Women’s Health Victoria welcomed the opportunity to provide feedback to the Medical Research Future Fund Australian Medical Research and Innovation Strategy and Priorities consultation in October 2021.
Women’s Health Victoria advises that in order to truly improve the health and wellbeing of Australians, medical research must urgently address research knowledge gaps around the health of women and girls. Ensuring that medical research incorporates sex and gender into research design, analysis and translation will improve our understanding of the specific needs of women and girls and what works to address these needs, leading to improved health system responses and health outcomes for women and girls.
We recommend that the MRFF Strategy should be altered to include as an objective ‘Address sex and gender bias in medical research and research translation by requiring sex and gender to be incorporated into research design, data analysis and research translation, as a condition of funding.’
Research that addresses sex and gender will improve health outcomes not only for women, but for men, trans and gender-diverse people.
Note: This submission was originally made as a response to an online survey.
More information about the consultation can be found here.
Women's Health Victoria (2021) Response to the Medical Research Future Fund Strategies and Priorities consultation. Women's Health Victoria. Melbourne
