Federal Grants 'More Generous Than Expected'

The latest round of medical research grants were announced yesterday – with studies investigating diabetes and kidney disease in Aboriginal children and their mothers among the projects to receive Federal Government funding.

A total of $673 million was awarded yesterday – more than expected after early indications that the size of the grants would be cut.

The University of Adelaide was awarded a record $44.8 million in Federal Government funding.

The Federal Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, announced the 2012 National Health and Medical Research Council grants with a total of 61 health and medical grants were awarded to University of Adelaide researchers - a significant increase over the previous year.

The University of Sydney received $87.8 million for 149 projects and Newcastle University was the awarded the highest amount of money for a regional university – with $12.7 million in 21 grants.

Newcastle University Professor Mike Calford, said told the Sydney Morning Herald that the grants were a welcome surprise.

''In fact the funding that's come through from the NHMRC [National Health and Medical Research Council] today overall is record funding for the country,'' he said. ''I think the action that was taken by patient support groups, by research support groups, was necessary at that time, and it did show that the public do want to see medical research funded at a relatively high level in this country.''

The Australian reported today that Green groups also received funding with the government providing “$3 million in grants to supporters of climate change action to promote efforts to cut global warming and support the government's clean energy package as it seeks to head off Tony Abbott's anti-carbon tax campaign.”