NHMRC Partnership Projects
Funds partnerships between Australian researchers and policymakers to apply evidence in practical health programs.
NHMRC Partnership Projects is a continuously open funding scheme administered by Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council to support collaborative research that integrates evidence into health policy, service delivery, and clinical practice. Unlike annual competitive rounds, this scheme accepts applications at any time and processes them in multiple assessment batches throughout the year, with the 2026 calendar listing three active assessment rounds. Eligible projects must be co-led by partnerships that include both researchers and decision-makers such as policy makers, health service managers, or service providers, ensuring that the research agenda is directly tied to real-world implementation needs.
Eligible applicants must be affiliated with an NHMRC-eligible Australian research organisation or university; industry and for-profit entities cannot be the lead but nonprofit partners are permitted as co-applicants. Applications are submitted through NHMRC's Sapphire portal and are listed on GrantConnect. The scheme does not publish a fixed award ceiling on its overview page; budgets are assessed against each application's stated needs. The 2026 calendar records three rounds: a general Partnership Projects round closing 11 November 2026, PRC2 closing 05 August 2026, and PRC3 also closing 11 November 2026.
The program suits academic teams that have already established working relationships with a government department, health authority, or service organisation and want to conduct research that directly informs decisions those partners must make. A strong application will demonstrate that the partner organisation has committed resources (financial or in-kind), that the research question is genuinely shaped by the partner's policy or practice need, and that findings are designed for immediate uptake rather than publication alone. Applicants should verify current open-round dates on the NHMRC funding calendar before submitting, as round-specific closing dates and guidelines are posted separately on Sapphire.
Integration of research evidence into Australian health policy, service delivery, and clinical practice through mandatory researcher-policymaker partnerships, assessed in multiple rounds per year on a continuous open-call basis.
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