MND Australia Research Grants 2027: Up to $425,000 for Postdoctoral Fellowships or $100,000 for Innovator Projects

MND Australia Research Grants 2027: Up to $425,000 for Postdoctoral Fellowships or $100,000 for Innovator Projects

Historical reference: MND Australia’s 2027 Research Grant Round is closed. The published application deadline was Monday, 21 September 2026 at 5 p.m. AEST. The official application page still describes the 2027 round but does not announce a later round. No new deadline or current application window is confirmed here. The information below records the terms and instructions published for that closed call; it is not an invitation to submit a late application.

MND Australia’s 2027 round invited Australian-based researchers to propose work across the spectrum of motor neurone disease (MND) research. It included Innovator Grants, Postdoctoral Fellowships and a Queensland-specific David Deguara MND Research Fellowship funded by the MND&Me Foundation. The official call presented the schemes as a way to support discovery and biomedical research alongside translational, clinical, health services, implementation, care and quality-of-life work. This page keeps those details for researchers comparing past calls or preparing background notes for a future announcement. Applicants should return to the official application page for any later round and should not assume that the 2027 terms carry forward unchanged.

Archived round at a glance

The deadline was a fixed date, not a rolling intake. MND Australia said applications for all funding streams had to be submitted by the stated time. The official announcement also described a separate expression-of-interest deadline for care research pitch sessions, Thursday, 16 July, with sessions planned for late July. Those sessions were preparatory feedback opportunities, not an extension to the full application deadline. Both opportunities have passed.

Funding recorded in the 2027 call

The Postdoctoral Fellowship was offered for three years to researchers with a track record in MND or a related area, or who could bring relevant new skills and knowledge into Australian MND research. MND Australia described its contribution as $125,000 per year toward a full-time salary, alongside a one-off $50,000 payment for research expenses. The call also allowed fellowships to be undertaken at 0.8 FTE. These figures describe the published award structure; they should not be treated as a current offer or as a guarantee that an institution’s full employment costs would be covered.

The David Deguara Fellowship used the same three-year salary contribution and research expense payment. It was funded by the MND&Me Foundation and designated for Queensland-based postdoctoral researchers. The published eligibility text required applicants to be Queensland-based and to meet the same limit of no more than five years of research experience, counted from the date the doctoral thesis was passed as at 21 September 2026. Applicants were also expected to have MND or related research experience, or to explain how their skills would contribute new knowledge to Australian MND research.

Innovator Grants were described as one-year grants intended to seed innovative research and answer new questions or investigate new aspects of a research problem. The maximum was $100,000 for a 12-month project, but smaller budgets and shorter periods were possible. MND Australia said Innovator work could be undertaken at 0.5 FTE and that a project timeline could extend beyond 12 months where appropriate. The application still needed to show that the work was feasible within the proposed time and requested resources. Flexibility in staffing or duration did not remove the need to justify the scope and budget.

The highest-scoring Care Research Innovator application was designated to receive the MND South Australia Care Research Grant. The call described this as a recognition within the Innovator process, rather than a separate application stream. Its pitch sessions were meant to encourage proposals from clinical care, allied health, health services, implementation science, palliative care, psychosocial care and related areas. Because the 2027 round has ended, these features are useful only as a record of that round unless the funder repeats them in a later call.

Research scope and fit

The 2027 invitation covered basic and biomedical research as well as projects intended to improve care and quality of life for people living with MND. The official application page listed clinical measurement and biomarkers, health care and models of care, health services and systems research, bridging health equity gaps, research translation and implementation science, psychosocial and cognitive care, symptom management and supportive technologies among the encouraged categories. It also welcomed translational and clinical research.

The breadth of the call meant that a strong proposal needed to make its MND relevance explicit, whatever its discipline. A laboratory project could explain the particular disease mechanism, model or knowledge gap it addressed. A clinical or health-services proposal could identify the care problem, population and outcome it would study. Work on a device or supportive technology could describe the need it answered and how benefit would be assessed. The funder emphasized that the potential benefit and relevance to the MND community should be clearly delineated.

MND Australia stated that grants were not intended to pay for incremental continuation of a project already performed, or to validate minor variations of findings already established in another model or disease area. The proposal therefore needed to explain what was genuinely new, why the chosen approach could answer its question and what useful result or decision the work could produce. Novelty language by itself would not demonstrate a new research contribution.

