Each year, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) distributes around $250 million through its Ideas Grants scheme to support innovative health and medical research.
In 2025, 2,347 researchers applied. Only 190 were funded.
That is a success rate of just 8.1% — meaning 91.9% of proposals were unsuccessful.
This continues a troubling downward trend:
- 11.1% in 2023
- 10.1% in 2024
- 8.1% in 2025
At these levels, the issue is not simply competitiveness. Many unfunded proposals are highly ranked and internationally competitive. They fall short because the funding pool is too small.
An 8% success rate has real consequences:
- Promising discoveries stall.
- Research teams shrink or disband.
- Early- and mid-career researchers face prolonged insecurity.
- Australia risks losing talent and momentum.
Independent MP Monique Ryan has been campaigning for stronger support for medical research funding, highlighting the importance of sustained investment in Australia’s biomedical research capacity. You can add your voice here: Medical Research Matters
We also want to sincerely thank the many researchers who responded to NARF’s recent survey on the impacts of declining funding success. Your honesty about stalled projects, lost staff, personal toll, and difficult career decisions brought the statistics to life. Some of these quotes and stories were amplified by the Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR) in a LinkedIn advocacy campaign (ASMR on LinkedIn) and were raised in Senate Estimates by David Pocock in questions to NHMRC CEO Steve Wesselingh. This is exactly why sharing lived experience matters: it ensures the human impact of funding decisions is heard at the highest levels.
But improving stability within existing schemes is not enough. The 2025 data makes clear that total investment in biomedical research must increase. Without expanding the overall funding, success rates will continue to fall due to increasing costs and outstanding research will remain unfunded.
Australia has the ideas. It has the expertise. What it needs now is a national commitment to fund biomedical research at scale.
An 8% success rate should not become the benchmark for excellence – it should be a signal for action.