For decades, research into health has left women out - because women were seen as too unreliable to participate due to menstruation and hormonal fluctuations.
Now, the Allan Labor Government is bridging this gap, with a new grants program to advance the understanding of how disease and other health issues effect women - also further cementing Victoria's reputation as a global leader in medical research.
The dedicated women's medical research grants program sees $1.5 million Women's Health Research Catalyst Grants open to the sector's best and brightest to apply.
Grants between $50,000 and $150,000 will be awarded for one-year research initiatives specifically focused on sex and gender comparisons and underfunded or under-researched conditions impacting women.
While all areas of health and medical research will be considered, some target areas have been identified as requiring greater understanding of the influence sex and gender have on these conditions - acknowledging that for women they can be experienced very differently to men.
These key areas include sexual and reproductive health, cardiovascular health, oncology, orthopaedics, and chronic pain, among others.
Eligible applicants will need to be from a Victorian Administering Institution and undertaking research in a health and medical field, including discovery, pre-clinical, clinical or lived experience.
The grants program is part of the Labor Government's landmark $153 million investment to improve women's health outcomes and builds on current work to develop a business case for a Women's Health Research Initiative.
This transformation to women's health is also delivering 20 new women's health clinics, expanding our sexual and reproductive health hubs network, doubling the number of laparoscopies for endo and associated conditions and providing scholarships for more than 100 women's specialists.
Victoria has a proud track record of working to improve women's health outcomes - from establishing Victoria's first clinic for women's heart health and launching the state's first ever sexual and reproductive health phone line.
Applications for the Women's Health Research Catalyst Grants open on Monday, 13 January.
For more information, please visit health.vic.gov.au/catalyst-grants-womens-health-research-priorities.
As stated by Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas
"For too long, medical misogyny has labelled women too unreliable to study due to fluctuating hormones - but this shouldn't mean we are excluded, we should be made a focus because of these biological differences."
"Many medical conditions unique to women or those that affect us differently or disproportionately, haven't received the funding or focus they should - these grants will help Victorian women get the care they deserve."
