New chair gives the goods on NHMRC

The National Health and Medical Research Council (the NHMRC) is a statutory body established to promote the development and maintenance of public and individual health standards. It consists of the CEO, the council and its committees: five principal committees that operate through several working groups. The NHMRC provides funding for all areas of research relevant to human health and medical research.

It has also had a bit of a shake-up recently, with a new legislative act redefining its role, a new CEO at the helm and a new chair of the advisory council in Professor Michael Good. These changes have caused some disquiet in the research community, particularly regarding the actual powers of the minister for health in setting the agenda for scientific and medical research.

Having only taken up the position of NHMRC council chair on July 1, Good had not yet attended his first full council meeting at the time of going to print, but has already met many of the 130-odd staff of the NHMRC office in Canberra. And he is already clear about the council's goals for the next three years.

"What we have to do first (under the Act) is develop a strategic plan," Good told Australian Life Scientist. "And one of the jobs of the new council when it meets in September will be to do just that, to look at everything we do, whether it be project grants, program funding, fellowships, junior career development, ethics committees ... and ask what are its strengths and weaknesses."

Good also stressed that under the NHMRC structure, as prescribed by the new NHMRC Act of July 1, the main role of the council is an advisory one to the new CEO Warwick Anderson and to the health minister. To carry out this role, the council must oversee the structure, responsibilities and vision of the NHMRC, and, as Good emphasised, "ultimately the researchers and the public are the ones to benefit from the NHMRC if it is doing its job properly and that's what I see is the council's role".

The new Act and changes to the structure of NHMRC were introduced largely in response to the 2004 Grant Investment Review of Health and Medical Research, chaired by prominent corporate figure John Grant.

"John Grant made a number of recommendations to the government about building a better NHMRC and providing additional funding for research in project, program and fellowships funding," Good, also a member of the review panel, said. "Indeed, most of the recommendations coming out of the review process have been taken up by the government."

Some in research community and the media have question several aspects of the new NHMRC structure, including the power of the minister to make appointments and to structure committees. This new ministerial power has raised questions about the potential to influence not only the research agenda in Australia, but also the health agenda.

Although Good does not see any problem with the new set-up, he stresses the importance of strong, clear communication between the council, the CEO, and the committees. He strongly believes that with the NHMRC now acting as a fully independent statutory body under the new Act, the links with government that existed previously have been loosened and politicising of the NHMRC agenda is not an issue.

"Our job, as I see it, is to regulate policy in the area of research, and to advise the minister and CEO, but we are a regulatory agency ...we don't set government policy."

No neglect of day job

Michael Good has been director of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) since April 2000, prior to which he was director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Vaccine Technology.

When asked how he will combine his role as chair of the NHMRC with his day job at the QIMR, he said the issues were not all that different: it is just a question of scale.

Good wanted to be a scientist as far back as he can remember. He completed a medical degree at the University of Queensland but said he always had a "research bent", so went on to do his PhD at the prestigious Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, followed by postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health in the US.

Good's long-time research interest has been to develop vaccines for malaria and rheumatic fever, and as he recently told ABC TV's Catalyst program, "the thing that really motivates me, why I get out of bed every morning to go to work, is because I want to improve human health through research". Twenty years later as head of a multidisciplinary medical research institute employing over 850 staff and students, Good said he enjoyed "developing a vision for the Institute, setting the research agenda and mentoring staff to help make the place grow. That is an enjoyable experience."

The position of NHMRC chair obviously presents many challenges, even for someone with the breadth of experience that Good brings to the post. He admits to embarking on a steep learning curve. One challenge identified by him and one clearly close to his heart is proving the importance of medical research to the wider community and demonstrating the value of community investment in terms of outcome - better drugs, better diagnostics, and better public health.

"As I see it, we are accountable to the public and we are funded by government... but what that really means is that our main stakeholder is the public, so the role of the NHMRC is to support the very best research, acting on behalf of the public, and to make sure the public understand what we are doing, and appreciate it."

He feels that the avenues for getting that message out to the public have improved significantly in recent years, and credits that largely to the hard work of groups like Research Australia and the Australian Society for Medical Research, which work very much at the community and researcher interface, respectively. He sees a growing role for these groups and others, working with funding agencies such as NHMRC, to demonstrate the value of medical research in this country and to gain community support for it.

Funding from traditional and alternative sources

According to Good, other challenges facing the new council include increasing funding from sources other than government and fostering better and easier links between medical research and industry. "We certainly have to look at what we can do to increase industry participation in medical research and funding from all sources. It might be industry, it might be philanthropic - we need to bring extra funding into medical research."

The federal government has allocated an additional $500 million over five years to fund health and medical research grants provided through the NHMRC. This was a welcome announcement for the Australian research community and, according to Good, "if the government had not funded the recommended increase in medical research, we would have had a major cause for concern. We would have lost very talented career researchers overseas and we would not have brought new ones in as we wouldn't have been able to fund them."

On the issue of fitting the NHMRC council role into an already full working life as QIMR director and active research leader, Good was philosophically positive. "I guess it makes life a bit busier ... but the questions we are trying to address at QIMR are the same ones that NHMRC has to address, and we will. How do we get the best research? How do we support our researchers? How do we communicate the message back to the public? How do we keep industry on side? How do we keep government in the loop?

"I think that the spirit now within the research community and within the NHMRC is very positive and I am looking forward to the job very much."