National Health and Medical Research Strategy – chair webinar – 5 December 2024

Natasha Ploenges

Good afternoon. I'm Natasha Ploenges, the CEO of the Health and Medical Research Office in the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. On behalf of Ms. Rosemary Huxtable, the Chair of the National Health and Medical Research Strategy, and Professor Steve Wesselingh, CEO of the National Health and Medical Research Council, I'm really pleased to thank you for joining us for this webinar today. Now with our webinar, I will go through an overview of that, but I would first like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners on whose land we meet today. For us at the moment, it is the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people in the Canberra region. I'd like to pay my respects to the elders past and present and acknowledge of course that we are across country and all of the lands on which we're meeting today.

Next slide please. With the webinar, this really is very much an opportunity for everyone to be able to hear directly from Rosemary and to be introduced to her, of course. We'll also be covering off really the need and the importance of having a national health and medical research strategy, the role of the Chair, the expectations when it comes to the strategy itself, the development process, as well as the important elements of the consultation processes that will be undertaken. We'll also talk about next steps and then there will be an opportunity for a Q&A session towards the end as well.

So, in terms of a National Health and Medical Research Strategy, the development of this, or the need and importance for the development of a National Health and Medical Research Strategy was something that came out of national consultation that had been undertaken in mid 2023. So that consultation was covering off things like the better alignment and coordination between the Medical Research Future Fund, which is managed within my office, and also the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC’s) Medical Research Endowment account. And it was through that consultation that there was a very clear message heard that there was a very strong interest in having a national health and medical research strategy. Now, as part of that consultation that was undertaken mid-last year, there had been very clear messages about an interest and also a need and importance to see a greater alignment between both the Health and Medical Research Office and the NHMRC.

There are two key developments so far that have come out of that consultation, the first part of course is what we're talking about today, which is the National Health and Medical Research Strategy, but there are also being some further developments in terms of that alignment between the two offices and between the two major funding components for health and medical research. Some of those activities in terms of alignment include that there are going to be some joint NHMRC and MRFF advisory committees, so there will be four of those very specifically that are in the process of being established at the moment.

In terms of the National Health and Medical Research Strategy, it was in May just this year that the Minister for Health and Aged Care had announced that there would be a national strategy developed. So the purpose of that National Health and Medical Research Strategy is very much about delivering a plan that really strengthens and leverages off Australia's existing work when it comes to health and medical research, the capability in that space, and also delivering better health outcomes, of course, from both a productive and efficient research ecosystem. The strategy will include or provide a range of recommendations and a structure to address some of the challenges in moving new ideas throughout that full research pipeline to becoming new products, treatments and services that improve health and wellbeing and foster that strong research workforce and investment environment as well.

An effective national health and medical research strategy will cover the Australian health and medical research sector in its entirety, so these state and territory governments, the federal government,  industry, philanthropy, academia, clinicians, clinician researchers, and consumers and community. I cannot underscore enough the importance of the breadth of those who are going to be involved in shaping the National Health and Medical Research Strategy and also seeing themselves in it as well. That's exceedingly important because it is not a strategy that is just about the NHMRC and not just about the Health and Medical Research Office or the MRFF.

Next slide. I am really pleased to be speaking alongside Rosemary Huxtable who has been engaged as the Chair of the National Health and Medical Research Strategy. Rosemary's role as the Chair itself is to provide that objective and relevant advice to the department and to government as well in the development process and lead the consultation process with the sector. Working with both the Department of Health and Aged Care and the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Chair will lead those consultations with key stakeholders including peak bodies, industry, philanthropy, academia and consumers and community, engage with state and territory government counterparts and also oversee the public consultation process on the draft national strategy as well.

Next slide. Now I will do just a brief introduction for Rosemary and then she will be able to provide more information about herself to you, and then she will really kick off this webinar. Rosemary herself has been previously the Secretary for the Department of Finance, and she had done that from 2016 until she had retired from that role in 2022. During that period of time, Rosemary had been working of course very closely and had been exceedingly involved when it comes to the preparation and delivery of the Australian Government's federal budget.

In addition, Rosemary had previously, or I should say prior to having been the Secretary for the Department of Finance, Rosemary had also been a Deputy Secretary in the Department of Health and Aged Care. Rosemary has extensive experience in health and aged care and social policy, she has worked on areas such as having responsibility for aged care policy and programs and reform. She has also worked on mental health and national E-health agenda as well. I will now hand over to you, Rosemary, to further introduce yourself and to provide some of your initial thoughts in relation to the strategy and its development.

