Funding Opportunities

Grants for melanoma and skin cancer clinical research

Melanoma and Skin Cancer Trials conducts investigator-initiated clinical trials and related research to improve how doctors prevent, diagnose and treat melanoma and skin cancer.

We have built an impressive reputation for delivering multicentre trials that improve melanoma and skin cancer outcomes across the world. Since 1999, we have delivered 29 clinical trials involving over 7,500 participants.

Melanoma and Skin Cancer Trials facilitates the development of competitive investigator-initiated proposals through our concept development pathway. For more information on how we can help you develop a research proposal and secure funding, contact us.

NHMRC Development Grants 2025 for funding 2026 – GO7567

Open Date

21 February 2025

Closing Date

11 June 2025

Grant amount

Total amount: $16,500,000 AUD

Application website

NHMRC Development Grants 2025 for funding 2026

About

The objectives of the Development Grant scheme are:

To expedite the translation of health and medical research outcomes through to commercialisation, within a foreseeable timeframe
To support proof-of-concept research with a feasible commercialisation pathway and a high likelihood of producing protected IP
To provide a potential mechanism through which research outcomes can be progressed to a stage that makes them competitive to receive industry investment through other government schemes or from the private sector, and
To encourage collaboration between health research, the private sector and industry (domestic and international)

The intended outcomes of the Development Grant scheme are:

Increased rates of translation of health and medical research into commercial outcomes, resulting in improved health and medical knowledge

Linkage Projects for funding applied for in 2025 – GO7368

Open Date

12 December 2024

Closing Date

25 June 2025

Grant amount

$100,000 – $1,500,000 AUD

Application website

Linkage Projects for funding applied for in 2025

About

The Linkage Projects scheme supports projects which initiate or develop long term strategic research alliances to apply advanced knowledge to problems, acquire new knowledge and as a basis for securing commercial and other benefits of research.

To facilitate successful collaboration between higher education institutions and other parts of the innovation system, there will be two assessment rounds for Linkage Projects for funding applied for in 2025. Please refer to the Important Dates document for detailed information about the assessment round dates.

The Linkage Projects scheme objectives are to:

Support internationally competitive research projects and teams on challenges or opportunities of relevance to research end-users;
Foster the establishment and strengthening of research alliances between higher education organisations and research end-users;
Enhance the scale and focus of research, including in Australian Government priority areas.

The intended outcomes of the Linkage Projects scheme are:

New or strengthened collaborations and research alliances between universities and research end-users;
New knowledge that is of benefit to Australian research end-users, including in Australian Government priority areas; and
Economic, commercial, environmental, social and/or cultural benefits for Australia.

MRFF 2024 Rapid Applied Research Translation – GO7347

Open Date

10 February 2025

Closing Date

7 July 2025

Grant amount

$250,000 – $5,000,000 AUD (Total amount available $40,000,000 AUD)

Application website

MRFF 2024 Rapid Applied Research Translation

About

The 2024 Rapid Applied Research Translation Grant Opportunity is part of the Medical Research Future Fund and the Rapid Applied Research Translation Initiative.

This initiative supports the translation of research evidence into clinical practice and better quality of care for patients by encouraging collaborations between academic researchers, health service providers, consumers and other end users on projects to improve health care delivery, service and systems sustainability.

Consistent with the Medical Research Future Fund Act 2015, the objective of this grant opportunity is to provide grants of financial assistance to support Australian medical research and medical innovation projects that:

Deliver late stage translational research that is directly relevant to clinical care, health services and/or health practices, which has the potential to be translated into existing policy and practice
Use existing knowledge and evidence to support and accelerate the translation of research findings into improved health care and health interventions
Address a clearly defined gap in best practice health care and health interventions to improve health outcomes, as identified by collaborating health services
Involve all stakeholders relevant to the research and its translation in its conceptualisation, design and implementation, including health care consumers and providers.

Two streams of funding are available:

Stream 1 (Accelerator): The Chief Investigators are primarily resident in any area according to the Modified Monash Model (MM1-7)
Stream 2 (Accelerator): The Chief Investigator A and 50% or more of all Chief Investigators are primarily resident in a regional, rural, or remote area according to the Modified Monash Model (MM2-7).

For this grant opportunity, an application may be submitted to one of the above two Streams only. Applicants must specify the Stream they are applying for in their application.

