s scientific leaders. Australia has invested so much in this talented group, and without action to support them, we will lose them and the value they bring to our nation’s future scientific breakthroughs,” said Professor North.  

Every time a highly skilled researcher is unable to secure funding to continue their research, more than 15 years of past training and expertise is lost from medical research.

AAMRI is looking forward to the upcoming consultation process for a long-awaited national health and medical research strategy, which will firstly consider how to best govern Australia’s two major government funding sources: the Medical Research Endowment Account and the Medical Research Future Fund.

“This consultation is critical to ensure there is a clear plan for federal medical research funding that’s prioritised and allocated in a way that not only benefits all Australians but also supports and develops a thriving health and medical research workforce,” said Dr Billiards.

“Having our mid-career researchers busily working on a pipeline of funded research is essential to the future of Australian medical research institutes. The ideas of today are the medical breakthroughs of tomorrow, both here and worldwide,” said Dr Billiards.  

A full recap of the 2023-24 Federal Budget funding relating to Australia’s medical research sector is now available on AAMRI’s website at https://aamri.org.au/news-events/2023-24-may-federal-budget-round-up.

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Media contact: Katie Rizzo, (03) 9345 2155 katie.rizzo@aamri.org.au