The Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund provides a secure source of funding to drive health and medical research, innovation and commercialisation and through these activities, improve the health and prosperity of all Western Australians. It also provides an opportunity to diversify the economy, create jobs, improve the sustainability of the health system and position WA as a leader in research and innovation.

The FHRI Fund scheme is backed by the State’s sovereign wealth fund. The capital of the fund will be preserved in perpetuity and only the annual investment income will be accessed. The capital balance of the FHRI Fund will continue to build through annual credits of one per cent of the State’s royalty income.

Establishing the FHRI Fund involved three areas of work: developing and implementing legislation; designing an appropriate governance structure; and consulting with stakeholders to inform the Strategy and Priorities for the application of FHRI Fund investment income.

In completing this work, key considerations included:

• The fund’s investment income will be applied through two streams: one for health and medical research; and one for health and medical innovation and commercialisation. The separation of research from innovation and commercialisation is in recognition that the two do not always occur together and tailored support is required for each.
• Processes to select funding recipients will be transparent, competitive and use best-practice processes, such as peer-review, to ensure that only the highest-quality proposals are supported.
• Opportunities to partner with other funders will be pursued to boost funding made available from the FHRI Fund.