MRFF National Critical Research Infrastructure Initiative – 2024 Clinical Trial Enabling Infrastructure Opportunity – GO7381

Open Date

13 February 2025

Closing Date

17 July 2025

Grant amount

$300,000 – $7,000,000 AUD (Total amount available $35,700,000 AUD)

Application website

MRFF National Critical Research Infrastructure Initiative – 2024 Clinical Trial Enabling Infrastructure

About

The 2024 Clinical Trial Enabling Infrastructure grant opportunity focuses on promoting development and implementation of ‘adaptive platform’ and ‘registry based’ clinical trials which are thought to offer more efficient evaluation of potential medical therapies over conventional trial designs.

This grant opportunity will provide grants of financial assistance across three streams, to support Australian medical research and medical innovation projects that:

Stream 1: Address an area of unmet medical need by promoting the development and implementation of adaptive platform trials. Funding under Stream 1 is available as follows:
- Topic A (Incubator): Conducting inception projects that build evidence and capability to demonstrate the feasibility of establishing a national adaptive platform trial that would allow for rapid assessment of pharmacological and/or non-pharmacological interventions in an area of unmet need (up to $300,000).
- Topic B (Targeted Call for Research): Establishing a new national adaptive platform trial that addresses an area of unmet need, including set up of central infrastructure and conduct of initial launch domains (up to $5,000,000).
- Topic C (Targeted Call for Research): Expanding an existing adaptive platform trial by adding new domains that address an area of unmet need (up to $3,000,000).
Stream 2 (Targeted Call for Research): Conduct a registry-based randomised controlled trial in an area of unmet medical need by embedding a registry-based randomised controlled trial into a pre-existing clinical registry (up to $1,500,000).
Stream 3 (Targeted Call for Research): Establish a new clinical trial practice network or extend an existing clinical trial practice network to consolidate and strengthen sector capability in clinical trials and collaboration, with the aim of embedding evidence-based care in the health system and improving health outcomes, in an area of unmet medical need (up to $7,000,000).

MRFF – PPHRI – 2025 Incorporating Patient Data in Health Technology Assessment Decision Making Grant Opportunity – GO7464

Open Date

12 February 2025

Closing Date

23 July 2025

Grant amount

$2,000,000 AUD (Total amount available $16,000,000 AUD)

Application website

MRFF – PPHRI – 2025 Incorporating Patient Data in Health Technology Assessment Decision Making Grant Opportunity

About

The objective of this grant opportunity is to provide grants of financial assistance to support medical research and medical innovation projects that:

Stream 1 (Targeted Call for Research): Develop consumer-informed approaches to generating and/or incorporating consumer/patient data across the health technology assessment lifecycle of medicines or vaccines.

Stream 2 (Targeted Call for Research): Develop consumer-informed approaches to generating and/or incorporating consumer/patient data across the health technology assessment lifecycle of medical devices.

Stream 3 (Targeted Call for Research): Develop scalable and sustainable approaches to evaluating the long-term effectiveness of highly specialised therapies, emerging medicines, or medicine-related health technologies, including the incorporation of patient reported outcomes.
Stream 4 (Targeted Call for Research): Develop approaches to generating and/or incorporating patient reported outcomes into the assessment of the long-term safety and efficacy and/or the material safety and biocompatibility of implantable devices.

Applicants to this grant opportunity must propose research that addresses one of the four Streams of research. An application may only be submitted to one of the above four Streams. Applicants must specify the Stream to which they are applying in their application.

This grant opportunity is being administered by NHMRC on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care.

Further information on the Medical Research Future Fund is available from the Department of Health and Aged Care’s website.

A list of Eligible Organisations can be found on the NHMRC List of MRFF Eligible Organisations webpage.

MRFF – Early to Mid-Career Researchers Initiative – 2025 Early to Mid-Career Researchers Grant Opportunity – GO7553

Open Date

17 February 2025

Closing Date

23 July 2025

Grant amount

$4,000,000 AUD (Total amount available $44,800,000 AUD)

Application website

MRFF – Early to Mid-Career Researchers Initiative – 2025 Early to Mid-Career Researchers Grant Opportunity

About

The objective of this grant opportunity is to provide grants of financial assistance to support medical research and medical innovation projects that:

Stream 1 (Incubator): Conduct early stage, small scale research, led by early career researchers, that seeks to assess the potential and feasibility of novel strategies to address a critical or intractable health issue in one or more Priority Populations.