Rosemary Huxtable:

Great. Thanks very much, Natasha, and thanks to all of you who have joined us to participate in this webinar today. It's a real pleasure for me to join you, this is like the first official occasion I think for the development of the National Health and Medical Research Strategy, so it's a great point to kick off the time that we'll all be spending together I'm sure in coming months. Natasha's already said a little bit about who I am and my career. I think many of you may know me probably largely from my time in the Department of Health and Ageing where I have spent a very large proportion of my career over a couple of time periods. Some of you may know me from being Secretary of the Department of Finance. I'd have to say in my role there health was always rather top of mind for a whole range of reasons, but I was pleased that I had the  knowledge of health and health stakeholders when I was in that role, it certainly made my briefings of ministers a little bit easier than it might otherwise have been.

And obviously we worked very closely with the health portfolio during COVID and coming out of the COVID period. And of course, since I retired as they call it, I have done a range of things including a very significant piece of work; the midterm review of the National Health Reform Agreement, which I conducted in the course of 2023, so I may well have come across you in that, guys. I was pleased to attend AAMRI’s dinner, it just happened to coincide with the time that I was beginning to start this work, so I did get a chance to shake a few hands and have a few discussions at that, but really this is official step one today. I'd say at the outset, I was quite honoured to be approached by the Minister to undertake this work.

While my career has been a little varied, I have spent a lot of time in health and I guess I've always seen myself as a health and social policy person. And the great thing about health, as I'm sure you'll all appreciate, is that you can do very significant and technically challenging work in policy areas that really have an impact on people's lives, and of course, the work that you're all doing has a very direct impact on people's lives and I think that in itself makes for a rewarding career. Natasha's mentioned some of the areas that I've worked across, but I was involved in Medicare reform, it's probably 20 years ago now, PBS reform in around 2006-7, National Health Reform Agreement which for my sins, I then got to review, so I got to see all the things that I could have done better, and aged care reform as well as a number of other areas across Health.

And I'd say when I talk to people about leadership issues as I was doing in a national security environment over the last few weeks, I always talk about the time that I had in Health and what I learned about the importance of having deep engagement with the sector. And I found through really all the things that I did in Health, and hopefully some of them people would agree were had successful outcomes, that stakeholders in the sector were very generous in giving their time, giving their knowledge, and really putting their brainpower to work to find solutions. So I guess my general approach to everything I do is to seek to have a deep collaboration and to create environments where that can happen. And I've carried that through I think to the work that I've done since not only the NHRA review work, but I've recently been doing something in a completely different area which has also had national consultation.

So I guess my hope for this development of the strategy and the approach that I'll take as the Chair, is that we work together in an open way, that we form a basis of trust and mutual respect and we really engage with the evidence. That's certainly how I intend to bring myself to this table. And I'm sure in my experience, everyone wants to see the best outcomes out of an important project like this, and that's how you'll bring yourselves to the table. I know that there's been a number of consultation mechanisms, one of those has recommended the development of the strategy, but people can feel that they are consulted a lot and can feel a bit weary in regard to the level of consultation that they have.

But I would encourage you to put that to one side and really see this as an opportunity to build on that work and that consultation that's already been done rather than repeating it to really establish that evidence base so we can have a common understanding of the nature and extent of issues that the sector faces and really be energised, I guess, to find solutions, importantly, solutions that can be implemented, that's usually my view. It's good to come up with things that actually you can see take concrete form in the future. The strategy, look, I'm very early stages, this is my first week on the job, but the way in which I understand this piece of work is that we are really looking to optimise the investments in the health and medical research sector and to sort of align and complement the various investments not only from the Commonwealth but across other sectors, states and territories, industry, philanthropic sector with an overarching purpose of keeping Australia at the forefront of global health and medical innovation. So, next slide please.

So just moving on a little bit to some of the mechanics of the strategy and the strategy development. First up, I think getting the governance for projects like this right is essential to achieving a good outcome. My role as Chair is to lead consultations and engagement throughout the project, so I guess to be a point of continuity across the project. There's a range of material that's already been developed, so foundation documents, I suppose. I've been delivered a very big pack today in hard copy because I'm pretty old-fashioned, and I'll be really immersing myself in those documents over the Christmas and New Year period.

