Anthropic expands Australia science push with AUD $10m

Anthropic has expanded its AI for Science programme in Australia with AUD $10 million in new partnerships, taking its total science investment in the country this year to AUD $13 million.

The new funding covers three areas: AI for Science, deep tech startups and rare disease. Support will be delivered through Claude API credit grants to research institutions and founders working across healthcare, genomics, energy, materials science and space technology.

Research organisations receiving support include the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, the University of Canberra, the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Five Australian research projects also secured grants through the rare disease strand, while dozens of deep tech startups have received credits under a programme launched in Australia earlier this year.

Australia has become a focus for AI-backed scientific research partly because of its strengths in genomics, health data and applied research. Its diverse population and broad healthcare access also make it a useful setting for long-term health studies across varied communities.

At the Centre for Population Genomics, researchers are using AI to speed the inclusion of underrepresented communities in genetic research and build systems that can scale the diagnosis of rare genetic diseases. That work has already helped deliver more than 150 new diagnoses for families whose initial genetic analysis did not produce answers.

Research focus

At the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, the funding will support heart research projects ranging from the study of lesser-understood parts of the genome to drug safety and genetic diagnosis. The institute is using Claude to analyse complex data, identify patterns and generate findings for laboratory testing or clinical research.

"Artificial intelligence is opening up powerful new possibilities in cardiovascular research, helping us analyse complex data at a scale and speed that was previously out of reach," said Professor Jason Kovacic, Director and Chief Executive Officer, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.

The University of Canberra will use the support for two projects. One will develop an evidence-based AI chat system for patient and nursing education. The other will support the Thriving Kids national model, helping early childhood educators in the Canberra region identify when early intervention may be needed for developmental delays.

The work is intended to improve communication in medical settings and help families receive targeted support sooner. It also reflects broader interest among universities and health providers in using AI for frontline information and education, not only laboratory science.

Expanded partnerships

Anthropic is also extending existing work with the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Murdoch Children's Research Institute through multi-year partnerships. Both organisations were already involved in pilot programmes.

At Garvan, projects include cancer research aimed at uncovering insights into cancer biology, improving predictions of how patients may respond to treatment and identifying ways to prevent breast cancer metastasis. The partnership also supports the institute's biologics platform, where AI is being used in drug candidate design.

"The AI for Science expansion at Garvan comes at a genuinely exciting stage for us. It will let us interrogate our biological datasets at a depth and speed that hasn't been possible before, and tackle the hardest problems that currently stand between us and our ability to diagnose, treat and cure disease," said Professor Benjamin Kile, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Garvan Institute.

The Murdoch Children's Research Institute will expand its Decoding Broken Hearts programme and use Claude in additional work spanning stem-cell research, clinical bioinformatics and neuroscience. The institute said the earlier phase had already compressed work that would otherwise have taken far longer.

"The partnership with Anthropic enabled our small team to achieve in months what might otherwise have taken years. This capability is accelerating our research into the genetic drivers of heart disease and helping us move more quickly towards new treatments," said Professor Enzo Porrello of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, speaking on the Decoding Broken Hearts project.

Startup strand

The deep tech startups programme forms the second major part of the expansion. Anthropic has awarded credits to Australian founders tackling technical problems including analytics for energy storage systems, fire-safe protective base layers for female firefighters and satellite collision avoidance.

Those projects show that the programme extends beyond biomedical research into industrial and environmental applications. They also highlight how AI providers are trying to build early relationships with startups in sectors where specialist software and modelling tools can consume large amounts of computing resources.

The rare disease programme forms the third pillar of the new funding round. A global call for applications focused on rare genetic diseases resulted in grants for five Australian research projects, adding to a field where researchers increasingly use AI to sift genomic data, prioritise likely disease-causing variants and support diagnosis in difficult cases.

The latest investment follows an earlier AUD $3 million commitment announced when Anthropic signed a memorandum of understanding with the Australian government during a visit by Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei. With the additional AUD $10 million, Anthropic has now invested AUD $13 million in Australian science since launching the initiative in the country.

"Beyond these grants, as we grow our local team in Australia, we aim to provide deeper engineering and applied AI support to our AI for Science partners, and will continue to expand the grants program and fund new projects that align with the goals of Australia's National AI Plan and research agenda," said David Masters, Head of Policy ANZ, Anthropic.