FHRI Fund Strategy
Disbursements from the Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund investment income are guided by a Strategy and Priorities.
The Advisory Council for the FHRI Fund is responsible for developing the FHRI Fund Strategy and Priorities.
Based on the Strategy, the Department of Health develops Programs and Initiatives that contribute to achieving one or more Priority and the Advisory Council provides a recommendation to the Minister for Medical Research regarding whether these Programs and Initiatives should be approved.
The Strategy, Priorities and Programs and Initiatives are approved by the Minister.
The expandable content at the bottom of this page provides definitions for the Strategy, Priorities, and Programs and Initiatives.
The FHRI Fund governance page provides further details about the roles and responsibilities for developing the Strategy and Priorities. The FHRI Fund Priorities page and FHRI Fund Programs and Initiatives page list the approved Priorities and the Programs and Initiatives respectively.
FHRI Fund Strategy 2025-30
The inaugural FHRI Fund Strategy was developed in 2020, when the FHRI Fund was in its infancy. This strategy focussed on laying the foundations for future strategic investment, and contributions to growing the WA health and medical research and innovation ecosystem.
In 2022, objectives were refreshed and focus areas added to refine the FHRI Fund’s strategic focus.
In 2025, a new strategy with updated strategic themes and priorities was launched to the health and medical research and innovation sector.
The FHRI Fund Strategy 2025–30 introduces a clearer and more structured approach to sector collaboration, ideas progression, and building long-term health and medical research and innovation capability to ensure enduring success.
This strategy was developed to reflect a confident and deliberate narrowing of focus and ensure that the FHRI Fund supports health and medical research and innovation that addresses uniquely Western Australian problems.
Spotlight Program
The Spotlight program is the flagship initiative under the FHRI Fund Strategy 2025-30 under the theme of ‘connect and collaborate’. The Spotlight Program will provide 5-year targeted funding commitments to major, uniquely Western Australian issues, and represents a more refined and targeted approach to delivering FHRI Fund support.
The Spotlight Program will encourage researchers, innovators and consumers to come together from across the sector to plan, partner and propose solutions. It will build capacity in the health system and translate health and medical research and innovation into improved health care.
For more information about FHRI Fund programs open for applications, visit the current opportunities page.
The strategy on a page can be downloaded below
The Strategy can be downloaded from the link below
The inaugural FHRI Fund Strategy was developed through extensive research, analysis of national and international best practice, alignment with important reports and other strategies, and substantial stakeholder consultation.
In August 2022, the FHRI Fund Advisory Council resolved to target six Strategy objectives and, with the approval of the Minister for Medical Research, introduced four focus areas:
- A (Aboriginal, rural and remote health)
- B (burden of diseases)
- C (living with COVID-19 and Long-Covid)
- M (mental health, kept distinct to ensure parity of esteem)
The Strategy on a Page diagram, which can be downloaded below, reflects the above refinements.
The 2020-2022 Strategy can be downloaded from the link below
Development of the Strategy
Research, analysis and preliminary consultations were undertaken in 2017 and 2018 to provide a foundation for establishing the FHRI Fund and developing the inaugural Strategy. These activities included:
- The Deputy Premier’s Health and Medical Research Roundtable (December 2017), which framed the FHRI Fund’s establishment, facilitated discussion about WA’s research environment, and explored plans for research in WA.
- A Review of research, innovation and commercialisation (2018), which informed development of the Strategy and the governance model for the FHRI Fund. More than 60 consultations contributed to this review.
The findings from the above activities informed two major consultations in 2019, which ultimately set the direction for the Strategy. These consultations consisted of a forum held on 13 May 2019, attended by approximately 150 delegates, and a parallel online consultation which received approximately 120 submissions. The Discussion Paper that helped to frame these consultations is available here.
The consumer voice was an important component of this work. The Health Consumers’ Council of WA conducted interviews with consumers about their views on health and medical research. A video of these interviews can be viewed on the Consumer and Community Involvement page of the FHRI Fund website.
The Western Australian Future Health Research and Innovation Fund Act 2012 (the Act) provides that the Governance Framework will include a requirement for the development of a Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund Strategy and FHRI Fund Priority Goals and that these must be tabled in Parliament and published online.
The Governance Framework describes the Strategy, Priority Goals and Programs and Initiatives as follows:
The Strategy provides a high-level vision and goals for research and innovation in WA and forms the basis from which the Priorities are derived. The Advisory Council for the FHRI Fund leads development of the Strategy and the extensive consultations that inform this process. The Advisory Council recommends the Strategy to the Minister for Medical Research for approval.
A Priority is an approach, need or opportunity that has been determined to be critical to achieving the vision of the Strategy that is in place at the time and that aligns with the purpose of the FHRI Fund, as described in the object of the Act. The Priorities are prepared by the Advisory Council and subsequently provided to the Minister for Medical Research for approval.
A Program or Initiative is a mechanism through which funding is directed to a specific purpose and that contributes to achieving one or more Priority. Programs and Initiatives are approved by the Minister for Medical Research based on a proposal by the Director General of the Department of Health. However, the Act provides that the Minister for Medical Research must seek a recommendation from the Advisory Council and consider the recommendation subsequently received before making, or applying FHRI Account moneys to, Programs and Initiatives in the financial year.