Why is research important?
It’s hard to imagine what our lives would be like without vaccinations, organ transplants, cancer treatments or diagnostic tools and, luckily, we don’t have to.
Over the centuries, medical researchers have sown the seeds of progress for our future health and it’s an indisputable fact that medical research changes lives.
Our researchers laid the foundations of medical advancements we all benefit from today and our sole purpose at AMRF is to provide funding for researchers right here, right now so they can continue finding the solutions of tomorrow.
We have funded pioneers like Sir Brian Barratt-Boyes who led the way in heart bypass surgery and fast forward to the present, we are supporting Dr Brigid Ryan in her world-first study of a family with a gene causing frontotemporal dementia.
Why Auckland Medical Research Foundation?
We are the largest independent funder of medical research in New Zealand and since 1955, we’ve awarded over $96,000,000 of funding for research led out of the Auckland and Northland region.
At AMRF, we know our stuff and pride ourselves in having some of the most robust evaluation processes you could wish to find in New Zealand and the world.
Our Board and Medical Committee are committed experts and professionals who all gift their time and extensive knowledge to make us the best we can be.
All of our funding is contestable so this means research is supported in the vast array of medical and health science fields - research that can make a transformational difference in the lives of all New Zealanders, no matter what age or stage.
AMRF makes a commitment to openness on the use of animals in health research.
The Auckland Medical Research Foundation recognises that animal research is essential for discoveries to improve the health and well-being of humans and makes vital contributions to understanding biological and disease processes. Some of the research projects funded by the Foundation may involve animals.
The Foundation is a signatory of the Openness Agreement on Animal Research and Teaching in New Zealand, developed by the Australian and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching (ANZCCART). As a signatory we commit to better inform people about the use of animals in research through our website and communications.
We acknowledge our fellow signatories, which include research institutions that host AMRF-funded researchers and projects. It is a requirement of the Foundation that the institution or organisation that contracts any AMRF-funded researcher ensures research projects meet all current ethical codes and legislation concerning the use and welfare of animals in research and including the legislatively required implementation of the Three Rs (replacement, reduction and refinement of animal use).
A little girl, a doctor, a new lease on life.
Kiriana Elliot was only 8 years old when she was diagnosed with leukaemia and her mum, Ursula, described this as ‘the worst day of our lives’.
The next two years were a roller-coaster for the Elliot family, facing all of the physical, emotional and financial challenges that a cancer diagnosis brings.
Their guiding light throughout was Dr Andrew Wood, Kiriana’s specialist at Starship Hospital and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Auckland undertaking vital research into childhood leukaemia treatments.
A family gift was responsible for bringing Dr Wood back to New Zealand after having worked offshore in America for many years.
In Andrew’s words “The AMRF Douglas Goodfellow Repatriation Fellowship Award has provided the critical start-up funds for establishing my position at the University of Auckland and the reputation of the AMRF review process is instrumental in helping to attract other research funding needed to carry on this project.”
This gift brought home a talented, respected and experienced researcher and provided Kiriana with the specialist care needed to have her return home to her family in full remission.
