The Health Research Council (HRC) has invested $71.4 million in excellent and innovative research to tackle a range of pressing issues affecting New Zealand’s health system.
HRC Director of Investments Mr Stacey Pene says the three Programme Grants and 37 Project Grants announced today to a combined value of $60.6M include research that supports new models of care and treatments, promotes innovation and efficiencies in New Zealand’s health system, and helps build and support New Zealand’s clinical trials network.
The other $10.8M invested supports research into the use of AI to transform healthcare, innovative and exploratory health research, and grants to support New Zealand’s emerging research talent.
“These funding rounds support health research in areas of importance and priority for New Zealand, and which can tangibly contribute to improved health outcomes for all New Zealanders,” says Mr Pene.
Programme Grants support major research studies valued at up to $5 million for a term of five years and Project Grants support research studies and clinical trials, usually for a three-year term.
One of the new Programmes aims to develop an mRNA-based measles vaccine to protect New Zealanders in an outbreak, particularly those for whom the current MMR vaccine is not recommended, such as babies under 12 months old and those with severely impaired immune systems.
The other two Programmes focus on improving breast cancer survival rates by enhancing timeliness and quality of care and optimising nutritional interventions to improve neurodevelopmental outcomes for preterm babies.
Several Projects involve clinician-led trials, including the New Zealand-arm of an international trial of early keyhole surgery versus current gold standard care in women with small aneurysms.
This trial has the potential to save lives and improve clinical management for New Zealand women, who compared to men, have a much greater risk of aneurysm rupture, and high cardiovascular risk.
Another clinical trial in the area of paediatric emergency medicine will be conducted in partnership with Australian hospitals and could have a profound impact on the management of severe asthma in children in New Zealand and worldwide by determining the best intravenous medication to use in severe asthma.
In addition to this Programme and Project Grants funding, the HRC has also invested in 10 studies focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare to a total value of $4.6 million.
This funding initiative was developed to invest in health research centred on the use of AI as a potentially transformative technology to support the delivery of timely access to quality healthcare for New Zealanders.
The newly funded studies include the use of AI to enhance postoperative monitoring and prevent avoidable deaths, improve eye screening in communities to reduce preventable vision loss, and support faster and more accurate radiology services.
The HRC has also recently funded 15 Explorer Grants (combined total of $2.25M) to support innovative, unconventional, and potentially transformative health research ideas, and 10 Emerging Researcher First Grants (combined total of $3.99M) for emerging talent to develop independent health research studies.
To view the recipients of these HRC funding rounds and lay summaries of their research, please visit our website research repository at www.hrc.govt.nz/resources/research-repository.
Total $71.4M investment breakdown:
Programme Grants: $15M (3 grants)
Project Grants: $45.6M (37 grants)
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Request for Proposals: $4.6M (10 grants)
Explorer Grants: $2.25M (15 grants)
Emerging Researcher First Grants: $3.99M (10 grants)