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Funding for rural health research from the Australian Research Council: A missed opportunity?
Author(s) -
McDonald John
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
australian journal of rural health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.48
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1440-1584
pISSN - 1038-5282
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1584.2009.01055.x
Subject(s) - rural health , national rural health mission , rural area , research council , medical research , economic growth , medicine , government (linguistics) , business , political science , environmental health , health services , population , linguistics , philosophy , pathology , economics
Abstract Objective: To determine the number of projects, and level of funding, for rural health research from the Australian Research Council (ARC).Design: Analyses of ARC searchable datasets of completed, and new and ongoing projects from 2001 to 2008.Main outcome measures: Number of rural health research projects as a proportion of total funding; level of funding for rural health research projects as a proportion of total funding.Results: Only 46 of 6498 ARC completed projects were classified as rural health research projects. This represents 0.7% of the total number of projects, and 0.39% of the total funding allocated. Only 25 of 4659 ARC new and ongoing projects were classified as rural health research projects. This represents 0.54% of the total number of projects, and 0.27% of the total funding allocated. None of the 832 completed fellowships were classified as rural health. Only five (0.52%) of the 953 new and ongoing fellowships were classified as rural health.Conclusions: The level of under‐funding for rural health research could be partially addressed by directing applications towards the ARC, in addition to the National Health and Medical Research Council. With a few exceptions, rural health researchers are not yet competitive in the national funding arena.