I'll lead the national consultation process, as I said, engagement with states and territories where I have quite a history of engagement, particularly through the health reform agreement and other interested parties, but also I guess bringing my own perspective and the experience that I've had over the years and the roles that I've had to hopefully add some sort of intellectual effort into the process as well. It's important that we have good governance across the Commonwealth. I think in fact, in some discussions that I had with some of you on Thursday night, there were questions being asked about, well, how's the Commonwealth going to align itself on these issues? So one of the first steps is to establish an interdepartmental committee. It might sound a bit old-fashioned, but actually it can be very effective in bringing the right people to the table and enabling them to engage from the start, but also understand the directions and I guess have some skin in the game in terms of taking the project forward.

The Deputy Secretary responsible for this area, Blair Excell, will be chairing that IDC, I'll be attending certainly from time to time as required, and it will bring together the key Commonwealth research bodies such as NHMRC and ARC, the key Commonwealth departments, obviously Health, Industry, Education, executive agencies like CSIRO and Cancer Australia, and most importantly, well importantly I should say, the central agencies Finance, PM&C and Treasury, who are part of that process when we get through a strategy, how it then finds its way to government and what's the advice that's being provided at that time. So the first meeting of that IDC will happen next week. And finally, I'll be working closely with AMRAB and the NHMRC council, and I thank them in advance for the support that they will provide me. Steve's on the line, you can see him, Ian Frazer I understand is also on the line, so I thank them in advance for the work that we will do together.

Next slide please. So this just gives you a sense of the timeline that we're working to. Some have already pointed out to me that its ambitious. There's no timeline I've ever seen that isn't ambitious by the way, so it's just another one. The purpose is to do consultations in the first half of the year, or really in the almost first quarter of the year, use that initial round of consultations informed by the work that's already been done or is underway in the department, and I'll come back to some of that, to develop a draft  strategy by mid-year. So I guess that first stage is really around collecting our collective evidence, whether it's through – there’s four projects that the Department's got moving already, as I said, the foundation consultations that have occurred, but the consultation process that we will do through that period. So I would hope that by June we can have a good draft  but really that's where the fun really begins, because that draft will be the document that will then be heavily consulted through those winter/spring months next year.

And the intent is to have a final strategy informed by the process that we'll conduct right across the year by the end of the year, which will then go through the government processes to get approval and to be released. And also we will release a consultation report that accompanies the strategy. I'm sure there'll be questions about the timeline and I'm happy to do my best to respond to those questions. I think probably the important thing because I know everyone's very keen to be consulted, we will do everything we can to reach out as much as we can in the first half of the year, but by the nature of it being aiming to develop a draft, we're not going to be able to talk to everyone in that period but we'll do everything we can to put in place processes that enable people's voices to be heard.

The consultation on the draft strategy will include more mechanisms for people to put their views, roundtables, workshops. I'll be going around every state and territory and conducting workshops, old fashioned face-to-face ones in every state and territory. There'll be a written submission process. There'll be one-on-one discussions and interviews, webinars like these, survey mechanisms and the like. So I probably don't have every “I” dotted and “T” crossed yet on the plan, we're working now on the consultation plan, but that will be the general structure of it, an initial round of consultations early next year to inform the draft strategy, and then a more in-depth consultation process to go from the draft to the final strategy. Next slide please.

So just to give you an idea, and some of you will know this already I'm sure, probably most of you, there's four evidence collection exercises that are on foot now that will form some of that foundation material for the draft strategy. They're shown on the slide. And I will talk about each of them in turn, so I probably don't need to read what's on the slide, but we might just go to the next slide and I'll talk about them. So the first relates to community focus groups, so this work's already underway and focus groups have been held last month, and I think month before. So the aim here is to reach out to the public to generate a view from them and an understanding on our part about their knowledge, experience and perceptions and attitudes toward health and medical research. The usual methodology has been applied where there's been socioeconomic geographic diversity, so looking to reach across the community and get a representative sense of people's views.

This used to happen quite often when I was in the Department 20-odd years ago, I'm not sure it happens quite as much now, this sort of community consultation, but I think it is a really important touchstone so that we can collectively understand what community expectations are in respect of any subject area but this one in this instance. There's been focus groups, discussion boards and interviews, so that work is underway, as I said, it will conclude in the first quarter of 2025, and there'll be a report made available at the conclusion of the project so people can get a sense of that. But obviously we'll be delving into that and using it as we go and do the further consultation work and the development of the strategy. So that's the first one. The second, next slide please, relates to the audit. I'm sure many of you have already engaged with this as the report was released about a month ago, or I think it's a month ago today, but the aim of the audit was to map the current capacity capability and gaps in the research workforce and to better understand traditional and non-traditional career pathways.

