Research and development

Overview

Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) takes a proactive approach in commissioning research and evaluation to build an evidence base that supports the health and wellbeing needs of Australia's veterans and their families. This also helps identify emerging issues facing the veteran and defence communities and their families, and is integral to developing effective departmental policy, shaping service delivery responses, and evaluating programs and pilots.

Veteran and Family Learning and Innovation Network of Knowledge

The Veteran and Family Learning and Innovation Network of Knowledge (VF-LINK) was established in August 2025. This new research and evaluation model encompasses new and existing relationships with research and evaluation partner/s to:

• Drive a more strategic approach to research and evaluation with investment in priority areas.
• Maximise collaboration and leveraging opportunities to support evidence-driven innovation.
• Enhance the transparency and sharing of research and evaluation findings with veterans, families, stakeholders and the broader research and evaluation community.
• Co-design approaches to ensure that lived experience is incorporated into research and evaluation projects, leading to more relevant and impactful outcomes.

As part of this work, DVA is developing a 5-year Research Strategy and an Evaluation Strategy. These strategies will address identified evidence needs and research and evaluation priorities relevant to DVA’s role in supporting the health and wellbeing of veterans and their families.

DVA’s current approach is guided by DVA’s Strategic Research Framework 2019-2021 that outlines the analytical and research priorities and principles for DVA, to focus future research and data gathering efforts.

A list of current projects can be seen at Current Research Projects.

A list of DVA's health studies and other social research can be seen at Health Publications.

Ethical Approval

Any new research proposals that relate to current or ex-serving members (veterans) of the Australian Defence Forces should be reviewed by the Departments of Defence and Veterans' Affairs Human Research Ethics Committee (DDVA HREC) for ethical approval.

The DDVA HREC secretariat can be contacted via ddva.hrec@defence.gov.au.　

Contact us

For further information on DVA research and evaluation activities, contact DVA via email: research@dva.gov.au.