Stream 2 (Accelerator): Establish a large-scale interdisciplinary research program, led by mid-career researchers, that drives implementation of substantial improvements to health care and/or health system effectiveness for one or more Priority Populations.

Stream 3 (Targeted Call for Research): Utilise co-funding to accelerate the translation of research led by early to mid-career researchers into policy and practice.

This grant opportunity is being administered by NHMRC on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care.

Further information on the Medical Research Future Fund is available from the Department of Health and Aged Care’s website.

A list of Eligible Organisations can be found on the NHMRC List of MRFF Eligible Organistions webpage.

Cancer Patient Care Program – GO6736

Open Date

2 April 2024

Closing Date

1 August 2025

Grant amount

$1,000,000 AUD (Total amount available $16,500,000 AUD)

Application website

Cancer Patient Care Program

About

This grant opportunity seeks to ensure that all Australian’s living with cancer have access to high-quality and culturally safe support throughout their cancer experience. Acknowledging the existing national cancer screening programs and funding provided for more commonly diagnosed cancers, this grant opportunity will prioritise activities that focus on increasing equity across tumour types and/or priority populations.

The Cancer Patient Support Program (the Program) will support, one-off, time-limited activities that provide national leadership on emerging priorities across the cancer control continuum.

NHMRC Partnership Projects 2025 – GO7440

Open Date

8 January 2025

Closing Date

26 November 2025

Grant amount

$1,500,000 (Total amount available $31,600,000 AUD)

Application website

NHMRC Partnership Projects 2025

About

Partnership Projects will support collaborations, within the Australian context, that translate research evidence into health policy and health practice, to improve health services and processes.

The objectives of the Partnership Project scheme are to:

Meet the need for more effective integration of research evidence into health policy and service delivery
Create partnerships among policy makers, managers, service providers and researchers
Provide support to answer often complex and difficult questions that policy makers, managers and service providers face when making decisions and implementing policies that affect Australians health and health care
Be highly responsive to the priorities of government, the community and health professionals
Enable applicants to apply for funding at any time during the year to allow researchers and Partner Organisations to develop timely collaborations.

MRFF – Clinical Trials Activity Initiative – 2025 International Clinical Trial Collaborations Grant Opportunity – GO7555

Open Date

20 February 2025

Closing Date

4 February 2026

Grant amount

$3,000,000 AUD (Total amount: $13,000,000 AUD)

Application website

MRFF – Clinical Trials Activity Initiative – 2025 International Clinical Trial Collaborations Grant Opportunity

About

The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Clinical Trials Activity Initiative (the Initiative) aims to increase clinical trial activity in Australia in order to improve the evidence base supporting clinical care and to help patients access trials relevant to their health circumstances, and enable researchers to bring international trials to Australian patients.

The objective of this grant opportunity is to provide grants of financial assistance to support medical research and medical innovation projects that:

Promote Australian involvement in international collaborative investigator-initiated clinical trials research through the establishment and co-ordination of clinical trial site/s in Australia.
Provide high-quality evidence of the effectiveness of novel health treatments, drugs or devices in ‘usual care’ settings, which will support a decision on whether to deliver the intervention in an Australian setting.

The intended outcome of the research is to improve the health and wellbeing of Australians by investing in new clinical trials that support increased access to high-quality, evidence-based and effective health care.

Applications must propose a clinical trial in Australia in collaboration with international counterparts. The clinical trial should not have commenced recruitment at the Australian trial site/s.

This grant opportunity is being administered by NHMRC on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care.

Further information on the Medical Research Future Fund is available from the Department of Health and Aged Care’s website.

A list of Eligible Organisations can be found on the NHMRC List of MRFF Eligible Organisations webpage.

MRFF 2022 Frontier Health and Medical Research Grant Opportunity – GO5855

Open Date

13 February 2023

Closing Date

31 March 2026

Grant amount

$25,000,000 AUD (Total amount: $40,000,000 AUD)

Application website

MRFF 2022 Frontier Health and Medical Research Grant Opportunity

About

This grant opportunity offers funding to support medical research and medical innovation programs of research that deliver a ‘moonshot’ by creating a treatment for a currently serious and incurable health condition, through a series of linked projects. The program of research can propose to develop novel health technologies and/or re-purpose existing health technologies in a novel way.