So that's going to inform the strategy in terms of understanding workforce needs, understanding the way in which the workforce is operating, what are the drivers, what are the strategies to retain people in the workforce and to develop their careers. So it will be used for the development of the strategy, but also it has a broader application. Hopefully many of you have had the chance to review the audit report, and we can talk a bit about the findings if you wish. Interestingly, around two-thirds of researchers work in the traditional settings of universities and medical research institutes, but a third are in, I guess, non-traditional areas, the private sector and clinical sectors. More than 40% have come from overseas and there are variations between states and territories, as you might expect, so I think there's a range of interesting outcomes in that regard.

Probably the one for us to think about is that is in the past five years, the audit found that more than 60% of researchers have moved into roles where they're not actively involved in research, but obviously they're bringing their research skills to other areas. But the workforce audit's an important foundation document. 

Next slide please. So the funding landscape, so there's work occurring on mapping the funding landscape for health and medical research to really better understand not only the Commonwealth contribution but other contributions to the sector, whether that be around state and territory governments, industry, philanthropic contributions. Obviously there's the MRFF  and the MREA which weren't around, well, 15 years ago. So there is significant funding out there, the benefit of this work is that it can begin to understand not only the quantum of that trends, but really where that funding's going, how it's being allocated, what its priorities are and the like. So that work is underway and really aims to consolidate information about health and medical research funding, so it forms an important evidence base as we go forward. Next slide please.

And the international. So looking at international and national strategies, so again, a mapping exercise, I guess, to look at those strategies that have a national focus, those produced by the funding bodies like the NHMRC, those produced by organisations that might have more a disease focus or a particular focus. There's a range of overarching scientific research strategies that have an international focus, and of course the states and territories have their own. So just that's a little snapshot, but this is a very important piece of work. This is drawing together, I guess, the foundation documents that will be very useful for us in developing the draft strategy and really getting on top of what other countries are doing and how the sector is growing and new trends are emerging over time. So that's the fourth piece of work. So, just moving on. Thank you.

So just to reiterate some of the key consultation steps, I've been through this, but the draft national strategy by mid-year, the formal public consultation process in the last half of the year. We will have mechanisms to be engaging with you to enable maximum participation in the various events that will occur, including events like this and in survey arrangements. It is anticipated that once the strategy is completed, that there'll be implementation and action plans that are related to that, so it goes the next stage, not only a strategy but how you're going to implement that strategy. And again, those implementation plans will be developed in close collaboration with the sector and with the leadership in the sector.

This QR code is a survey so we're beginning a survey now to gain sector views on the national strategy, so that I guess is just a means of people throwing on the table all the top of mind issues that they want us to be aware of at this very early stage. So you can take a picture of that. And the survey will run through to the end of February. So I'm going to pass to Steve in a minute, I think, and we're going to have a Q&A, we've got good time for a Q&A session. Some people have already provided some questions, and maybe at the start of a Q&A session or if it's slow, I doubt that, but anyway.

We can just give you some of those key questions that people have already asked. So I might leave it there so we've got time for questions, but also time for Steve to say what he would like to say. But thank you very much for your attention and thank you for your participation, and I very much look forward to this work and to engaging with you all and meeting you all over the coming year. Thanks.

Steve Wesselingh:

Thanks very much, Rosemary. That was terrific, and I think even that I think was a really good clarification for the sector. And there are still lots of questions, but I guess I want to emphasise that I think the sector is really excited about this opportunity and it is a really important opportunity for the entire sector to work together to write this strategy. And actually, we've never really truly had a national strategy for health and medical research. We've had some really great reviews, the McKeon Review and the Wills review, but to have a strategy that engages with everyone across the country I think is a really exciting opportunity, and on behalf of the NHMRC and the sector, thank you very much for taking this on. There are some common questions there, but I might go to the next slide just to give people, I just wanted to highlight these in terms of being connected to the strategy.

