Interview with Worwick Anderson, NHMRC,
Would you begin by outlining the key milestones & achievements of the NHMRC in the past four years? The first point is the development of our initiatives on an international…
Address: Level 1, 16 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra,Australia
Tel: +61 2 6217 9000
The NHMRC is Australia’s NIH equivalent, being the big government funding body for health and medical research. We have always had in our portfolio a full range of health and medical research. Some funding bodies like the UKMRC are more biomedical, but the NHMRC has always been concerned with public health and health services research, so it’s a very broad portfolio. The NHMRC is more than a funding body, and strives to improve the lives of all Australians. For example, the organization publishes evidence-based guidelines for clinical practice and public health. An example of the latter is the current work being completed in finalizing safe alcohol-drinking guidelines, around which there is some controversy as we speak, because the message from science and what the public would like to believe do not always align.
The NHMRC also manages research and clinical ethics systems for Australia, publishing guidelines in this regard. Overall, it’s a fantastic organization of great importance to the health and wealth of the country. The NHMRC was a part of the Department of Health until July of 2006, when, coinciding with my arrival, we became an independent government body within the health portfolio, reporting directly to the Minister, which gives us all sorts of opportunities. Other aspects of the NHMRC portfolio include acting as the body under the Australian parliament act around stem cells, to issue licensing for cloning and embryo experimentation.
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