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Victoria to receive more than $55 million in research funding

A total of 140 health and medical research projects in Victoria, including efforts to better understand the mechanisms that lead to stomach cancer and identify the genes for multiple sclerosis, will receive more than $55 million in research funding next year.

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30 October 2002

Victoria to receive more than $55 million in research funding

A total of 140 health and medical research projects in Victoria, including efforts to better understand the mechanisms that lead to stomach cancer and identify the genes for multiple sclerosis, will receive more than $55 million in research funding next year.

Announcing the funding today, Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator Kay Patterson, congratulated the successful applicants saying the National Health and Medical Research Council's annual project funding round was highly competitive.

"In total, 406 important health and medical research projects across Australia will receive more than $150 million in funding from the NHMRC next year," she said.

"Funding applications to the NHMRC are extensively peer reviewed and successful applicants can be justly proud of their achievement. This year's projects reflect the increasing effort being directed into providing money for research into a wide variety of health issues affecting Australians."

Twenty Victorian institutions have received 36.9 per cent of available funds, recognition of the high quality of proposals submitted by researchers from that state.

"The projects are numerous and wide ranging. For example, the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research will investigate the gene mutations commonly found in stomach tumours, with a view to developing more rational approaches to stomach cancer screening and treatment," Senator Patterson said.

"This is important because stomach cancer is a major health problem worldwide. It is the second most common cancer and the second leading cause of death from cancer, behind lung cancer. Approximately 10 per cent of all new reported cancer cases worldwide are stomach cancer and the risk increases with age, with men affected twice as often as women.

"Another project at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute will attempt to identify the genes for multiple sclerosis - a disease of young adults that affects around 10,000 Australians, with women affected more often than men."

The funding for health and medical research in Australia was doubled by the Commonwealth in the 1999-2000 Federal Budget, as a result of the Wills Review.

Details of the 406 Project Funding Agreements are at: www.nhmrc.gov.au/funding/outcom02.htm

Media Contact: Randal Markey, Media Adviser, (02) 6277 7220
Jeanne Klener, Media Unit, NHMRC, (02) 6289 5796