And so there's the website and a lot of information on the website already, and people should be looking at that regularly. And there's also the email there so that if you have any questions at any time, that's the email to utilise, or commentary, although there is obviously the survey process as well. But we already do have some questions for you, Rosemary, but importantly I and Natasha will also take part in answering questions as well. But I think the question that will be on lots of people's lips and obviously it's already come forward, is there additional funding associated with the strategy?

Rosemary Huxtable:

So I'd say at the outset that this is my first week so I'm still being briefed in a sense, and in the discussions that I've had to date, I haven't had any specific discussions with the Minister or with the team about funding. But I can tell you what my working assumption will be having been the Secretary of Finance for six years, and that is that we should work on the assumption that we need to get the maximum benefit out of the monies that are already available and that are in the sector. I think to understand this is why that funding landscape piece of work is so important, to understand what funding there is, where's it going, what it achieves, whether it can be used more efficient, it's not really efficient, but more sort of collaboratively or be more aligned so that there's ways to get the absolute best value out of the funding that's available.

So my starting position would be let's understand more about the funding environment and let's really focus on how we can get the absolute best value out of the monies that are available. There is always an argument to be had with government around funding and they obviously have a range of priorities that they need to consider in that regard, but you've kind of lost the argument before you've started if you can't make a compelling case. So in my view, that's the kind of environment we are in. Let's look at what's on the table, let's look about how we could use it as effectively as possible. And in that process we might find that there are real gaps or issues where there can be a compelling case, but you have to make that argument strongly. I mean I have to say, the work that I did on the National Health Reform Agreement which, there's been a lot of reform in how the health system's funded over the years, and sometimes that can really drive better outcomes and sometimes that's not the case.

So I think the way that funding flows, the way it's kind of counted in a sense, like how we understand it, often that can drive behaviours or outcomes that aren't optimal. So I think we really have to understand that properly. I'm certainly not coming into this with an expectation that there's a lot of money that's going to flow, or a lot of additional money. I think there's already a lot of money that is available, but I think people just should come with a very open mind and not feel that, oh, you know unless there's an extra X billion dollars, then we're not going to engage in this. This is an opportunity to engage and to understand and to come up with solutions that will work.

Steve Wesselingh:

Thanks for that, it's terrific. We have a question on the chat. Will non-researcher stakeholders, for example, those involved in translation and implementation rather than in research, will they be involved in the development of the strategy?

Rosemary Huxtable:

So Natasha can jump in and supplement. As I said, we are developing the consultation plan now, but certainly my intent and everything that I've discussed with the team to date is that we'll take a very broadly based approach to that. So we're already doing the focus groups that are engaging with getting that consumer perspective, but the intention is definitely to be incorporating in the strategy the translation pathway. That's a really important element of this so my view, and I think Natasha's nodding so I'm guessing she agrees with me, is that we will take a very broadly based approach and we'll seek to be really engaging as much as possible with those who have a view, who are part of a broadly defined sector and are interested in participating in the process. But Natasha, you might want to add something.

Natasha Ploenges

Thanks very much for that, Rosemary. And I will say also just from a personal perspective too, from leading the Medical Research Future Fund and the Biomedical Translation Fund as well, that translation and commercialisation aspect is key for the work that we do. But as we've talked about and as Rosemary has said, it really is that entire pipeline for research. So it is not just one component, it is that entire pipeline, so it does include, very much include of course the non-research or non-researcher aspect when it includes industry as well, and very much as Rosemary had said as well, consumers and communities and patient groups too. Thank you.

Steve Wesselingh:

Thanks Natasha. And actually, this question follows on quite nicely from that and actually is one that I might make a comment on first and then hand over. But the question is what's your plan for connecting with and working with the strategic examination on R&D? And I do think that's a really important question, this is happening through the Department of Industry, but is again a whole of government view, and we really do need to make sure that this strategy and that review are closely connected, and we have already reached out and are working with Dom English and his team on this. So I can say that we will be working closely and we've guaranteed that and Dom's guaranteed that. But Rosemary's had a lot of experience in having things happening in different parts of government, so you might want to comment as well.

Rosemary Huxtable:

Well, I just concur. So one of the main reasons to have the IDC up and running so early in the project is to really get everyone who has an interest or a role that is adjacent to this project to be part of the thinking from day one. So Dom is actually on that interdepartmental committee and will be working very closely with the industry department and others where there's relevant alignments. I mean my view is that we use all the resources of government if we are to be effective. We are not competing with anybody, it's not like competing strategies but really, how do we get alignment and understanding and focus I guess on the things that are most relevant to this strategy, and they focus on the things most relevant to the work that they're doing. But yeah, look, I'm very much a collaborator in the way that I work and I'll be very keen to work very closely with Dom, who I've known for many years, and his team in the work that we do.

