What we fund

Care research grants support research projects seeking to improve the quality of life of people diagnosed with, or affected by, MND through improved social, physical and emotional care.

Care research grants guideline doc

Care Seed Funding encourages researchers to collaborate with clinicians, allied health professionals and people living with MND on care research projects. 

Care Research Seed Grants guideline doc

Care Support Grants support projects developing, innovating and implementing ways to improve how people living with and affected by MND are supported and cared for in Australia. 

Two funding opportunities are available:​

• Equipment and Services guideline doc​
• Improvement and Innovation Guideline doc

Clinical Trial Grants support Phase II and III trials of promising new treatments for MND in the Australian Clinical Trials Consortium.  

Drug Development Grants support projects preparing promising drugs for final testing before they can be used in clinical trials. 

These grants help researchers to: 

• Discover and develop drugs that target key parts of the body affected by MND. 

• Complete pre-clinical studies, which are laboratory tests – such as studies using cells or other models – to check whether a drug is safe and likely to work. 

IMPACT Grants support projects working to solve the problems slowing down research and treatment for MND. They focus on the reasons why some drugs and clinical trials haven’t worked in the past, and how to fix that.  

IMPACT projects are helping to: 

• Design cutting-edge therapies using a patient’s own cells. 
• Create treatments targeting the genes that cause MND. 
• Understand how MND affects people differently, so treatments can be more personalised. 
• Find special signs in the body, called molecular markers, to help doctors diagnose MND earlier or see if a treatment is working. 
• Build better lab models to study MND and test new treatments. 

Discovery projects explore why MND occurs and what drives its progression. They support projects focused on: 

• uncovering the underlying causes and mechanisms of the disease.  
• helping researchers understand how MND develops and changes over time. 

By testing new ideas and methods, these projects can help researchers learn more about MND and find ways to treat it. 

The Bill Guest Mid-Career Research Fellowship is named in honour of Bill Guest AM. As FightMND’s inaugural Chair, he helped define the organisation’s vision and lasting impact. Bill stepped down from the Board in mid-2025. He leaves a legacy of leadership and passion for MND research. 

Early-Career Research Fellowships support the next generation of scientists to establish their careers in MND research. The four-year fellowship gives researchers the chance to launch their own projects, work with other researchers and grow as MND experts. Their work looks at what causes MND and how it develops, aiming to find better treatments and, one day, a cure. 

The National Research Infrastructure Grant focuses on establishing, strengthening and sustaining national-scale infrastructure for MND research in Australia. These grants aim to increase investment into innovative and essential MND research infrastructure and foster partnerships for co-developing research facilities. 

This annual scholarship supports early-career researchers pursuing bold, high-impact projects to understand, treat, and ultimately cure MND. Created in memory of Angie Cunningham, it reflects her belief in mentorship, curiosity, and the power of research to create change. 

Awarded for the first time in 2025, the MND Care PhD Scholarship and Grant-in-Aid aims to support early-career researchers focused on advancing evidence-based, person-centered care for people living with MND.