Australia Opens AU$200,000 Phage Therapy Grant for Cystic Fibrosis and Antimicrobial-Resistant Infections

Key information

The Conquer Cystic Fibrosis and McCusker Charitable Foundation WA Phage Therapy Grant 2026 offers up to AU$200,000 over two years. Applications opened 9 September 2026 and close 25 September 2026 at 5:00 pm AWST. The project and Chief Investigator A must be based in Western Australia, although external collaborators may participate. Chief Investigator A must hold a PhD. Applications are submitted to projects@cfa.org.au

Learn more and apply here : https://www.cysticfibrosis.org.au/current-grant-opportunities/

A new Australian funding opportunity is putting bacteriophage therapy at the centre of efforts to develop new treatments for chronic and antimicrobial-resistant infections.

The Australian Cystic Fibrosis Research Trust, administered by Cystic Fibrosis Australia, has opened applications for the 2026 Conquer Cystic Fibrosis and McCusker Charitable Foundation WA Phage Therapy Grant, offering up to AU$200,000 over two years for phage therapy research based in Western Australia.

The call opened on 9 September 2026 and will close at 5:00 pm Australian Western Standard Time on 25 September 2026.

Figure 1: If our clinical team deems a patient is eligible for phage therapy, we get their bacterial isolates and see if we can find phages for them. If we find some that work, we make and purify phages, and check them for safety. We aliquot them into labeled, dose-ready vials. We prepare safety documents for each batch, along with a sample collection package for each patient. We give phages + documents + sample collection package to the clinical team. Lastly, we get blood samples back from the clinical team, and track phages and bacteria over time throughout therapy. Image by Stephanie Lynch. Source : https://www.jess.bio/phage-aus-process-overview

Although cystic fibrosis is a central focus, the programme has deliberately been designed with a broader antimicrobial-resistance perspective. According to the official application documentation, the grant aims to support research capable of advancing phage-based treatment not only for people living with cystic fibrosis, but also for patients affected by other chronic or difficult-to-treat infections, including people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and immunocompromised individuals such as chemotherapy or organ-transplant recipients.

One of the most striking objectives of the programme is the establishment of a phage manufacturing platform in Western Australia.

The funders explicitly state that one aim is to develop manufacturing capacity that could enable clinical trials in Perth as soon as possible and ultimately offer new treatment options to young Australians living with cystic fibrosis. A second objective is to strengthen Western Australia — and Perth in particular — as a national centre for phage research.

The programme therefore goes beyond supporting an isolated laboratory project. It is attempting to create infrastructure and expertise that could help move phage research closer to clinical implementation.

This is particularly significant for personalized phage therapy.

Unlike conventional antibiotics manufactured as standardized products, therapeutic phages may sometimes need to be selected against the bacterial strain isolated from an individual patient. In some cases, locally circulating bacterial populations may also influence which phages are most useful. The grant documentation explicitly highlights the importance of having Western Australia-based phage research and access to phages collected from relevant local sources.

The award can provide up to AU$200,000 over a maximum period of two years. The final amount will depend on the budget submitted and approved for the selected project.

Funding can be used for salaries of research workers and assistants, equipment, consumables, maintenance and other expenses directly associated with the proposed research. Institutional indirect costs and overhead fees, however, are specifically excluded from eligible expenditure.

Another important aspect of the programme is its emphasis on generating preliminary evidence for larger future funding applications.

The two-year grant is intended to allow researchers to produce enough scientific and translational data to compete subsequently for additional support from larger funding bodies. In this sense, the programme could serve as a bridge between early-stage phage research and more ambitious clinical, manufacturing or translational programmes.

Eligibility is geographically strict.

The proposed research must be conducted in Western Australia and the Chief Investigator A must be based in the state. Researchers located outside Western Australia cannot apply as lead investigators, although members of a broader project team may be based elsewhere.

Applicants must already be working in phage therapy research related to antimicrobial-resistant infections, including infections affecting people with cystic fibrosis.

The call is open to postdoctoral researchers, scientists, clinicians, medical practitioners, nurses and allied health professionals. Group applications are also accepted. However, the Chief Investigator A must hold a PhD, while researchers from different career stages can participate in the wider team.

The programme's explicit inclusion of clinicians and allied health professionals is notable. Phage therapy development often requires cooperation across microbiology, infectious disease, respiratory medicine, pharmacy, manufacturing, diagnostics and clinical care. By allowing multidisciplinary teams to apply, the grant could support projects that connect laboratory phage discovery with patient-oriented research.

