The Medical Research Future Fund grant funding is available for medical research projects that are informed by people with disabilities.
Around $30 million in research funding is available for research projects that improve the health and wellbeing and access to healthcare for people with disabilities.
The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) – 2026 Improving the Health of People with Disability Grant Opportunity will provide grants of up to $5 million to medical research and medical innovation projects.
The funding will support research projects that investigate inclusive ways of improving the physical and mental health of people with disabilities, improve health literacy, support diverse health needs and develop health self-belief.
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing said funding was available for researchers who were able to demonstrate how people with disability and relevant lived experience have informed and will continue to inform the research.
Funding is available in four areas of research:
- Stream 1: improving understanding of, and access to, inclusive and effective health care across the lifespan for people with disability
- Stream 2: improving understanding and use of inclusive preventive health care for people with disability
- Stream 3: developing ways to support people with disability to develop stronger health self-belief, improve health literacy and/or make well-informed decisions about their care
- Stream 4: supporting the diverse health needs of people with disability experiencing other forms of disadvantage.
Related
The NHMRC said grant funding was available to medical research and medical innovation projects that came under four streams:
- Stream 1 (Targeted Call for Research): conduct large-scale, multidisciplinary projects, through co-design with the health and disability sector and people with lived experience, to develop, optimise and/or evaluate person-centred approaches to support health care transitions across life stages for people with disability
- Stream 2 (Targeted Call for Research): develop, implement and/or evaluate preventive health interventions for people with disability, through co-design with the health and disability sector and people with lived experience
- Stream 3 (Targeted Call for Research): develop and/or evaluate approaches that support people with disability to build stronger health self-efficacy, improve health literacy and/or make informed decisions about their care through co-design with the health and disability sector and people with lived experience.
- Stream 4 (Targeted Call for Research): develop, implement and/or evaluate interventions that address the health needs of people with disability experiencing intersectional disadvantage, through co-design with the health and disability sector and people with lived experience.
NDIS minister Jenny McAllister said people with disability deserved a health system that listened to them, understood their needs, and gave them every opportunity to live healthy and fulfilling lives.
“Too many people with disability still face barriers to getting the health care they need, and the Albanese Government wants to change that,” Ms McAllister said.
“This grant is about funding high-quality research, informed by people with disability, to find new and better ways to make our healthcare system as accessible and inclusive as possible.”
The grants are being administered by National Health and Medical Research Council on behalf of DoHDA.
Applications are now open here and close on 24 February 2027.