Value-based Healthcare Innovation Grant Program

The Value-based Healthcare Innovation Grant Program assists TAC health service providers putting value-based healthcare into practice. Grants of up to $150,000 are available for value-based healthcare projects.

Value-based healthcare involves patients more in their treatment options, helping them achieve the outcomes that matter most to them through efficient, cost-effective and high-quality care.

Applications for 2024

Applications for the 2024 grant program can be submitted from 15 April to 31 May 2024. Return to this page between these dates for a link to the application form.

To prepare your application ahead of the open dates, you can access the:

For help with your application, you can contact us at research@tac.vic.gov.au to:

  • register for 30 minutes of pre-application support
  • join our online information session on Monday 22 April 2024, 12:00 – 1:00pm
  • ask questions about the program or application process

Frequently asked questions

What is the Value-based Healthcare Innovation Grant Program?

The TAC funds healthcare services that facilitate rehabilitation and recovery after a transport accident to help clients get their life back on track. Consistent with the TAC's strategic priorities, the TAC is offering innovation grants funding to encourage health service providers to make shifts towards value-based healthcare.

The grant program aims to incentivise health service providers to implement innovative projects that embrace the principles of value-based healthcare. We are looking for projects that address an area of priority for people with transport accident injuries and focus on known gaps in services, such as better integrating care following surgical procedures and solutions to support mental health.

What is value-based healthcare?

Value-based healthcare is a patient-centric approach that seeks to support the delivery of health outcomes at a sustainable cost. There are four key principles underpinning value-based healthcare:

  1. The outcomes that matter to the patient
  2. The patient’s experience of care
  3. The provider’s experience of care
  4. The effectiveness and efficiency of care

Value-based healthcare gives patients more say in their treatment options and empowers them to identify and achieve the goals that matter most to them.

Providers communicate and work closely together in integrated multidisciplinary teams, with the patient at the centre. Patients who have similar needs, injuries or conditions are identified. The provider team then designs and delivers solutions to address those needs through the delivery of high value interventions and outcomes. They measure the health outcomes and costs for each patient and use that information to drive ongoing improvements.

As a result, the patient achieves the desired outcomes and has a better experience of care. This translates into a better experience for the provider as well – with higher levels of job fulfilment stemming from better-informed and more-satisfied patients.

With this focus on outcomes, collaboration and data sharing, a Value-based Healthcare approach ultimately delivers care more effectively and efficiently, with greater value for cost.

To inform your application the TAC strongly encourages viewing these resources for more information on value-based healthcare:

What funding is available?

This grant program offers grants of up to $150,000 (ex. GST).

Who can apply?

To be eligible for funding you must be Victorian based, financially viable and one of the following health service related provider groups:

  1. Hospitals – includes pre-hospital clinics and surgeons
  2. Rehabilitation services – includes inpatient and outpatient services
  3. Post-hospital services – includes early discharge and post-acute care type services
  4. Primary health care services – includes General Practitioners, Primary Health Networks and community based Allied Health services
  5. Pain management service providers
  6. Disability service providers
  7. Peak bodies*
  8. Professional societies*

*Must be collaborating with a setting from 1 – 6.

Applicants must nominate a Chief Investigator who will be responsible for submitting the application, conducting the project, and reporting as required under the Funding Agreement.

The TAC will accept multiple applications from a single organisation, however each application must nominate a different Chief Investigator to lead each project and the projects must be inherently different.

What projects can receive grant funding?

Funding will be prioritised for small-scale projects that align with helping TAC clients get their life back on track. You are invited to submit an application for projects that:

  • Address at least two of the principles of value-based healthcare (highly desirable are projects targeting the effectiveness and efficiency of care)
  • Demonstrate innovation in health care; the project creates a new or significantly changes an existing method, process or service
  • Focus on known gaps in services such as better integrating care following surgical procedures and solutions to support mental health
  • Use existing evidence, outcomes data sets, codesign and information technology platforms to improve care pathways and better integrate care
  • Consider social determinants of health such as the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse populations, or people living in rural or remote areas

Applications to fund the project in part and in full will be accepted.

Successful applicants must comply with relevant legislation and professional standards to ensure the research is ethical, conducted with integrity and scientifically sound.

How and when can I apply?

Applications can be submitted from 15 April to 31 May 2024. Return to this page between these dates for a link to the application form.

Applications are submitted and managed online through SmartyGrants, a grants management platform.

To prepare your application, you can access the:

After your application is submitted you will be given a link to your project. Please contact the TAC Research & Evaluation team at research@tac.vic.gov.au if you need technical support.

Can I get help preparing my application?

You can contact the TAC Research & Evaluation team at research@tac.vic.gov.au if you need help preparing your application.

You can to register for 30 minutes of pre-application support, or join our online information session on Monday 22 April 2024, 12:00 – 1:00pm.

Grant funding recipients

Projects from the 2023 Value-based Healthcare Innovation Grant Program include:

  • Royal Children’s Hospital (Melbourne): Co-designing and piloting the implementation of an Australian customisation of Teach-ABI in the hospital-to-school reintegration pathways of Victorian children with ABI.
  • Gippsland Lakes Complete Health: Trialling the inclusion of a Pain Educator for clients that have experienced traumatic and painful injuries or live with chronic pain. The role will support care coordination, deliver pain education and provide evidence-based care, while keeping the client and their desired outcomes as the central focus.
  • Allied Health Professions Australia: Using the existing PX Accelerator online learning program to upskill TAC allied health practitioners in the essential elements of value-based health care, and applying the learning to improve patient experiences and outcomes.
  • Psychology Outcomes: Measuring the efficiency, effectiveness and scalability of private psychology organisations treating chronic pain, trauma and mental health via a unique patient-provider matching process.

Projects from the 2022 Value-based Healthcare Grant Program include:

  • Northern Health: Co-design, implementation and evaluation of an innovative digital care pathway for patients presenting to the emergency department with back pain.
  • The University of Sydney: Pilot testing an early intervention to mitigate distress in motor vehicle accident claimants identified as being at risk of developing chronic pain – an acceptability and feasibility study.
  • Melbourne Health: Improving care continuity for pelvic trauma with a screening and referral process from the acute setting into the community, to decrease the prevalence and severity of Pelvic Floor Dysfunction (PFD).
  • Epworth Healthcare: The value of multi-trauma rehabilitation on patient health-related quality of life.
  • Epworth Healthcare: Investigating the effectiveness of a vocational rehabilitation (VR) smartphone application to support return to work after traumatic brain injury (TBI).
  • Monash University: Co-designing CYBERABILITY, a cyberscam recovery intervention for TAC clients with brain injury.

More information about the program

Program guidelines

Download the grant program guidelines PDF to access the full program guidelines.

Application questions

Download the grant program application questions PDF to access the application questions in preparation for submission.

Funding agreement

Download the grant program funding agreement template PDF for 2023. The updated 2024 template will be available prior to the application open date.

To learn more

For further information, or to discuss a project idea and application, email the TAC Research & Evaluation team at research@tac.vic.gov.au