Table 1.
Government funding for mental health research 2016–2021.
| 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NHMRC | Number of grants | 1056 | 1103 | 1045 | 857 | 741 | 799 | 5601 |
| Number of MH grants | 97 | 106 | 94 | 65 | 81 | 62 | 505 | |
| Total funding | $828,821,760 | $877,678,691 | $783,269,192 | $923,247,229 | $762,465,859 | $988,806,640.49 | $5,164,289,372 | |
| Total MH funding | $74,484,664 | $85,594,843 | $75,616,750 | $71,484,142 | $87,151,120 | $86,765,685 | $481,097,204 | |
| % of funding to MH | 8.99% | 9.75% | 9.65% | 7.74% | 11.43% | 8.77% | 9.32% | |
| MRFF | Number of grants | – | 79 | 126 | 208 | 203 | 46 | 662 |
| Number of MH grants | – | 8 | 14 | 23 | 15 | 9 | 69 | |
| Total funding | – | $91,697,620 | $265,109,326 | $738,821,290 | $666,971,203 | $93,443,125 | $1,856,042,564 | |
| Total MH funding | – | $3,096,864 | $39,342,069 | $43,498,435 | $41,125,987 | $18,709,582 | $145,772,937 | |
| % of funding to MH | – | 3.38% | 14.84% | 5.89% | 6.17% | 20.02% | 7.85% | |
| Combined | Number of grants | 1056 | 1182 | 1171 | 1065 | 944 | 845 | 6263 |
| Number of MH grants | 97 | 114 | 108 | 88 | 96 | 71 | 574 | |
| Total funding | $828,821,760 | $969,376,311 | $1,048,378,518 | $1,662,068,519 | $1,429,437,062 | $1,082,249,765.49 | $7,020,331,936 | |
| Total MH funding | $74,484,664 | $88,691,707 | $114,958,819 | $114,982,577 | $128,277,107 | $105,475,267 | $626,870,141 | |
| % of funding to MH | 8.99% | 9.15% | 10.97% | 6.92% | 8.97% | 9.75% | 8.93% |
NHMRC: National Health and Medical Research Council; MRFF: Medical Research Future Fund; MH: mental health.
These data were assembled using search terms mental health, mental illness, depressi*, anxi*, psychosis, substance use, alcohol use, smoking, adhd, stimulants, cocaine, heroin, amphetamine, sleep, obsessive, panic, ptsd, suicide, bipolar, schizo*, illicit drug, autis*, psychiat* and trauma, as searched in publicly available funding results from the NHMRC and MRFF. These figures differ from official data, as funding bodies categorise mental health research as any research with a component that is relevant to mental health, and includes much fundamental neuroscience (Batterham et al.,2016), which was excluded from this search.