Applicants must submit a detailed scientific proposal describing the project's background, hypothesis, aims, significance, methodology, statistical analysis, feasibility and budget.

The core research proposal is limited to four A4 pages, plus references, and applicants must also provide a 200-word description written for educated non-specialists explaining how the project could improve the lives of people with cystic fibrosis.

The application also requires information on the project team and individual contributions, track records for participating researchers and the recent publication record of the Chief Investigator A.

Projects will be evaluated on three principal dimensions.

Scientific quality and feasibility account for 40% of the assessment, significance and innovation for another 40%, and impact and track record for the remaining 20%. The review process will involve members of the medical and scientific cystic fibrosis community and will also include consumer consultation.

This weighting is particularly interesting because 80% of the evaluation directly concerns the quality, feasibility, significance and innovation of the proposed research rather than the applicant's previous career record alone.

For emerging phage programmes, that creates room for ambitious projects provided that the experimental strategy and translational rationale are convincing.

The application form makes the translational expectations especially clear. Applicants are asked to explain how the project contributes to the overall aims of the grant and how the funding would benefit both the cystic fibrosis community and the wider scientific community while supporting the sponsors' objective of reducing suffering and improving longevity and quality of life for people with cystic fibrosis.

That could encompass several different types of phage research.

Projects could potentially focus on phage discovery and characterization, personalized phage matching, phage-antibiotic combinations, biofilm infections, chronic respiratory pathogens, manufacturing and quality control, phage banking, delivery strategies, diagnostics or the development of preclinical evidence needed to support future clinical trials — provided that the proposed work meets the programme's formal eligibility criteria and is carried out in Western Australia.

The explicit reference to establishing a phage manufacturing platform may be especially important.

Manufacturing remains one of the major translational bottlenecks in modern phage therapy. Moving from research-grade lysates to material suitable for human clinical use requires controlled production, purification, characterization, sterility and quality testing, together with appropriate regulatory documentation.

Creating stronger local manufacturing capability in Perth could therefore have consequences beyond a single funded study. It could provide infrastructure that supports multiple future phage-therapy projects, including clinical studies requiring rapid access to characterized therapeutic phages.

The cystic fibrosis focus is also highly relevant biologically.

People living with cystic fibrosis can develop chronic respiratory infections that are extremely difficult to eradicate. Pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa can persist for years in the airways, evolve during chronic colonization, form biofilms and progressively acquire resistance to multiple antibiotics.

For precisely these types of infections, bacteriophages have attracted growing attention as potential adjuncts or alternatives to conventional antimicrobial therapy.

But translating that interest into routine treatment requires considerably more than showing that a phage kills a bacterial isolate in vitro.

Researchers need robust phage collections, rapid matching procedures, standardized characterization, manufacturing capacity, appropriate delivery systems and clinical evidence demonstrating when and how phages should be used.

The new Western Australian grant is therefore notable because its objectives explicitly connect research with the infrastructure needed to move toward clinical trials.

Successful recipients will also have several reporting obligations. Annual progress reports and shorter six-monthly updates must be provided to the Australian Cystic Fibrosis Research Trust. A proportion of funding will be retained until submission of the final report, and recipients may be invited to present their research at the Australasian Cystic Fibrosis Conference or other scientific events.

Conquer Cystic Fibrosis, the McCusker Charitable Foundation and the Australian Cystic Fibrosis Research Trust must also be acknowledged in publications and relevant promotional activities arising from the funded project.

Applications must be submitted electronically to Cystic Fibrosis Australia at projects@cfa.org.au.

The deadline is strict: 5:00 pm AWST on Friday, 25 September 2026, and the application documentation explicitly states that late submissions will not be accepted.

The short application window makes the call particularly time-sensitive for eligible Western Australian research teams.

For the broader phage-therapy field, however, the significance of the programme extends beyond the AU$200,000 award itself.

It represents another example of disease-focused organizations moving beyond general interest in bacteriophages and directly funding the infrastructure, experimental evidence and translational work required to bring phage therapy closer to patients.

If the programme succeeds in strengthening both phage research and manufacturing capability in Perth, it could help establish Western Australia as a more important node in the increasingly international network working to turn bacteriophage therapy from experimental access into a reproducible clinical strategy.

Sources : 

Cystic Fibrosis Australia / Australian Cystic Fibrosis Research Trust — Conquer Cystic Fibrosis and McCusker Charitable Foundation WA Phage Therapy Grant 2026, official application documentation.

Conquer Cystic Fibrosis and McCusker Charitable Foundation are the funding sponsors, with the Australian Cystic Fibrosis Research Trust administering the programme through Cystic Fibrosis Australia.