The 2026 NHMRC-Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) grant opportunity supports Australian participation in an international collaboration with Switzerland through the Australian - Swiss Joint Research Programme Call for Proposals 2026.

Overview

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is collaborating with SNSF to support Joint Research Projects. These projects must promote collaborative work with clearly defined goals, involving at least one partner based in Switzerland and one based in Australia.

The research field for this collaboration focuses on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare for populations of diverse sex, gender or sexual orientations or other underrepresented population groups. Applicants must justify how their target population is considered underrepresented within the context of this funding opportunity.

Research Areas and Topics

Possible topics for investigation include, but are not limited to:

• AI for medical decision support for diagnosis and treatment planning, with a focus on underrepresented population groups
• Addressing bias in medical training data
• Enhancing trust and trustworthiness in AI-based decision support
• Interpretability of AI applications in gender medicine

The following topics are excluded from consideration:

• Theoretical AI approaches that do not tackle any relevant problem of gender medicine or for underrepresented population groups
• AI not including any underrepresented population groups or data bias
• Studies focusing on underrepresented population groups that are only relevant in Australia or Switzerland

Funding and Benefits

Total Amount Available (AUD): $5,000,000.00

Estimated Grant Value (AUD): From $0.00 to $500,000.00

Grant Activity Timeframe: Four years

Eligibility

Applications will only be accepted from NHMRC Administering Institutions.

All applications must satisfy all the requirements set out in the 2026 NHMRC-SNSF Guidelines.

Proposals are required to be jointly prepared by Swiss and Australia-based applicants.

Application Process and Timeline

Proposals must be jointly prepared and submitted via the SNSF Portal and Sapphire.

All Australia-based research team members must register an account on the Sapphire Portal.

The deadline for submission is not specified, but applicants should refer to the official guidelines.

For further details, please visit the official funding portal.