Australia’s health department opens up to $23 million for PASC research

Australia’s health department has opened a new federal funding round offering up to $23 million for research into post-acute sequelae of COVID-19, or PASC.

The Medical Research Future Fund grant opportunity was announced on April 13 and is aimed at projects looking at the biological pathways and causes of PASC, early-stage clinical or pre-clinical research, comparisons with related post-viral illnesses, and scalable integrated care approaches.

The department said the money comes from the MRFF’s Emerging Priorities and Consumer-Driven Research initiative. NHMRC’s tracker also listed the announcement on the same day, confirming the funding call as current.

Australia has already committed to long COVID research through earlier MRFF work, and the new round adds another funding channel for researchers studying persistent symptoms after infection.

The government has not yet said which teams will win support or how many projects will be funded.