Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research

Full description

Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research (PHIMR) was established under the Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research Act 1988, No. 43/1988. The Act was assented to on 24 May 1988 and came into operation on 1 January 1990 (Government Gazette, 6 December 1989, page 3127).

Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research was established as a body corporate under Part 2, Section 4 of the Act.

The objectives of the Institute were:
- to operate as a charitable scientific organisation; and
- to further knowledge in the field of medicine, particularly human medicine and biotechnology, by the conducting and carrying out of research including research (i) to discover the nature and causes of human diseases and afflictions; and (ii) to improve the methods of preventing, diagnosing and treating disease; and
- to develop commercially, exploit and market industrial and intellectual property rights developed by or on behalf of the Institute; and
- to provide services in the fields of human and animal medicine; and
- to provide, and aid in the provision of, educational programs relating to matters the subject of research conducted by the Institute.

After Prince Henry's Hospital became an undergraduate teaching hospital in 1953, moves were made by the medical staff to establish a medical research centre at the hospital. Prince Henry's Hospital Medical Research Centre was established in 1960. Its first annual report was published 30 June 1961.

From 1962, the focus of the Medical Research Centre was endocrine research. The Medical Research Centre remained part of the hospital until 1990 when it became Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research. Since 1994, PHIMR was based at Monash Medical Centre at Clayton.