The Peter Doherty Institute at Uni Melbourne will host a $250m centre, researching ways to speed up creating drugs for viruses, (as distinct from vaccines)

The funding is from Canadian expat philanthropists Geoff and Anna Cumming. Uni Melbourne calls it, “the largest philanthropic donation to medical research, and one of the largest gifts, in Australia’s history.”

The state government is kicking in another $70m.

It’s a huge win for the state government’s series of medical research and development investments (detailed here) and for the university’s standing as a global medical research centre

“The scale and enduring nature of medical research investment by successive Victorian Governments, the breadth of the talent pool in the ecosystem of the medical research precinct in Melbourne, the collegiality of all the players, together with the success of Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic were key reasons for locating the centre in Melbourne,” Mr Cumming says.