Grant programs

We administer grant programs on behalf of the Victorian Government to assist health, mental health and aged care services.

Grants help health services to provide quality treatment and services to meet the growing needs of Victorian communities.

This investment supports:

new and upgraded hospital infrastructure
replacing ageing medical equipment with modern technology
refurbishment of staff and patient areas
upgrading facilities to be more energy efficient.

The grants lifecycle

For more information on how VHBA and Department of Health work together throughout the grants lifecycle, view the factsheet.

View grants lifecycle factsheet

Grants lifecycle - accessible version

Establish system need

The Department of Health is responsible for network and service planning across Victoria and set the strategic priorities for grants programs across the State.

Business Case Development

Business cases are developed by the Department of Health to establish funding requests for individual grants programs, aligned to network and service planning needs.

Funding

Grant programs and funding allocations are established as part of the Victorian State budget.

Program administration

The Victorian Health Building Authority administers nominated grants programs on behalf of the Department of Health. A list of active grants programs is available below.

Grants program submissions

All eligible Health Services, based on the relevant grant program guidelines, are notified by the Victorian Health Building Authority when a funding round opens and can make a submission via the SmartyGrants application process.

The Victorian Health Building Authority run a ‘help desk’ for Health Services who need assistance with their applications.

Assessment and allocation of funding

The Victorian Health Building Authority leads the administration of the evaluation process for grants submissions on behalf of the Department of Health.

The Department of Health score submissions against criteria including system demand, health service needs, government priorities and risk to align funding decisions with Health Services Plans and strategic priorities across the State.

The Victorian Health Building Authority assess submissions for project delivery risks including project readiness, buildability and cost, to enable informed funding decisions. These assessments also help to identify risk mitigation measures to enhance delivery confidence for successful project outcomes.

The Department of Health determine which submissions are successful based on their evaluation and the advice provided by the Victorian Health Building Authority.

Outcomes are communicated to health services by the Department of Health, with support from the Victorian Health Building Authority.

Project delivery and oversight

Projects are delivered by the publicly funded Health Service, with the scale of oversight from the Victorian Health Building Authority, dependent on the type and complexity of the project.