Funding for cerebral palsy research in Australia, 2000-2015: an observational study.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the funding for cerebral palsy (CP) research in Australia, as compared with the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

DESIGN: Observational study.

SETTING: For Australia, philanthropic funding from Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation (CPARF) (2005-2015) was compared with National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC, 2000-2015) and Australian Research Council (ARC, 2004-2015) and CPARF and NHMRC funding were compared with NIH funding (USA).

PARTICIPANTS: Cerebral Palsy researchers funded by CPARF, NHMRC or NIH.

RESULTS: Over 10 years, total CPARF philanthropic funding was $21.9 million, including people, infrastructure, strategic and project support. As competitive grants, CPARF funded $11.1 million, NHMRC funded $53.5 million and Australian Research Council funded $1.5 million. CPARF, NHMRC and NIH funding has increased in real terms, but only the NIH statistically significantly increased in real terms (mean annual increase US$4.9 million per year, 95% CI 3.6 to 6.2, p<0.001). The NHMRC budget allocated to CP research remained steady over time at 0.5%. A network analysis indicated the relatively small number of CP researchers in Australia is mostly connected through CPARF or NHMRC funding.

CONCLUSIONS: Funding for CP research from the Australian government schemes has stabilised and CP researchers rely on philanthropic funding to fill this gap. In comparison, the NIH is funding a larger number of CP researchers and their funding pattern is consistently increasing.