News
23 October, 2025
80-year leap for research
THE Queensland Institute of Medical Research Act 1945 has been updated for the first time in 80 years, modernising the governance framework of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research Berghofer (QIMRB) to ensure it remains a leader in medical innovation.
The State Government’s Queensland Institute of Medical Research Bill 2025, repeals and replaces the 80-year-old Act, supporting the QIMRB in its success in developing ground-breaking medical research.
Key reforms include:
• broadening eligibility for commercialised incentive payments to recognise all significant contributors to research projects, beyond just the traditional ‘inventor’ or ‘discoverer’ definitions.
• requiring the Council of the QIMRB to notify the Minister of any serious concerns about financial viability, management, or administration.
• enabling the Council and Director to delegate their powers to appropriately qualified staff of the QIMRB.
• allowing the Minister to appoint, remove, and disqualify Council members where appropriate.
• allowing the Council to appoint an Acting Director for up to six months (extendable to 12 months with Ministerial approval).
Modernising the Act will better position the QIMRB to attract top talent and funding, adapt to emerging scientific trends, and remain competitive nationally and internationally.
Minister for Health and Ambulance Services Tim Nicholls said these reforms ensure the QIMRB is equipped with the flexibility, governance structures, and incentives needed to support high-quality research and continue contributing to improved health outcomes in Queensland.
“The integrity and transparency of its Council will be strengthened by the introduction of modern safeguards that reflect best practice in public governance,” he said.
“At the heart of QIMRB’s success is collaboration. Research breakthroughs are almost never the work of one person alone, so it is important to recognise the many contributors who play an essential role in bringing discoveries to life.”
Established under the existing Act, the QIMRB has grown into a world-class research hub, home to approximately 1,000 scientists, support staff, and students.
It has achieved international success for its groundbreaking research in areas such as immunotherapy and genomics, and is renowned for its work on skin cancer, mosquito-borne diseases, and the genetic risk factors associated with various cancers and mental health conditions.
Since it was established, QIMRB has made many medical achievements, including: Professor Ralph Doherty discovering Ross River virus in the 1960s, Professor Adele Green confirming in 1986 that sunscreen minimised the risk of developing skin cancer, hosting the world’s first human trial of a gene therapy for melanoma in the 1990s, which showed an immune response against the deadly cancer, Professor Georgia Chenevix-Trench identifying the BRCA1 gene’s role in breast cancer, as part of a global collaboration, Dr Brittany Mitchell, along with a global team, discovering nearly 300 previously unknown genes linked to depression, which will help scientists predict depression risk, and Dr Phil Mosley this year discovering a new way of diagnosing melancholia, a debilitating form of depression.
