About our infographic

About the Health and Medical Research Career Map

This interactive tool explores roles across the health and medical research sector across five major work environments.

1.    Universities and medical research institutes – This includes traditional academic researcher and research support roles, as well as roles in core/platform facilities. Core/platform facilities are specialised research hubs that provide advanced equipment, expert services, and technical support to internal research groups, external academic collaborators, and often industry clients. They operate similarly to contract research organisations but are typically focused on specific technical areas such as molecular genomics, flow cytometry, or biostatistics.

2.    Industry – Includes pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies involved in developing and commercialising health and medical innovations.

3.    Contract research organisations (CROs) – Independent companies that conduct research on behalf of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device organisations. They manage specific parts of the research process, such as designing clinical trials, recruiting participants, analysing data, and preparing regulatory submissions. CROs allow companies to conduct research without needing to manage all aspects in-house.

4.    Healthcare – Includes hospitals, clinics, and other health service providers engaged in research and clinical innovation.

5.    Government, peak bodies, advocacy, and not-for-profit organisations – Encompasses government-funded research agencies such as the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO); not-for-profit research service organisations like the Australian Genome Research Facility (AGRF) and Bellberry; and peak bodies and advocacy organisations such as Australian Red Cross Lifeblood that either perform or provide services that support health and medical research.

What roles are included:

  • Direct research roles - where conducting research is a key part of the job
  • Supporting roles - which enable or facilitate research without directly conducting it

Who is it for?

  • High school and university students exploring future career paths
  • Early-to-mid-career researchers looking for their next step
  • Jobseekers interested in entering the health and medical research sector

Why we created it

There is limited visibility of career pathways in health and medical research, particularly when it comes to moving between environments like academia and industry. This contributes to workforce shortages and missed opportunities for skilled researchers.

The Career Map aims to:

  • Showcase the breadth of career opportunities in the sector
  • Clarify typical entry points and transitions between roles and work environments
  • Provide information on required qualifications and skills
  • Help retain talent in the health and medical research workforce

How we created it

To select the roles for the careers map, we began with definitions from the 2024 Australian Health and Medical Workforce Audit and reviewed 98 job categories identified as potentially related to health and medical research. Roles outside the Careers Hub’s scope were excluded, and we added further job titles using data from a Seek job ad analysis by Monash University researchers, sector websites, recruitment platforms, and industry reports.

We consulted extensively with sector experts and students to refine the role list, map career pathways, and highlight cross-sector connections. Wherever available, Australian job advertisements were used to ensure role descriptions reflected real-world responsibilities, qualifications and skill requirements.

The 2024 Australian Health and Medical Workforce Audit report can be found here: The Australian Health and Medical Research Workforce Audit – October 2024.

Project Partners and Funding

The Health and Medical Research Career Map was developed by BioMelbourne Network, in collaboration with subject matter experts across all five work environments.

The project is funded by the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions.

Have your say

To help us improve and ensure the Careers Hub meets your needs, we welcome your feedback - whether it’s something you found helpful, a suggestion for improvement, or ideas for additional information. Please share your thoughts here. All feedback is greatly appreciated.