With budget tightening, and despite a plethora of worthy research projects and top researchers, National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) success rates are continuing to fall, with the success rate this year being 13.7%.

The world-leading research at Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI) in the fields of cancer research, embryology, neurobiology and gene therapy has been rewarded with a 37% NHMRC grant success rate: CMRI research leaders A/Prof Robyn Jamieson, Dr Tony Cesare, Prof Patrick Tam, Prof Ian Alexander and Dr Leszek Lisowski are among those who have had their efforts recognised with an NHMRC award.

Dr Tony Cesare's work on cancer won two NHMRC project grants, with one application on which he was Chief Investigator B (CIB) receiving a score that ranks it among the top five applications in the nation. Prof Patrick Tam’s excellence in the field of embryology was recognised with his fifth consecutive Fellowship (four of which have been at the level of Senior Principal Research Fellow).

The award to CMRI’s newest group leader, Dr Leszek Lisowski, will help underpin research into gene editing technology for gene therapy, and the announcement comes as he gets set to launch CMRI’s new Vector and Genome Engineering Facility. We also congratulate CMRI’s Prof Phil Robinson, who was Chief Investigator B (CIB) on a successful NHMRC project grant, and Prof Ian Alexander who was CIB on Dr Lisowski’s grant.
“The great thing about acquiring this level of funding is that it enables us to ‘do’ the research. Our time & energy is freed to focus on our research objectives instead of continuously pursuing funding opportunities.”- Dr. Tony Cesare speaking on the strong institutional performance.