WCMICS grants program
NOW OPEN: 2026 Grants Program
Turning great ideas into meaningful improvements in cancer care.
The WCMICS Grants Program supports member health services to develop, test and embed innovative approaches that improve cancer care across Western and Central Melbourne.
The program has been refreshed to better support projects that address real-world challenges, are developed in partnership with consumers and stakeholders, and generate sustainable improvements that can be shared across the region.
Whether you have identified an unmet need, an opportunity to improve care, or an innovative approach ready to be tested, the WCMICS Grants Program provides funding and support to help bring ideas to life.
Frequently Asked Questions
The WCMICS Grants Program has been refreshed to better align with quality improvement and implementation science principles. Rather than asking applicants to begin with a fully developed solution, the program now encourages teams to first understand the problem, work collaboratively with consumers and stakeholders, test solutions, and evaluate their impact. The aim is to support more sustainable improvements that can be embedded and shared across the region.
We’ve learnt that the most successful improvement projects don’t begin with having all the answers. They begin with a clear understanding of the problem.
The refreshed program supports a more structured approach to improvement—one that allows teams to investigate the issue, co-design solutions, implement changes, evaluate outcomes and plan for sustainability.
No.
In fact, we’re encouraging applicants to avoid jumping straight to a solution. We’re more interested in understanding the problem you’re trying to solve, why it matters, and how you plan to work with others to identify, test and evaluate potential solutions.
Absolutely.
Innovation remains important, but innovation alone isn’t enough. We’re looking for projects that are grounded in evidence, respond to an identified need and have a clear pathway to implementation, evaluation and sustainability.
Evaluation helps us understand whether an improvement has actually made a difference.
Rather than simply reporting activities completed, we want projects to demonstrate measurable outcomes, capture lessons learnt and identify opportunities for future spread and sustainability.
Yes.
Projects are now supported through a staged approach with milestone payments aligned to key phases of delivery. This recognises that meaningful improvement takes time and allows projects to progress through discovery, implementation and evaluation.
Projects may now extend over a longer timeframe than previous grant rounds, recognising that understanding complex problems, implementing change and evaluating outcomes cannot always be achieved within a single year.
Meaningful consumer partnership is strongly encouraged and will be an important consideration during assessment.
Projects should demonstrate how consumers, carers or community members will contribute to understanding the problem, shaping solutions and evaluating success where appropriate.
That’s okay.
The WCMICS Grants Program is part of the Workforce Quality Improvement Skills Program. If you’re looking to strengthen your quality improvement capability, we encourage you to explore our SPARKS Masterclass Series and IGNITE Mentorship Program, which provide practical learning and support to help teams develop and deliver successful improvement initiatives.
Recent grant recipients
Implementing the Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool (CSNAT)
This project provided an opportunity to introduce the tool into usual occupational therapy practice at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Royal Melbourne Hospital. Embedding the CSNAT into practice required a substantial shift in how therapists typically address and support carers’ needs.
Prep-4-RT
Prep-4-RT addressed care and information gaps for HNC patients prior to radiotherapy, leading to early intervention.
Prep-4-Cancer Surgery Toolkit
This toolkit will help health services to develop prehabilitation services leading to improved patient outcomes for those undergoing major colorectal, gastrointestinal and gynaecological surgery.
Assessing the quality of care for people dying of cancer in hospital: development of the QualDeath framework
The QualDeath framework provides hospitals with recommendations to formalise processes to evaluate end-of-life care. Although QualDeath was underpinned by several research methods, further research is needed to rigorously explore its impact and test its feasibility.
