GO8294: MRFF – Genomics Health Futures Mission – 2026 Genomics Health Futures Grant Opportunity

The objective of this GO is to provide grants of financial assistance to support medical research and medical innovation projects that:Stream 1 (TCR): develop genomic tools and technologies to identify genetic predisposition to cancer and improve screening and targeted intervention.

Focus on increased access to genomic testing and on liquid biopsy.Stream 2 (TCR): conduct scalable research to enhance novel gene discoveries, increase diagnostic rates and enable disease modelling to support development of targeted therapies or prevention strategies.Stream 3 (Incubator): develop novel methods for using polygenic risk scores to identify subgroups of the population at high risk of common and complex diseases.-Topic A: Cardiovascular disease-Topic B: Diabetes-Topic C: Other common and/or complex diseasesStream 4 (Incubator): develop novel methods for improving accuracy and usefulness of polygenic risk scores to stratify people with common cancers for surveillance and treatment.-Topic A: Breast Cancer-Topic B: Colorectal cancer-Topic C: Prostate cancer-Topic D: Other common cancersStream 5 (TCR): undertake research to enhance or streamline uptake of clinical genomics into practice.Stream 6 (Accelerator): develop and maintain infrastructure to support research collaboration by enabling data sharing, portability, longevity and connectivity of analysis across Australia.

Research conducted should address emerging ethical, legal and social issues associated with the governance of clinical and genomic datasets with particular focus on the application of advanced analytics (e.g.

AI) to enhance the diagnostic utility of genomics.Applicants must propose research that addresses these objectives and those of the Genomics Health Futures Mission as outlined in the Roadmap and Implementation Plan.This grant opportunity is being administered by NHMRC on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.

Further information on the MRFF is available here.

To be eligible the applying organisation must be an MRFF Eligible Organisation approved by NHMRC.

Joint (consortia) applications are permitted but must have a lead MRFF Eligible Organisation that will enter into the grant agreement.

Applicants must nominate a Chief Investigator A (CIA) who leads the application; a person must not be named as a CI on more than one application submitted to a Stream (if named on more than one application to a Stream, both applications will be ineligible).

Generally the CIA must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident at time of submission; where not, they must have the requisite work visa in place at time of accepting the grant.

Applications must meet all other requirements in the guidelines (budget justification, eligible expenditure rules, minimum data and certification by the RAO, formatting and page limits, consumer involvement statement, Measures of Success statement, Risk Management Plan, and other required uploaded documents).