Dr Mo Hammoud from the Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney has been awarded a grant of $688,405 under the highly competitive Investigator Grants scheme by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
The five-year funding is for Dr Hammoud’s research on generating the evidence required to enable health equity for gender and sexuality diverse populations in Australia.
Dr Hammoud is a Senior Research Fellow within the HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program and leads the LGBTQ+ Population Health Research Group. Since joining the Kirby Institute in 2013, he has focused his research on helping improve the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ communities, with a specific focus on emerging infectious diseases, sexual health, mental health and substance use.
“Australia’s gender and sexuality diverse populations experience significantly higher rates of health issues compared to the broader population and, because of small, non-representative studies, critical knowledge and data gaps exist,” Dr Hammoud says. “This funding will allow me to help generate large-scale, high-quality evidence to reshape public health strategies, address disparities and overlooked challenges, and improve healthcare access and outcomes for these communities.”
Investigator Grants aim to support investigators at all career stages to establish their own research programs, which will ultimately lead to advancements in human health, healthcare outcomes and economic benefits.
Scientia Professor and Director of the Kirby Institute, Tony Kelleher, congratulated Dr Hammoud on his achievement. “This is an outstanding recognition of Dr Hammoud’s contributions to public health research, and all at the Kirby Institute are incredibly proud of his success,” he said.
“Dr Hammoud’s dedication and hard work to date has been critical in uncovering and addressing health inequities among LGBTQ+ communities. I am excited to see the impact of his future work, and have no doubt that he will bring many more significant contributions to the field.”
The results of the scheme were announced by the Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon Mark Butler MP. In total, 229 researchers from organisations and institutes across the country will share approximately $422 million in funding.
Read more information about this year’s outcomes of the 2025 Investigator Grants.