Health Minister Greg Hunt is maximising the political benefit of Medical Research Future Fund grants, starting to make announcements a regularly thing. There were 19 yesterday, for work on cancers and rare diseases. It may be only $69m, but little and often has much more community impact than the bi-annual National Health and Medical Research Council mega-lists. Yesterday’s winners are:

Maher Gahndhi ($1.642m) – UoQ: brain lymphomas

Rishi Kotecha ($0.314m)– Monash U: acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

Kerrie McDonald ($1.446m) – UNSW: glioblastoma

Andrew Scott ($1.564m) – La Trobe U: brain cancer

Andrew Wei ($1.507m) – Monash U: acute myeloid leukaemia

Martin Delatycki ($1.227m) – Murdoch Children’s Res Inst: cerebellar ataxias

William Hague ($1.191m) – Uni Adelaide: intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy

Clement Loy ($1.905) – UniSydney: Huntington Disease

Anne-Louise Ponsonby ($0.887m) – ANU: multiple sclerosis

Thomas Snelling ($3.545m) – UWA: cystic fibrosis

Adam Vogel ($0.498m) – UniMelbourne: ataxia

Claire Wainright ($2.09m) – UoQ: mycobacterium abscessus

Erica Wood ($1.750m) – Monash U: aplastic anaemia

Steven Chadban ($1.117m) – UniSydney: end-stage kidney disease

David Curtis ($1.570) – Monash U: bone marrow transplant

Stephen Davis ($1.285m) – UniMelbourne: intracerebral haemorrghe in strokes

Janet Hardy ($1.363m) – UoQ: medicinal cannabinoids

Ian Harris ($0.934m) – UNSW: effectiveness of aspirin in treating blood clots

David Pilcher ($0.735) – Monash U: oxygen levels for heart and lung failure