The University of Sydney has emerged as the nation’s leading recipient of funding in the 2026 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grants scheme, securing more than $70 million across 37 research projects.
The NHMRC Investigator Grants support high-performing researchers at all career stages to pursue innovative research across the four pillars of health and medical research: biomedical, clinical, public health and health services research.
As part of the NHMRC’s $430 million investment in Australian health and medical research, the funding will support 37 University of Sydney researchers from the Faculty of Medicine and Health and the Faculty of Science to tackle some of Australia’s greatest health and medical challenges.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Mike Ryan congratulated the successful recipients.
“It’s exceptional to see 37 outstanding researchers successful in this highly competitive NHMRC funding round - our most significant result for Investigator Grants in the past five years.
“At the University of Sydney, we are committed to research that creates positive, real-world impact for communities, and these projects exemplify that commitment.
“From mental health and diabetes, to corneal disease and adolescent health, they demonstrate the quality, depth and strength of our research. Congratulations to all involved.”
See the full list of successful recipients from the Faculty of Medicine and Health and the Faculty of Science.
Delivering solutions to Australia's greatest health challenges
The successful projects demonstrate the breadth of health and medical research excellence at the University of Sydney, with researchers developing innovative solutions to improve prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care.
Among the recipients, Professor Melissa Baysari's work will focus on improving the safety and effectiveness of electronic health records, which are now used across almost all healthcare settings. This program of work will generate and translate evidence on the optimal design and implementation of these systems to minimise the risks while maximising benefits for patients and healthcare providers.
Professor Ollie Jay will investigate the growing health impacts of extreme heat, which is causing record temperatures worldwide and contributing to a substantial burden of illness and death. His research aims to fill critical gaps in heat-health science and deliver urgently needed, sustainable solutions that protect vulnerable populations, strengthen long-term resilience and reduce the burden of other diseases worsened by heat stress.
Professor Georgina Long will investigate why some patients with advanced melanoma develop resistance to immunotherapy despite the significant advances these treatments have delivered. This project will use predictive models to identify treatment-resistant patients upfront, advanced adaptive clinical trial designs to assign patients to experimental drugs based on their unique tumour biology, and biological samples to study mechanisms of resistance to be fed back into future trials.
Associate Professor Jessica Orchard will focus on transforming cardiac screening of young people at increased risk of sudden death, using the sporting setting. Her project will design and evaluate a novel cardiac screening program for young Indigenous people in remote northern Australia using the community sport setting, while also expanding two international registries of cardiac outcomes in athletes.
Professor Maree Teesson will lead research focused on transforming the landscape of mental and substance disorder prevention for young people. She will develop and trial innovative prevention interventions and deploy these scalable, cost-effective interventions to directly address the needs of young people, while building capacity in large-scale prevention research to improve health outcomes of all young people in this generation and beyond.
Together, these projects highlight the University's commitment to addressing major health challenges and improving the health outcomes of people locally and globally.
At the University of Sydney, we are committed to research that creates positive, real-world impact for communities, and these projects exemplify that commitment.
