Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund

The State Government has established, the FHRI Fund by repurposing the WA Future Fund through the Western Australian Future Health Research and Innovation Fund Act 2012 (external site) (the Act). The Act received the Royal Assent on 27 May 2020. Key features of the legislation include:

• The object of the Act is to improve, through research and innovation, the health and prosperity of Western Australians, the sustainability of the health system and to advance the State’s standing as a leader in research and innovation.
• The capital of the fund will be administered by the Treasurer. The capital will grow through the annual crediting of one per cent of the State’s royalty income.
• The investment income earned on the capital will be transferred each year to a Department of Health account, from which funds will be applied to support health and medical research, innovation and commercialisation.
• The legislation provides that the appropriate Minister must establish and maintain the FHRI Fund Advisory Council (see the governance section for further details).
• There is a governance framework, which sets out the requirement for a strategy and priorities for funding.
• Special provision was made in 2020/21 for research and innovation related to human coronaviruses.

The Act requires the Minister to establish and maintain the advisory council, which will guide the application of investment income from the FHRI Fund. The advisory council will be made up of eminent persons with experience in fields such as business, law, finance, corporate governance and the philanthropic, charitable and not-for-profit sectors. The advisory council will include a member who is expert in consumer and community health matters, a member who is expert in regional health matters and a member who is expert in Aboriginal health matters. In order to provide additional links to national and international opportunities while also minimising perceived conflicts of interest, one of the two research and innovation experts will, on an alternating basis, not be based in WA. There will also be a research expert and an innovation expert on the Advisory Council, with these positions intended to be filled from outside WA. There will be two non-voting State Government members, one of whom will be the Director General of the Department of Health, or nominee. The other is the Director General of the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation. The Minister appoints the advisory council Chair for a 3-year term and members for a 2-year term and may reappoint a member to the advisory council.

Because of the high-level, strategic nature of the advisory council, expert committees will be formed as required to provide advice about contemporary issues and opportunities, and to contribute specialist knowledge.

The roles, responsibilities and membership for the advisory council are described in the FHRI Fund Governance Framework. This framework also sets out the roles and responsibilities of the Minister and the Department of Health and describes how the strategy and priorities for the FHRI Fund will be developed, among other things. An updated version of the FHRI Fund Governance Framework, reflecting amendments agreed to during the legislative process, will be tabled in parliament in the coming months. As required in the FHRI Fund Act, the governance framework will be published online. The governance framework, and other important FHRI Fund documents, will be available on the FHRI Fund website.

Disbursements from FHRI Fund investment income will be guided by a strategy and priorities.

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).