MRFF 2023 Innovative Trials Grant Opportunity

Key dates for MRFF 2023 Innovative Trials

UPDATE (9 April 2024): The deadline for the mandatory EOI has been extended to 30 April 2024. Applicants who have already submitted an EOI are welcome to revise their EOI - in all instances the latest EOI by an applicant (team) will be used.

Applications open: 6 February 2024
Expression of Interest: closes 30 April 2024 (UPDATED)
UQ R&I NOI: required as soon as possible to facilitate engagement and collaboration with ULTRA in developing your proposal. No later than 30 April 2024 (UPDATED)
Applications due to UQ R&I: 12 June 2024
Applications close: 5pm ACT time 10 July 2024

Overview

The 2023 Innovative Trials Grant Opportunity is part of the MRFF National Critical Research Infrastructure Initiative and provides funding to establish and extend infrastructure (facilities, equipment, systems and services) of critical importance that will be used to conduct world-class health and medical research.

The objective of this grant opportunity is to provide grants of financial assistance to support Australian medical research and medical innovation projects that:

Stream 1 (Incubator and Targeted Call for Research): address an area of unmet medical need by promoting the development and implementation of adaptive platform trials. Research proposals in this stream must focus on one of the following Topics:

Topic A (Incubator): conducting inception projects that build evidence and capability to demonstrate the feasibility of establishing a national adaptive platform trial that would allow for rapid assessment of pharmacological and/or non-pharmacological interventions in an area of unmet need. The maximum grant available is $0.3 million.
Topic B (Targeted Call for Research): establishing a new national adaptive platform trial that addresses an area of unmet need, including set up of central infrastructure and conduct of initial launch domains. The maximum grant available $5 million.
Topic C (Targeted Call for Research): expanding an existing adaptive platform trial by adding new domains that address an area of unmet need. The maximum grant available is $3 million.

Stream 2 (Targeted Call for Research): conduct a registry-based randomised controlled trial in an area of unmet medical need by embedding a registry-based randomised controlled trial into a pre-existing clinical registry. The maximum grant available is $1.5 million.

Stream 3 (Targeted Call for Research): generate evidence of the efficiency and cost effectiveness of innovative trial designs over conventional trial designs for:

Topic A (Targeted Call for Research): adaptive platform trials. The maximum grant available is $1 million.
Topic B (Targeted Call for Research): registry-based randomised controlled trials. The maximum grant available is $1 million.

University of Queensland cLinical TRials cApability (ULTRA)

The newly formed University of Queensland’s cLinical TRials cApability (ULTRA) group, a key component of the HERA initiative, is committed to working with UQ researchers to maximise UQ’s success in clinical trial research and funding opportunities. The ULTRA group leaders comprise experts in Biostatistics and Innovative Trial Design (Prof Andrew Martin); Implementation Science in Trials (A/Prof Ingrid Hickman); and, Qualitative Methods in Trials (Dr Nathalia Cordeiro Da Costa).

The MRFF innovative trial grant scheme presents an ideal opportunity for ULTRA to help develop UQ researchers’ promising ideas for adaptive platform trials and registry trials into highly competitive applications.

If you are planning to submit to the MRFF innovative trial grant scheme (or elsewhere for adaptive platform trial funding) and would like to engage with ULTRA please indicate this in the Notice of Intent.

Expression of Interest (mandatory)

In addition to the NOI, UQ researchers interested in applying to this scheme must complete a mandatory Expression of Interest (EOI). EOIs will be considered by an internal UQ Strategy Panel.

How to Apply

Internal notice of intent process

All researchers intending to submit an MRFF application are required to submit an internal Notice of Intent. NOIs will be collated centrally and distributed to Faculties and Institutes in order to provide maximum support to the UQ research community.

Step 1. Scheme reading

Access the scheme documents from the AusIndustry website (filter by scheme name).
Familiarise yourself with the key Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and UQ documentation.

Step 2. Completing the application

Go to the business.gov.au portal and follow the links to complete the application.
Note that the online application has substantive sections in addition to the required attachments – we recommend that applicants familiarise themselves with all parts of the application before commencing.
Letters of support are required for all partner organisations. UQ R&I strongly advises applicants to start collecting these early using the template below, as this process represents a major bottleneck for many applications.

Step 3. UQ R&I internal review and feedback

Ahead of internal review, ensure all components are complete/valid and send the completed application form to UQ R&I.
To initiate internal review, add grants-manager@research.uq.edu.au as the primary contact email in your application within the portal, and email your completed Funding Coversheet to UQ R&I at mrffgrants@research.uq.edu.au.

Do not submit the application in the portal at this stage.

Internal review by UQ R&I/feedback provided (compliance/eligibility/grantsmanship).

Step 4. Final submission

Final submission should be completed by the applicant, but contact us early if there is likely to be a problem.

Letters of Support

Signing for all letters of support from UQ is co-ordinated through the Research Office. All Letters of support for MRFF applications, including those led by other institutions, must be accompanied by a completed Funding Application Coversheet (see below) and authorisations of any enumerated contributions or additional UQ staff beyond the lead CI listed in the letter. We strongly recommend working with your local school/institute research professionals to complete this process.

To provide time for review and signature, we ask that UQ researchers submit draft letters to mrffgrants@research.uq.edu.au no later than two weeks before the external closing date.

UQ Lead Applications

The draft CEO letter and Coversheet are provided in the resource section below.
Complete and submit both to mrffgrants@research.uq.edu.au, along with evidence for any additional co-contributions.

Non-UQ Lead Applications

The administering organisation should provide you with a draft letter of support. UQ information from the CEO letter below may assist you in completing the letter.
Complete a generic Funding Application Coversheet, and get it countersigned by your Head of School/Institute.
Submit both to mrffgrants@research.uq.edu.au, along with evidence for any additional co-contributions.

Readership and researcher support

Before applying, we recommend you:

Contact your faculty or institute research manager for advice on peer readership programs.
Join the UQ R&I Mailer to stay up to date with round developments.
Access the UQ R&I Grants Library, a helpful resource of past successful proposals.
If offered, attend UQ R&I information sessions and access PowerPoint presentations from presentations and slides.

Key documents

Before applying, please review the full suite of documents available from GrantConnect, the Australian Government grants information system: