Care Economy CRC – $35M Federal Funding
across Australia
The Care Economy Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) represents one of the most significant investments in care sector innovation in Australia’s recent history. Awarded $35 million in federal funding through the Cooperative Research Centres grants program, the CRC brings together a $129 million partnership across 60 organisations, spanning disability services, aged care, community healthcare, early childhood education, family services, housing, mental health, wellbeing, and youth services.
Mercy Connect is a proud member of this consortium, joining leading technology and research institutions, universities, and care providers from across Australia in a decade-long commitment to transforming how care is delivered, supported, and sustained.
What the CRC will deliver
Headquartered at La Trobe University’s Research and Innovation Precinct, the Care Economy CRC will focus on four interconnected areas of development:
Care technology
New apps and interfaces designed to improve how care is delivered, tracked, and experienced by participants and providers.
Navigation and decision support
Tools to help participants, families, and care coordinators navigate complex care systems and make better-informed decisions.
Connected information systems
Data solutions and interoperability tools that allow care organisations to share relevant information securely and effectively.
Workforce skills development
Training frameworks and professional development resources that build the skills and capabilities of the care workforce at scale.
Mercy Connect’s role
As part of the consortium, Mercy Connect will be actively involved in advancing care technology, contributing to data solutions, and participating in workforce initiatives that directly benefit our staff, our participants, and the broader disability services sector.
This collaboration will support the development of new technology-enabled models of care, enhancing the quality and efficiency of services across disability, aged care, and community health. For Mercy Connect, this means access to research, tools, and frameworks that would be impossible to develop alone.
Why this matters for participants
At its core, the Care Economy CRC is about making care better, for the people who receive it and the people who deliver it. The research and innovations produced through this partnership will directly inform how Mercy Connect designs and delivers supports over the coming decade.
From better communication tools to smarter data systems, from more effective training for support workers to new models of care that reflect what participants actually want, this investment is a commitment to ensuring regional Australians with disability have access to the same quality of innovation as anyone else.