It won't only be industry, there'll be other areas as well. Some of them we probably don't know about today, but we will find out about as we go forward. And if more people need to join that IDC, then that's absolutely fine, it's really about having everyone who needs to be there at the table. I would say, if I can just freelance for a minute, that similar questions can be asked about states and territories and maybe there are questions there about that, but how do we ensure that we're not an environment where states and territories feel that there's competing work that's going on or competing strategies? All I can say to people is that I have worked very closely with state and territory governments over very many years, predominantly in this portfolio. I know a lot of the players, I worked with them incredibly closely on the health reform agreement work and in fact continue to work with them on that.

So I feel that the right conversations can be had with the states and territories, and that's why I want to really prioritise that engagement early next year. Certainly from my experience with health reform, there is a strong sense and desire for the Commonwealth and the states and territories to work together to drive change and achieve better health outcomes, and I don't think that this is any different really in that regard. That certainly would be my starting position. So I'm looking forward to getting back into thatstate territory engagement, and I have a lot of confidence that people will come with a positive attitude and wanting to make a contribution.

Steve Wesselingh:

Thanks for that. There is a series of questions now that have appeared on the screen around First Nations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health issues, Aboriginal groups like NACCHO, the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, and their involvement in the development of the strategy, sufficient time and budget allocated for the consultation for meaningful face-to-face engagement with rural and remote communities, including first nation communities and rural clinical schools and so on. And I guess again I might start by saying there's an absolute must that this strategy address Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and look at closing the gap. If I preempted anything you are going to say, Rosemary, I'm sorry, but I think it has to be one of our clear front and centre issues, so but maybe you want to say some words too.

Rosemary Huxtable:

Yeah, Look, no, I agree with you and as I said, we're still working on the plan, but certainly the intent of the plan is that it's broad based and that we are definitely engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and stakeholders. I mean again, I think this is an area where there is a lot of information that's already out there, there's work that's been done. To be honest, I was involved in a research agenda working group piece of work probably 25 years ago that was related to NHMRC that was focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research. So similar to the broader strategy, how do we really get a handle on the work that's already there, so what are the foundation documents that we can use in that regard? And the consultation that's already occurred, but very committed to engaging. I've got some early meetings next week I think with some of the stakeholders in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander field, so I'm prioritising that, and we'll look to complement those next year. But look, I think it's a good question and it's a good question to ask of us today as we're developing the consultation plan and really thinking through what's the best mechanism to engage broadly across that community. And I absolutely agree with you, Steve, in terms of the priority, that we need to put on that.

Steve Wesselingh:

Thanks Rosemary. The next question is, will the National Strategy for Health and Medical Research interact with ARC and other Commonwealth funding agencies?

Rosemary Huxtable:

So I might throw to Natasha on the detail but my understanding is definitely yes, and I think we actually have ARC representatives on the webinar today. So from the beginning we are certainly looking to do that. But Natasha, you might want to fill in more of the details there.

Natasha Ploenges

Thanks very much Rosemary, and yes, thanks for that question as well, Steve. Again, exceedingly important to make sure that we're connecting with all of the other parts and components of the health and medical research or the broader research community as well, so that includes the funders as well as those who are broadly involved. As Rosemary said, the IDC is part of that, but also being really conscious of and connecting with the range of strategies and priorities and other things that also already exist or are in the process of existing, and that does include things as well like the national science priorities as well. So that's one of the other priority or strategic documents that we'll also be connecting with. But yes, absolutely ARC and others. It's not necessarily an exhaustive list that we've provided today.

Steve Wesselingh:

Thanks, Natasha. The next question I think is also a really important and good one. How broadly will the strategy consider research commercialisation programs access to investment for markets and industry engagement, and any views towards success metrics in regard to this? A really good question, and again, maybe I'll start, but I think we have to think of this strategy from discovery research all the way out to translation into commercialisation, into products, drugs, devices, and obviously translation into policy and other public health interventions and preventions. So I think the strategy will engage in that. The success metrics I think is a really good question and a pretty tough one, but perhaps Rosemary or Natasha, you might want to comment on commercialisation as well.

