1 week Ago By Damon Cronshaw
A key Minns government minister has backed HMRI's call for more federal funding for the medical research sector. Login or signup to continue reading NSW Minister for Medical Research David Harris told the Newcastle Herald that "we want to make sure all our medical research institutes receive proper funding ". "We're in discussion with the federal government around that," Mr Harris said.
The government will launch the NSW Health Research and Innovation Strategy next year. "Part of that will be looking at issues around long-term funding," Mr Harris said. The Herald reported last Saturday that HMRI (Hunter Medical Research Institute) backed calls for more government funding to ensure the sector's survival.
Mr Harris said the federal government must "recognise medical research is important, not just to improve people's lives but through payback in the economy". "As these programs get developed, they save money in our health system. Techniques improve and there are better outcomes for patients.
"The work done in cardiovascular and cancer has saved millions of dollars and had better outcomes for patients." A survey of medical research institutes showed grants were not covering the salaries of researchers. This created a "salary gap" that the institutes were "expected to cover", equating to about 30 per cent of their total annual expenditure.
Mr Harris said the challenge was to "balance how much you can afford with attracting the best people". "There's a race around the world. If you want the best people, you've got to pay them.
"They like to come here, but it gets to a point where they have to look at the financial return." He said salaries were "part of what the state funding goes towards". "It's the behind the scenes nuts and bolts funding of running the organisations," Mr Harris said.
Nonetheless, he said "the big dollars come from the feds". The Newcastle Herald reported in October that 10 administrative jobs would go at HMRI due to a rising gap between research funding and costs. HMRI has about 100 of these research and infrastructure support roles, along with 1500 to 1700 affiliate researchers through the University of Newcastle and Hunter New England Health.
Mr Harris said HMRI had received "slightly less money due to the fact they didn't receive as much in research grants". "The funding is tied to their research grants. If in the next round their research grants go up, their funding will rise as well," he said.
He added that HMRI's funding was also "slightly reduced" because "we used some of the money to establish another fund". "The medical research institutes will benefit from that," he said. HMRI CEO Frances Kay-Lambkin said "the more successful we are in attracting competitive research grants, the more money we need to find to support that research".
For every dollar received through government grants, a further 64 cents was needed to cover the costs of research. The Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes [AAMRI] urged the federal government to "take urgent action in the next budget". Professor Elizabeth Hartland, president of AAMRI, warned funding must increase or "many Australian medical research institutes will not be financially viable in five years".
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said the government had commissioned the National Health and Medical Research Strategy to "strengthen research capability". "Supporting the work from homegrown centres, including the Hunter Medical Research Institute, is integral," he said. Health and medicine, science, research, nutrition.
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