International Collaborative Health Research Funding

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is Canada's federal funding agency for health research. Composed of 13 Institutes, CIHR's mission is to create new scientific knowledge and to enable its translation into improved health, more effective health services and products, and a strengthened Canadian health care system.

For more information, visit the CIHR website.

The e-ASIA Joint Research Program (e-ASIA JRP) was established in 2012 to promote innovation and contribute to economic development in the East Asian region. e-ASIA aims to achieve this by supporting international joint research projects, through multilateral processes, as well as promoting researcher interaction through workshops.

For more information, visit the NHMRC e-ASIA JRP webpage or the e-ASIA website.

The European Research Council (ERC) is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. ERC's mission is to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support investigator-driven frontier research across all fields, on the basis of scientific excellence.

NHMRC and ERC signed an Implementing Arrangement in October 2018. The arrangement aims to help NHMRC-funded researchers join ERC supported research teams in Europe (for a period when possible) or work remotely during their grant and enables the exchange of ideas and experiences in cutting-edge science.

In 2021, the EU implemented its new funding instrument for funding research and development, Horizon Europe, succeeding Horizon 2020 as the EU Framework Programme. Horizon Europe facilitates collaboration and strengthens the impact of research and innovation while tackling global challenges. The NHMRC‒European Union Collaborative Research Grants scheme supports Australian participation in leading international collaborative research under the EU Framework Programme.

NHMRC is an Associate Member of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD), an alliance of international health research funding agencies that support joint grant opportunities and research capacity and capability building activities to address chronic, non-communicable diseases (NCDs). GACD’s mission is to reduce the burden of chronic NCDs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and in underserved groups such as Indigenous Populations facing conditions of inequity in high-income countries (HICs).

For more information, visit the NHRMC GACD webpage or GACD website.

The Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) is Japan's national body to promote integrated research and development in the field of medicine, from basic research to clinical trials.

For more information, visit the AMED website.

Network of European Funding for Neuroscience Research (NEURON) was established under the European Research Area Networks (ERA-NET) scheme of the European Commission. The ERA-NET NEURON aims to coordinate and optimise research efforts and funding programmes of its partner countries in the field of mental, neurological, and sensory disorders. There are currently 35 research funding organisations and ministries from 28 countries that participate in this network to support basic, clinical and translational research.

For more information, visit the NHMRC NEURON webpage or the ERA-NET NEURON website.

The UK's Fund for International Collaboration aims to enhance excellence in research and innovation through global engagement. It focuses on bilateral and multilateral partnerships with global research and development leaders and is administered by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which includes the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

NHMRC and the MRC signed a Memorandum of Understanding in May 2019 to promote and encourage collaboration between Australia and the UK in world-leading prevention research seeking to address the shared burden of non-communicable diseases influenced by the built environment. This led to a joint funding call in 2019: UKRI-NHMRC Built Environment and Prevention Research 2019.