MRFF 2024 Mental Health Research Grant Opportunity

Key dates for MRFF 2024 Mental Health Research

Proposals open in Sapphire: 14 February 2024
UQ R&I NOI Close: 10 July 2024
Minimum data requirements in Sapphire: 5pm ACT time 10 July 2024
Applications due to UQ R&I: 17 July 2024
Applications close: 5pm ACT time 7 August 2024

Overview

Consistent with the MRFF Act, the objective of this grant opportunity is to provide grants of financial assistance to support medical research and medical innovation projects that:

- Stream 1 (Priority areas 1.1 and 1.2, Targeted Call for Research): establish a bold and innovative national consortium involving multi-institutional collaborations, and encompassing multiple geographies and demographics, consisting of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary teams combining treatment and public health perspectives that will, through a coherent strategy:
o improve the understanding of the mechanisms underpinning effective mental health interventions and then develop new and improved early interventions, and
o improve the understanding of protective factors that reduce the negative impact on mental health from shifts in society and how best to strengthen these in the population.

- Stream 2 (Priority areas 2.1 and 2.2, Targeted Call for Research): establish a national consortium that partners with service providers and people with lived experience, and encompasses multiple geographies and demographics, to develop preventions, interventions, treatments, and models of care, based on the findings from existing epidemiological research.

- Stream 3 (Priority areas 3.1 and 3.2, Incubator): conduct small-scale developmental projects to improve understanding of the key components of:
o Topic A: high-quality mental health care and how these components can be incorporated into optimal personalised care for individuals.
o Topic B: high-quality prevention strategies.

The amounts available for a single grant in each Stream are as follows:
- Stream 1: The amount for a single grant is fixed at $10.0 million
- Stream 2: The amount for a single grant is fixed at $5.0 million
- Stream 3: The minimum grant amount is $200,000 and the maximum grant amount is $1.0 million

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. Sapphire updates and scheme reading

Register for Sapphire and update your full profile 'My Profile and CV'. The Grant Opportunity will be run through the new National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grants management system, Sapphire, which replaces RGMS. If any team members are new to Sapphire and need a login/password, start early. The NHMRC require at least three working days to create new Sapphire accounts.
Familiarise yourself with the key MRFF, NHMRC and The University of Queensland (UQ) documentation.

Step 2. Completing the application

Log into Sapphire and complete the application

Step 3. UQ R&I internal review and feedback

Ahead of internal review, ensure all online components are complete and valid in Sapphire and CIA has initiated the Certification process. Application errors will be signalled and can be corrected during the Certification stage.
To initiate internal review, email your completed Funding Application Coversheet to UQ R&I at mrffgrants@research.uq.edu.au.
Internal review by UQ R&I/feedback provided (compliance/eligibility/grantsmanship).

Step 4. Final submission

Final submission by UQ R&I to NHMRC.

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.

Partner Letters

We would encourage applicants to provide drafts of partner letters of support for review by the Research office before organising their final signature to ensure eligibility and compliance. A template Letter of Support is provided below.

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 and:

Grant Connect GO6779
MRFF Webpage
MRFF Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Strategy 2020-21 to 2023-24