31 October 2022
Health Translation Queensland (HTQ) today launched its Roadmap for Strengthening Health Research and Translation in Queensland (the Roadmap) laying a pathway to a healthier Queensland.
The Roadmap was born out of HTQ’s Funding Analysis Report undertaken in 2021.
HTQ Board Chair Sue Scheinpflug said the Funding Analysis examined Commonwealth grant funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Medical Research Futures Fund (MRFF) from 2020. The analysis contains a high-level comparison of Queensland’s funding performance with other states and territories. It found that Queensland is not receiving an equitable share of Commonwealth health research funding.
“HTQ’s funding analysis found that while 20 per cent of the Australian population lives in Queensland and Queensland contributes 19 per cent to Australia's GDP, Queensland receives less than 14 per cent of NHMRC funding and less than 12.9 per cent of MRFF funding,” Ms Scheinpflug said.
“This equates to an estimated loss of $65 million per annum to Queensland or roughly 600-700 skilled workers. And this impacts our ability to improve the health and wellbeing of all Queenslanders.
“We’ve had the Smart State, Advance Queensland and now the HTQ Roadmap to refocus and rebuild for research, jobs, the economy, and the health of Queenslanders.
“We want to make Queensland the number one State and Territory for health and medical research.”
The Roadmap sets out actions required within three priority areas: strengthening the Queensland health care and medical research ecosystem; building workforce capability and capacity and optimising health and research funding opportunities.
“Queensland has world class health and research systems, but they are not well integrated,” Ms Scheinpflug said.
“The Roadmap will help us to better integrate our health and research systems. This brings cutting edge research and innovation into our health system more quickly and safely, which improves health care, makes Queenslanders healthier and makes our health system more sustainable.
“Under the three priority areas: ecosystem, workforce, and funding, the Roadmap outlines 33 actions for the health and medical research sector to take to strengthen health research and translation in Queensland.
“The actions are wide ranging - from better leveraging the strengths in our health system, to establishing near-miss schemes for unsuccessful grant applicants, to supporting consumer and community involvement in health research.
“Queensland has some of the best and brightest researchers in the world. The Roadmap will help align our medical research activities, with the health needs of Queenslanders, and economic opportunities. Which will make Queenslanders healthier and our health system more sustainable.”
The Roadmap is aligned with the Queensland Government’s Innovation for a Future Economy 2022-23 Roadmap; and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS) recently released policy report Research and innovation as core functions in transforming the health system: A vision for the future of health in Australia.
Links to HTQ’s Roadmap documents:
ENDS
For enquiries contact Katrina Cutler at Health Translation Queensland on 0421 007 745 or katrina.cutler@healthtranslationqld.org.au
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Health Translation Queensland acknowledges the Traditional Owners and their custodianship of the lands on which we live, work, and play. We pay our respects to their Ancestors and their Descendants, who continue cultural and spiritual connections to Country. We recognise their valuable contributions to Australian and global society.