Rosemary Huxtable:

I agree with you. This strategy has to cover from discovery right through, and certainly that commercialisation translation piece is essential to that. It is a good question about success measures or performance metrics. I think that any strategy needs to hold itself to account, so we definitely need to grapple with that issue. I don't think it's a simple issue, it's particularly not a simple issue in health where success may take a very long time and what are your proxy measures that you can put in place to determine whether you're actually on the right track? So I think that is something we'll have to grapple with. The other part of that is the action plans that will sit side by side with the strategy. I guess I see the strategy is the big overarching piece, and then the action plans are more what are we doing over a time period for which there can be a milestone point and a measurement.

So that's my preliminary thinking, but I think it's a very good reminder that those questions are the ones that we have to think about as we're developing the draft strategy and then engage with people on as we go to the next phase to get to the final strategy. And it's important to get those measures right because you don't want to put yourself in a position where people could say, well, the strategy's failed because you haven't achieved this milestone or that milestone. And as I said, sometimes those milestones can be over quite a long period. But it's a good question and I think one that we really will need to just think about. But Natasha, I don't know if you want to add at all.

Natasha Ploenges

I'm not sure if there's necessarily much more for me to add in that space but I guess certainly from my perspective, I'll be honest, sometimes I struggle with the monitoring and evaluation side of things and only in the sense of exactly as Rosemary had described, that sometimes it's about making sure of course that you actually have the right measures in place. We do have a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Strategy when it comes to the Medical Research Future Fund. So it is things, and Steve, I know you are also all across that and as well as of course in NHMRC's evaluation approaches, but it is much more than just counting the number of research grants and counting the number of dollars that go out the door. It is much more sophisticated than that but absolutely right, when it comes to a national strategy, that will be a really key piece for us to be able to work through and identify for us to all hold ourselves to account for those milestones too.

Steve Wesselingh:

Yeah, no, I think it's a really good question and I think yeah, maybe you could reframe, and what does success look like? And so if we think about that when we're part way through the strategy, I think that will be really, really helpful.

Rosemary Huxtable:

And sorry Steve, before you ask the next question, I think it's for everyone to think about that, what does success look like? So I guess my approach to the consultation phase will be for people to really come thinking about what are the solutions that they would want to see put in place? And it's important to give people an opportunity to talk about where there might be gaps or problems that they're grappling with. They might have a lot of frustration about some of those problems, but we’ve got to move past that too, to say, well, why would this strategy be successful? How are we going to make it successful?

It's for everyone to bring their best selves to that table, I think, to think about what success looks like and how can you address the barriers to that success being achieved. And that's not always or even often about funding, it's also about relationships, incentives, structures, the environment. A lot of things go into that. So I guess for all of you online who I know will be participating in the consultation, just really thinking yourselves around how would you do a piece of work like this and how would you look back on it and say that's a strategy that can succeed or will succeed.

Steve Wesselingh:

Thanks for that, and actually it sort of partly answers the next question, but I will ask it anyway because I think it is important. How will the government ensure that the national strategy is implementable and will create change?

Rosemary Huxtable:

So I think I would reframe that as how do we ensure that? I think it being implementable will be in our hands in terms of what the strategy looks like and the process we go through to develop that strategy. I've been in government a long time and in my consulting period since I always have an eye to, will this fly, that sort of question. It's fine to have expectations, sometimes they can be talking about a ideal world, but that might not be the world that we live in. So thinking about the possible and how you really pivot to the possible, I think that's an important part of this.

So I'll be very focused on a strategy that can be implemented and where we are quite clear about what the implementation pathway looks like, including through those action plans. But I really feel like it's in our hands. The government will, obviously they've got this process underway. I'll be engaging with the Minister in the process of doing this work, but they'll be receiving a strategy that we've developed at the end of the day. So I think it's really on us to make it meaningful and to make it able to be implemented.

Steve Wesselingh:

All right, thank you. I think, yeah, that's terrific. So the next question was will this strategy cover the entire HMR pipeline including discovery research? And certainly know from my discussions with the sector that the discovery researchers worry about their place and particularly when we talk a lot about health challenges and solving health challenges. But in part, I'm answering this question for you, Rosemary, but you need a pipeline, you need a discovery pipeline to solve health challenges, you need a discovery pipeline to develop new drugs and new devices. And so I'm pretty confident, but I will go to Rosemary, but I'm pretty confident that any strategy that you'd write about health and medical research has to have a discovery pipeline in it.

