SMARTER INVESTMENT IN THE RESEARCH LONG GAME Government support for health and medical researchers and innovators needing investment cycle review
With
Nadia Levin, CEO
Research Australia
OP-ED SEGMENT
Filmed in Sydney | April 2026
In this Op-Ed, Nadia Levin, CEO of Research Australia, spoke with the Australian Health Journal about the need for smarter and more strategic investment in Australia’s health and medical research sector.
Levin argued that Australia’s approach to health and medical research has been shaped too heavily by short-term political cycles rather than a long-term national vision. She emphasised that meaningful progress in science, innovation, and healthcare requires sustained investment over many years.
According to Levin, health and medical research should not be viewed simply as a social good, but as a major driver of economic growth, productivity, and national resilience. She highlighted that every preventable hospital admission, faster diagnosis, or locally developed medical product contributes to economic performance.
Research Australia estimates that for every dollar invested in health and medical research, the Australian economy receives around four dollars in return.
Levin pointed to Australia’s past achievements, including the development of IVF, the cochlear implant, the HPV vaccine, and ultrasound imaging, as examples of how research can improve lives while creating industries and export opportunities.
A major focus in the need to strengthen the entire research pipeline, from early-stage discovery through to clinical translation, commercialisation, and integration into healthcare systems. Research Australia in a media release March 2026, noted that while the Medical Research Future Fund was created to distribute around $1 billion annually, it is currently providing only about $650 million each year despite holding approximately $24.5 billion.
Levin referenced costings from the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO), commissioned by Dr Monique Ryan MP, showing the fund could distribute up to $1.4 billion annually without reducing its capital base, arguing that the money, demand, and need already exist, but stronger government commitment is required.
Source: Adapted from Research Australia media release March 2026
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Growing impact of blood cancer on women
According to the Leukaemia Foundation, blood cancer is one of the most urgent and under-recognised women’s health issues in Australia, with three times more Australian women diagnosed with blood cancer than ovarian and cervical cancer combined (Source: AIHW, Cancer Data in Australia, 2024).
Blood cancer has also emerged as the second most common cancer diagnosed in Australian women overall – behind only breast cancer – and the leading cancer amongst girls and women under the age of 30 (Source: AIHW, Cancer Data in Australia, 2024).
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HIGHLIGHTS The power of social determinants of health, panel discussion
Clinicians and consumers know only too well that life circumstances such as poor housing, income and food insecurity can have a negative impact on health outcomes. Conversely, participation in community activities, social connection and access to nature parks and leisure facilities can help maintain health and wellbeing.
More recent phenomena in public health have also focused us on the health and social care connection. Stress factors such as the sudden loss of employment and social interaction, moving to remote work or schooling, and the impacts of sudden, localised COVID-19 ‘lockdowns’ to prevent further outbreaks were triggers of increased psychological distress.
And loneliness is being described as our latest epidemic with chronic loneliness inked to a myriad of health problems and earlier death. A recent report found one in four Australians say they feel persistently lonely, and that loneliness costs $2.7 bn a year in health costs alone.
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Specialist emergency care clinics in rollout
Unlike Emergency Departments that operate within public hospitals and some private hospitals, a Walk-in Specialist Emergency Clinic is located in the community and designed to provide comprehensive, coordinated acute care – from initial consultation and diagnostic services, to treatment and specialist referral if required – without the patient having to visit a hospital.
Australian Health Journal spoke to the visionary, founder and CEO behind this WiSE Specialist Emergency clinic, Dr Pankaj Arora.
