March 29, 2026
The Hon Mark Butler MP
Minister for Health and Ageing
Minister for Disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Senator The Hon Jenny McAllister
Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme
The Hon Sam Rae MP
Minister for Aged Care and Seniors
Dear Minister Butler, Senator McAllister and Minister Rae
Australia stands at a critical juncture for medical research and innovation. The decisions we make now will shape our health, economy and sovereign capability for decades.
Australia has a proud legacy of advancing global knowledge and leading global scientific achievements. From identifying the cause of stomach ulcers, development of the cochlear implant and pacemaker technology through to spray-on skin and transformative vaccines, Australian researchers have delivered breakthroughs that save and improve lives globally. We consistently outperform our size. But the knowledge tree needs to be nurtured, watered and tended. Without this, it withers and dies.
Funding success rates have fallen to unsustainable levels. For major national schemes, success rates have dropped to below 10%, and for early- and mid-career researchers, closer to 4%. In practical terms, 96% of emerging scientific talent is locked out of the system.
The consequences are immediate and visible. Our best researchers are leaving our shores or choosing not to enter careers in science due to insecurity and lack of opportunity. Nowhere is this more evident than the serious decline in domestic post graduate students. We are at real risk of losing a generation of capability. Australia is not deficient in ideas or talent; the deficiency is in the system that under funds talent and tomorrow’s healthcare.
Fragmented policy, declining real investment, excessive complexity, and poor national coordination are limiting our ability to convert discovery into impact. While other nations are investing strategically across the full innovation pipeline that spans from research through to manufacturing and commercialisation, Australia remains constrained by an outdated framework that has not kept pace with modern innovation systems.
At the same time, critical funding is not being fully deployed.
The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) was established to deliver up to $1 billion annually for lifesaving research. Yet significant capacity remains underutilised while our research workforce contracts and opportunities diminish.
Australia cannot afford this mismatch.
Medical research is not a discretionary investment. It underpins better health outcomes, reduces long-term healthcare costs, drives high-value industries, and strengthens national resilience.
As leaders in the scientific community of Australia, we call on the Australian Government to take three immediate and practical steps:
- Unlock the full capacity of the MRFF: Lift the effective cap and ensure the Fund delivers its intended $1 billion annually to health and medical research.
- Make science a viable, sustainable career: Establish a dedicated, nationally coordinated funding stream that supports secure career pathways for early- and mid-career researchers, the cohort on which future breakthroughs depend.
- Build a connected, end-to-end innovation system: Implement a coherent national strategy that links discovery research to translation, manufacturing and commercialisation, ensuring Australia captures the health, economic and sovereign benefits of its own discoveries.
These actions are achievable, evidence-based, and aligned with the recommendations of the recent Ambitious Australia report. Taken together, they would lift Australia from episodic excellence to a consistently high-performing innovation system.
The stakes are clear. Without action, Australia risks becoming a nation that generates ideas for others to commercialise, exporting our talent, capability, and future industries. With action, we can build a globally competitive, sovereign innovation engine that delivers for patients, the economy and the nation.
This is not only about science. It is about every Australian. And about giving brilliant minds the chance to achieve brilliant outcomes. And this will benefit us all.
The breakthroughs that improve lives, reduce costs and create jobs depend on sustained investment in people and systems long before outcomes are visible.
Australia has the talent. It has the ideas, and the resources. What is needed now is coordinated national leadership.
We urge the Government to act with urgency, by unlocking the MRFF, supporting the Ambitious Australia recommendations, and committing to a modern, nationally connected innovation ecosystem that secures Australia’s future.
Signed,
Read the open letter on the Critical Care Research website and add your name here.