Supporting medical innovation to deliver better health for Australians

The Australian government is providing A$5.2 million ($3.9 million) to support researchers and small and medium start-up businesses to deliver innovative health and medical breakthroughs, and better health outcomes for Australians.

For many years, Australia has had an enviable international reputation for delivering ground-breaking health and medical research outcomes that make a real difference to the lives of people in Australia and around the world, said Greg Hunt, Minister for Health and Sport
He said that A$5 million from the Medical Research Future Fund will be used to fund a new Biotech Horizons program to boost Australia's ability to move cutting edge ideas and breakthrough discoveries towards proof-of-concept.

Launching SME Assist

The Minister also announced the launch of SME Assist – a new service run by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to provide free, practical and useful online resources that answer many of the basic questions often asked of the TGA.

There will be phone and email support from a dedicated team to help people with specific questions or more complex queries. SME Assist will help many of the small and medium size enterprises at the Translational Research Institute.

Workshops and webinars will also be available from August and are expected to help more than 300 small and medium sized businesses a year to understand what they need to do and streamline their journey.