Professor Mike Ryan
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)
Faculty of Medicine and Health grant recipients
- Dr Matthew Ahmadi - Advancing secondary cardiovascular disease prevention through digital health and wearables ($697,615)
- Professor Melissa Baysari - Safety first: Minimising risks and maximising benefits of electronic health records ($2.97 million)
- Associate Professor Justin Beardsley - A Multi-Pronged Response to Antifungal Resistance: Strengthening Surveillance, Stewardship, Therapeutics, and Global Policy ($1.64 million)
- Associate Professor Carissa Bonner - The Heart Health Literacy Toolkit: Harnessing the power of AI to scale up health literacy support and reduce inequity in cardiovascular disease ($1.57 million)
- Dr Marlee Bower - Home Front: Preventing mental health inequities through scalable housing solutions in a changing climate ($697,615)
- Dr Marina de Barros Pinheiro - Transforming falls prevention for older adults ($1.64 million)
- Dr Qi Cao - Development of Chimeric Signalling Switch Receptor for immune cell in kidney diseases ($1.64 million)
- Professor Anthony Cesare - Genome integrity in human health and disease ($2.37 million)
- Associate Professor Katrina Champion - Advancing Adolescent Health: A systems thinking approach to address modifiable risk behaviours for lifelong health ($1.64 million)
- Dr Matthew Doyle - Development of multifunction antibiotics that target bacterial Omp85 surface proteins ($1.64 million)
- Professor Mohammed Eslam - A Holistic Genomic Approach for Precision Management and Health Equity in MAFLD ($2.84 million)
- Dr Alice Gibson - Navigating the Rise of Young-Onset Type 2 Diabetes: A Big Data-Driven, AI-powered ‘Sat Nav’ tool to guide Prevention and Policy ($1.64 million)
- Professor David Harris - Innovative Therapeutic Strategies for Kidney Disease and Transplantation ($3.04 million)
- Professor David Hunter - Developing new evidence and impacting care in osteoarthritis ($3.04 million)
- Professor Ollie Jay - Heat and Health: Safeguarding people across the life course in a warming world ($2.97 million)
- Professor Georgina Long - Cracking the Code of Checkpoint Inhibitor Resistance in Cancer ($3.04 million)
- Professor Rachael Morton - Embedding economics for equitable and cost-effective kidney care ($2.84 million)
- Professor Natasha Nassar - Kids-Linked: Using real-world data and partnership with consumers and advocates to improve child population health, healthcare and policy across the lifespan ($2.97 million)
- Professor Nicola Newton - Up in Smoke: Preventing e-cigarette use (vaping) and related harms among youth ($2.84 million)
- Associate Professor Jessica Orchard - Screening and prevention of sudden cardiac death in young people at increased risk: using the sporting setting ($1.64 million)
- Associate Professor Stephanie Partridge -The Full Picture: Transforming adolescent engagement in diet and prevention research ($1.64 million)
- Dr Mary Petrone - Defining the pathobiology and diversity of Plasmodium-infecting RNA viruses to enhance malaria control ($697,615)
- Associate Professor Sudarshini Ramanathan - From mechanism to medicine: precision diagnosis and therapy in autoimmune neurological disorders ($2.84 million)
- Dr Nicole Scholes-Robertson - Improving equity of access to care for people with chronic kidney disease ($697,615)
- Ms Simone Sherriff - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander self-determination of lactation care: building an Indigenous lactation workforce and community-led actions to support breastfeeding ($658,615)
- Dr Cassandra Sedran-Price - Restoring Visibility, Strengthening Resilience: Indigenous-led Data Solutions for Stolen Generations’ Health Equity ($708,615)
- Dr Crystian Bitencourt Soares de Oliveira - OPTIMUS: OPTImising hospital care for MUSculoskeletal pain ($697,615)
- Professor Maree Teesson - Innovation to impact in the prevention of mental disorders and substance use ($3.04 million)
- Dr Benjamin Trist - Advancing treatment, targeting and monitoring of mitochondria to improve ALS therapy ($697,615)
- Professor Stephanie Watson - Transforming and improving therapies for patients suffering with corneal disease to address unmet patient needs ($2.68 million)
- Associate Professor Chenyu Wang - Transforming Multiple Sclerosis Care: Precision Disease Management with Advanced Clinical Imaging and AI ($1.64 million)
- Associate Professor Chun Xu - Next generation biomaterial-based personalised scaffolds for bone repair ($1.64 million)
- Dr Tie Parma Yamato - Healthy mind, healthy body, successful learner: helping young Australians thrive ($697,615)
Faculty of Science grant recipients
- Professor David James - Mapping Drivers of Tissue Fibrosis Using Systems Genetics and Multi-Omics ($2.44 million)
- Professor Sharon Naismith - TRanslational AdvaNceS in mEchaNisms, trials, and services for Dementia (TRANSEND) ($2.97 million)
- Associate Professor Ellis Patrick - Making Space Count: Methodological Advances for Spatial Omics Analysis ($2.84 million)
- Dr Ziyu Wang - Reprogramming macrophages for heart repair and regeneration ($653,221)
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