Genomics Health Futures Mission
The Genomics Health Futures Mission will invest $500 million over 10 years in genomic research. It will improve testing and diagnosis for many diseases, help personalise treatment options to better target and improve health outcomes, and reduce unnecessary interventions and health costs.
What is the Genomics Health Futures Mission?
The Genomics Health Futures Mission will invest $500 million in genomic medicine research from 2018–19 to 2027–28. ‘Genomics’ is a technology that can transform clinical medicine.
Genomics can use information about genes to:
- identify genetic disorders
- diagnose rare diseases more quickly (about 80% of all rare diseases are genetic in origin)
- predict their likely response to different treatments, so doctors can more precisely tailor treatment for individuals
- predict their risk of developing disease, which can guide prevention strategies
- classify cancerous tumours to guide treatment choices
The Genomics Health Futures Mission will build on existing research to demonstrate the benefits of genomics and related technologies for patients and the health system. As the use of genomics becomes more widespread, there will be increasing opportunities to tailor and refine the management of disease. This means more expensive and avoidable diagnostic procedures and treatments will stop.
Why is the Genomics Health Futures Mission important?
The Genomics Health Futures Mission will fund research to integrate genomic knowledge and technology into clinical practice. This research will support clinical use of genomics that is:
- safe
- cost-effective
- equitable
- sensitive to the associated ethical, legal and social issues of using genomic information in health care
The Genomics Health Futures Mission aims to:
- ensure Australians live longer and healthier lives through access to genomic knowledge and technology
- position Australia as a global leader in genomics research
- deliver improved diagnostics and targeted treatments
- avoid unnecessary health costs
- improve patient experience and outcomes
The Genomics Health Futures Mission will bring hope to Australians suffering diseases that are life threatening and currently untreatable.
What are the goals of the Genomics Health Futures Mission?
The goal of the Genomics Health Futures Mission is to save or transform the lives of more than 200,000 Australians through genomic research to deliver better testing, diagnosis and treatment.
It will:
- help Australia move towards routine use of genomics in healthcare
- support new clinical trials and technology applications allowing Australian patients to benefit from the latest medical research
- create a new highly skilled workforce and new career pathways
- support new industries
- talk with the Australian community to share the value of genomics
- listen and respond to the perspective of communities on issues like privacy, family impact, and the legal and social aspects of using genomics in health care
- develop secure data storage, access, analysis and sharing to benefit Australians
How will we meet these goals?
See the initiative snapshot for details of how we plan to meet these goals.
MRFF snapshot – Genomics Health Futures Mission
This snapshot shows this mission at a glance. It includes budgets, early funding priorities and grant timelines, as at November 2019. Researchers and other stakeholders can use it to plan for upcoming opportunities and see how the mission will be established, expanded and embedded over time.
Early investments under the Genomics Health Futures Mission include:
- Mackenzie’s Mission, the Australian Reproductive Carrier Screening Project. This project offers genetic screening to couples to:
- identify couples with an increased chance of having children with serious genetic conditions
- test for conditions where early treatment can improve a child’s health
- ProCan. This project is developing a comprehensive research database of genomic information related to cancer. It will help develop technologies and tools to more precisely diagnose and treat individual cancer patients. This will improve survival rates and avoid unnecessary treatments that will not work for each patient. ProCan involves cancer researchers across Australia and around the world.
Who works with us on the Genomics Health Futures Mission?
The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) funds the Mission.
Our Health and Medical Research Office oversees this and other MRFF initiatives.
The Genomics Health Futures Mission Expert Advisory Committee is developing a roadmap for the Mission.
Apply for funding
We list grants on GrantConnect when they open. If you want GrantConnect to notify you about future MRFF grants:
- register with them
- enter ‘MRFF’ in the keyword section of your GrantConnect profile
Status
Upcoming grants
There are currently no upcoming grants.
Open grant rounds
There are no grant rounds currently open.
Grants being assessed
We are currently assessing projects and expect to announce grant recipients in the first quarter of 2020. These focus on:
- cancers (including lung cancer and mesothelioma) and diseases with high mortality and low survivability
- paediatric acute care research in critically ill children
- ethical, legal and social issues related to the use of genomic information in health care
- pathogen genomics
Grants awarded
We have funded the following projects under this initiative, as at 30 September 2019.
|
Funded Institution |
Project Name |
Chief Investigator/s |
Total Funding |
|
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (leveraging Australian Genomics) |
Mackenzie's Mission: The Australian Reproductive Carrier Screening Project |
Professor Edwin Kirk, Professor Martin Delatycki, and Professor Nigel Laing |
$19,982,540 |
|
University of Sydney (administering for the Children's Medical Research Institute) |
ProCan: The human cancer proteome project |
Not applicable |
$20,400,000 |
|
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research |
Statistical methods for analyzing next generation sequencing data |
Dr Yunshun Chen |
$639,750 |
|
University of New South Wales |
Developing synthetic DNA reference standards (sequins) to ensure accuracy in emerging genomic techniques |
Dr Ira Devison |
$1,443,588 |
|
Total |
|
$42,465,878 |
|
Related information
The Genomics Health Futures Mission aligns with work led by Australian Governments to implement the National Health Genomics Policy Framework 2018–2021.
Contact
For more information contact us.
Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) contact
Contact for more information about the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), or to provide feedback on the MRFF website.