Minister for Health Sussan Ley said the grants focus on a range of health topics, including Indigenous health in the Northern Territory, developing an AIDS vaccine and tackling over-diagnosis in the Australian health sector.
"This kind of research plays an important role in making Australians healthier and improving their quality of living," Ley said.
"Health and medical research is essential for the development of more effective medical treatments and key to delivering real health benefits to Australians every day."
A total of 96 grants will be funded from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Medical Research Endowment Account (MREA) which distributes approximately $850 million to health and medical research in Australia this year.
Also noting the importance of the grants, NHMRC CEO Professor Anne Kelso said "we have a highly productive and internationally competitive research community; the recipients of these grants will pursue exciting and innovative research for the benefit of human health".
"The mix of both outstanding new talent and experienced and internationally recognised researchers shows the breadth and depth of medical research in Australia."
The grants cover a diverse range of research disciplines in Australian and collaborative international spheres. They range from smaller postgraduate scholarships, to collaborations with the European Union, to large, multidisciplinary program grants. Program grants support high-calibre collaborative research teams in pursuit of new knowledge at a leading international level in important areas of health and medical research.
NHMRC is committed to rigorous independent expert review of grant applications across all areas of health and medical research. The grants were assessed by independent expert review panels which drew upon the expertise of researchers to assess applications across three NHMRC funding schemes.
Information relating to all individual grants is available on the NHMRC website - www.nhmrc.gov.au