Rosemary Huxtable:

That's certainly the intention. So as I said, I think the strategy needs to go from the discovery pipeline right through to the commercialisation and translation piece. So look, we've got work to do to understand what that looks like and to have a strategy that isn't inaccessible because it's got so much detail in it. So one of the challenges through this process is how do we really, I guess, nail the themes. And it's probably too early. The intent is for it to be broad, so I think that's very clear, but how that then translates into a strategy that's accessible, that can support the types of things that we're talking about, I think that's the next challenge. I'm not the expert that you guys are, but I'll be embedding myself in all this material and working with you all about what's the appropriate framing that enables this to come together in a way that's really meaningful and accessible. I don't know if Natasha's got anything to add as more of the expert than me.

Natasha Ploenges

That was perfect, Rosemary.

Steve Wesselingh:

Okay, so I'm going to do two more questions and then I think we'll wrap up. So the second to last question is, will the strategy cover/ address gaps in the national infrastructure to support recruitment of research participants and public health consumer involvement in research? Either Natasha or Rosemary. Maybe Natasha can start.

Natasha Ploenges

Happy to start. And I think that the question about infrastructure I guess in the first instance, that's also part of our reason for also having that IDC and including the Department of Infrastructure in there and also Education, it's about having a really good understanding and handle of what the Australian Government is doing and how the National Health and Medical Research Strategy connects with those other parts, other parts of the government, other programs that are continuing. So while they may not necessarily be directly related to the some of the day-to-day activities, there is still that connection and it does provide that basis and bedrock for it.

And indeed, of course there are some infrastructure activities of course that also happen in that broad infrastructure space that happen as well within both NHMRC and MRFF in terms of funding. Again, that’s a connection with all who have an interest and role in health and medical research is absolutely key to being able to understand what is going on, to be able to work through what those connections are, and to really jointly build a really meaningful national health medical research strategy.

Steve Wesselingh:

Thanks Natasha. And I think it also asks the question about consumer involvement in research, and again, I think that's going to be a critical issue for the strategy. Rosemary's nodding.

Rosemary Huxtable:

Yep, agree. And I think I've already mentioned the focus groups that we're already doing in that regard, but I'm meeting with the Consumer Health Forum next week, I think, and very much looking to see that voice of consumers and communities as part of the development of the strategy. So yes, and hopefully some of the consumer reps are on the line today as well.

Steve Wesselingh:

All right. The last question which was coming through the screen all the time by the way but I wasn't asking it was can we meet with the Chair? So both from an organisational and a personal point of view, everyone's very keen to meet with you, Rosemary.

Rosemary Huxtable:

Yes. So I won't say yes just like that because I don't know how many times you've been asked that question, so it could be many hundreds, but I think we definitely intend to create mechanisms where everyone can be part of the strategy, so whether that's the workshops that we're going to do in the second half of the year, the interviews that I'll be doing, the meetings that I'll be doing in the first half of the year. I guess I'm keen, and this is something for people to think about is if there are existing forums that they have where a lot of people are gathered that are a good touch point for me, can I video in for an hour or two and have an engagement with them? So sort of using existing mechanisms. So the intent is to try and reach as many people as I can. Obviously working very closely with the stakeholder organisations in that regard, meeting with the states and territories as well. So my intention is to be as accessible as I can be, but really to use all mechanisms we can to have that broad-based engagement.

Steve Wesselingh:

Thanks very much for that, and we might finish on that note. And firstly, thank Rosemary for a terrific webinar and great answers to the questions, and her offer to be accessible and talk to as many people as possible I think is going to be brilliant. Thanks Natasha, as always. And I'd like to thank the office as well for organising the webinar and the I.T. and it all went seamlessly and all the questions came through very clearly, so thank you very much. And finally, thank the audience for logging on and participating at the beginning of the development of this strategy, and really looking forward to the whole sector getting really excited about their involvement and this, I think, really unique opportunity to develop a national strategy for health and medical research. And something's just popped up on my screen, you have to remember the survey. So get involved, do the survey, and then obviously get involved by your organisations and other mechanisms to be involved in developing this strategy. So I think I'll end there and thank everyone, and good afternoon.

Rosemary Huxtable:

Thank you.

Natasha Plunges:

Thank you.