Australia’s Health Minister Greg Hunt announces $3m for medical research

Health Minister Greg Hunt announces $3 million for biomedical research funding for chronic fatigue syndrome!

 

Who is the money going to?

 

Please let it not get sucked into the black hole that is NCNED or even worse to BPS researchers.

 

ugh...it would be a shame if they got the money. Their biomarker research is ridiculous. In the US, no researchers are heralding their "discovery".

 

They actually have done a lot of neuro imaging stuff (Barnden) and are at least looking at a variety of angles. They are also ready to talk to the newspapers about how bad the illness/that it's real etc.. So they have definitely done some good.

 

Here’s the link to the media release online: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/m...sf/Content/health-mediarel-yr2019-hunt051.htm

 

@hixxy
There is a danger of that and we can see UNSW gearing up, releasing a review recently calling for more biopsychosocial studies into ‘mecfs’ (although they don’t use the Canadian Consensus Criteria).

 

First the Greens, now Liberals. Must be Labor's turn now.

 

This is the second recommendation from the NHMRC ME/CFS Advisory Committee which has been implemented, which is really encouraging, given that the committee’s final report hasn’t been released yet. The first was for a health economics study: https://www.grants.gov.au/?event=public.GO.show&GOUUID=8E688A94-D501-6184-7128C473FE3CD789

This has truly been a community effort. In addition to the committee’s work, many advocates have written letters to MPs and had meetings with politicians (with several meeting with Hunt). The combined efforts have paid off!

 

Thanks Simone and everyone for their efforts!

 

I still don't know where the money is going...!

 

It's not been allocated yet. As I understand it, it is a $3 million pot of cash that researchers will be able to put proposals forwards, asking for funding from that pot.

 

This is very good news.

In pounds It’s equivalent to £1.6 m of state funds for research. Australia has a population of just under 1/3 of UK (23m), so it’s quite a large sum. In proportion UK should be investing £4m and the USA £20m odd (I think)

We need several countries having a significant research effort to make proper progress. They’re doing what our MRC refuse, putting up money to stimulate research interest which imo is obviously the right thing to do.

Edited for Australian dollars not US.
Edited to note the 1% prevalence rate quoted in article

 

Yep, that’s exactly right.

A worst case scenario would be for someone like Andrew Lloyd to get a grant from this, but at the very least we know he won’t get all of it, because it will be multiple grants. And, hopefully, the emphasis in the ME/CFS Advisory Committee’s report itself (that NHMRC funding should prioritise biomedical research and use CCC to select patients) will make it more difficult for psychosocial researchers to be successful in getting a grant from this.

 

@Simone thank you for keeping us informed and clarifying information, much appreciated. Hope we see Emerge video clips soon, not that I'm eager or anything

 

I hope Neil McGregor gets some of this stash.

 

Here’s the response from Dr Chris Armstrong and Prof Paul Fisher, who came to meetings with Minister Hunt about the funding, and Christine Hunter who has lobbied politicians for decades (as well as raising funds for research, organised conferences and more):

https://meaustralia.net/2019/03/28/australian-government-announces-3-million-for-medical-research/

 

I presume/hope that a commitment is being sought from the Labor party to match or better this. I am guessing minister Hunt's announcement won't be set in stone before the May election so may be overturned in the somewhat likely event that they lose. Getting Labor on board now seems vital.