$200 million to boost dementia research

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) today announced the first steps in its delivery of the Australian Government’s $200 million ‘Boosting Dementia Research’ budget measure.

The new Dementia Research Team Grants scheme will support research into the causes of dementia, improved methods of prevention, new treatment options and improved patient care. The scheme is modelled on NHMRC’s Centres of Research Excellence and is expected to fund five teams for up to $6.5 million each over five years.

The grants are just one part of the $200 million package, which also includes:

• A further $62.5 million to support large-scale research projects.
• $9 million to support the Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research.
• $46 million for capacity building grants to attract researchers from other fields into dementia research, including $26 million from the Australian Research Council.
• $50 million to target, coordinate and translate dementia research through the new NHMRC National Institute for Dementia Research.

NHMRC CEO Professor Warwick Anderson said the National Institute for Dementia Research will “draw together Australia’s outstanding researchers in dementia research to bring a broad, collaborative approach to the highest priority research and translation question in dementia”.

“This will ensure the work being conducted here at home is relevant to Australia and complements that being done elsewhere around the world,” he said.

Since 2009, NHMRC has provided around $25 million each year for funding into dementia research. Professor Anderson said the $200 million funding boost “reflects the enormity of the challenge ahead”, noting that “our understanding of dementia and our diagnostic tools are still in their infancy”.

“In a recent forum with key stakeholders, we made a commitment to the Australian people to ensure that this significant research investment would make a lasting difference in the prevention, treatment and management of dementia,” Professor Anderson said. “I believe that this work plan will achieve that.”