The official page said the program particularly sought to provide opportunities for early- and mid-career researchers, while permitting applicants at all levels. It strongly preferred that senior researchers encourage more junior members of their teams to apply. This was guidance about program intent, not a substitute for the stream-specific rules in the application materials.

Eligibility recorded for the closed round

For a Postdoctoral Fellowship, an applicant could have no more than five years of research experience from the date their doctoral thesis was passed, measured as at 21 September 2026. The David Deguara stream added the Queensland-base requirement. Both fellowship descriptions referred to an MND or related research track record, or relevant new skills and knowledge that could contribute to Australian MND research. The call linked to its application form for additional eligibility details.

Innovator Grant eligibility and any limits on concurrent or repeat awards were also controlled by the form and guidelines. MND Australia’s page noted a limit of two Innovator Grants held during any five-year period; fellowship holders could hold two Innovator Grants in that period in addition to a Fellowship. Anyone assessing the old round should consult the original published terms rather than infer eligibility from the broad summary here. These historical criteria do not establish eligibility for any future MND Australia program.

How the 2027 application was submitted

The official instructions for that round directed researchers to download and complete the application form and submit the application by email. The 2027 form was revised on 29 June. The announcement specified the submission email address as [email protected]; applicants were expected to follow the form and the live application page for the complete package and any stream-specific requirements. The call did not describe a rolling review or late-submission process.

For historical reference, a prospective applicant to that round would first have selected the suitable stream and checked both applicant and host arrangements against the form. They would then have set out the research question, aims, methods, milestones and requested resources in the format MND Australia supplied. A fellowship case also needed to make the applicant’s experience and research environment clear. An Innovator proposal needed a scope that matched the award ceiling and proposed duration. A care-focused idea could have been put forward through the pitch-session expression of interest, but the full grant application remained a separate submission.

The funder required any applicant who had received MND Australia funding in the preceding five years to include an outcome report of no more than one page for each previously funded project. Each report was to summarize the project or fellowship, outcomes, impacts and relevance to the MND community. The precise set of forms, signatures, attachments and institutional endorsements was defined by the round’s application materials; this page does not reproduce a substitute checklist. Researchers looking at a future round should obtain its current form instead of reusing the 2027 version.

Applications had to reach MND Australia by email before 5 p.m. AEST on Monday, 21 September 2026. The official source gave no grace period. Researchers preparing for that call would have needed to allow time for institutional checks, signatures, file completeness and email delivery. Those instructions are historical now: a late email cannot be represented as an open application, and the page does not indicate that the funder is accepting submissions after the published cutoff.

Review and reporting terms

MND Australia said its Grant Review Criteria and Relative to Opportunity Guidelines were aligned with NHMRC guidance, adapted for MND-specific research. The page noted that the guidance addressed research quality, career disruptions, different career paths and resource availability. It also said the scoring criteria were being refined and that updated guidance would be provided. Because that note was tied to the 2027 application page, researchers should check the latest official material before relying on it for another round.

Across disciplines, an application needed to show a clear research question, an appropriate and feasible approach, and the capability or environment to carry it out. A useful proposal would explain the expected value to MND knowledge, treatment, care, services or quality of life without promising an outcome the study could not establish. For a seed project, a focused question and proportionate budget would make feasibility easier to assess. For a Fellowship, the research plan and the applicant’s development as a researcher needed to form a coherent case.

Successful recipients in the published program were required to submit six-monthly progress reports, a final report and a financial acquittal at project completion. Those reporting obligations applied to funded projects and remain part of this archive’s record of the round. They should not be confused with evidence that a particular application was funded or that a later round has opened.

Official source and status

MND Australia’s application page is the official source for the 2027 call details summarized here. Its page identifies the 2027 Grant Round, lists the 21 September deadline, describes the streams and links to application materials. The associated 2027 round announcement records the same deadline, email route and pitch-session information. The official page is currently the reference for verifying any update; this archive does not claim that a 2028 or later call has been announced.

Before pursuing funding, check the application page for a new round, its own deadline and its current rules. Confirm the award amounts, eligible applicant base, career-stage requirements, application documents, submission address and any special care-research opportunities from that round’s own materials. Do not rely on the 2027 amounts or instructions as if they were still active. Until MND Australia publishes another call, this page should be read as a historical account of a closed funding opportunity, with the real deadline retained so the archived round remains identifiable.