Applications open for Australian government’s $3m ME/CFS grant

The Australian government is calling for applications for its $3m Targeted Call for Research (TCR) into ME/CFS. TCR’s function similarly to NIH’s Request for Applications (RFA) in that they guarantee the funds go to the focus of the TCR and are designed to stimulate research in that area.

Getting a TCR funded has been a goal of ME/CFS advocacy in Australia for a number of years, with many groups and advocates meeting with politicians to lobby for it. The National Health & Medical Research Council’s ME/CFS Advisory Committee, which released its report a few months ago, was initiated following a proposal for a TCR submitted to NHMRC in 2016 by ME/CFS South Australia. And the Advisory Committee’s report itself also recommended a TCR. Getting this finally funded certainly feels like a community achievement worth celebrating!

The government has so far been following the ME/CFS Advisory Committee’s recommendations, and hopefully it will continue to do so by keeping the focus of the grant on biomedical rather than psychosocial research. I have some concerns that there is enough room left for psychosocial researchers to wiggle through.

Applications will be open from 23 Oct 2019 to 29 January 2020.

https://www.health.gov.au/ministers...open-for-research-on-chronic-fatigue-syndrome

 

Well done advocates. I’ve just done the conversions, $3m Australian dollars is £1.6m and around $2m US dollars. Not bad size sum for a country with a population of 25.5m. To correspond according to population size UK would need to put in £4.1 m and US $25.6m. If my figures are right !

 

It’s also worth comparing this with government funding for ME/CFS research in the past which, for more than the past decade, has been around $100,000 per year, almost none of which has gone to biomedical research. This will be $3m over 3 years. Not as much as we’d like, of course, but a huge increase on what we’ve had.

 

Moderator note: merged thread


In a hearing today, Senator Steele-John asked NHMRC CEO how they would screen out studies that look for psychological causes when assessing grant applications.

Grant applications opened today (23 Oct 2019) for $3m in government funding announced earlier this year by Health Minister Greg Hunt.

https://meaustralia.net/2019/10/23/...ow-they-will-avoid-funding-harmful-therapies/

 

The grant guidelines were released today. Based on the recommendations of NHMRC’s ME/CFS Advisory Committee, “the ME/CFS TCR will support research that is collaborative with a focus on addressing the current knowledge gaps in ME/CFS.”

The intended aims of the ME/CFS TCR are to:

The objectives of the ME/CFS TCR are to:

In keeping with the recommendations of the NHMRC’s ME/CFS Advisory Committee’s report, the grant guidelines also suggest that applicants adopt the Canadian Consensus Criteria (CCC) or the International Consensus Criteria (ICC) or the Paediatric Primer criteria, as well as the NIH’s Common Data Elements for participant selection.

The full grant guidelines can be downloaded from here:
http://bit.ly/TCRGuidelines

 

Senator Steele-John is a hero. Glad he is taking this on.

 

Merged thread
Current Grant Opportunity View - GO3105
NHMRC Targeted Call for Research (TCR) into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)
Grant Activity Timeframe:
Late 2020

Total Amount Available (AUD):
$3,000,000.00
Instructions for Application Submission:
Applications must be submitted electronically using NHMRC’s online Research Grants Management System (RGMS) unless otherwise advised by NHMRC.

Other Instructions:
Minimum data closes Wednesday 15 January 2020, 5pm (AEDT)


https://www.grants.gov.au/?event=public.GO.show&GOUUID=657893D0-D89E-250C-7B7A61ED84C05CA7

 

That seems short. Though I would expect many proposals are already more or less complete but either previously rejected or not submitted yet.

We'll only find out about those that get funded, uh? Curious to see what proposals come in vs. what gets funded.