14 September 2025
Australian Dietary Guidelines Community Panel Member
National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
What’s this about?
The NHMRC is updating the Australian Dietary Guidelines—a key resource that helps shape Australia’s public health nutrition policies. These guidelines are based on the best available evidence and are designed for all Australians, regardless of age or background. They are not intended for people with specific medical dietary needs.
To make sure the updated guidelines and related support documents are clear and useful, NHMRC is inviting health consumers to help shape how the information is communicated to the public.
Learn more about NHMRC: www.nhmrc.gov.au
Learn more about the Guidelines review: Review of the 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines
What’s the opportunity?
NHMRC is forming a Community Panel of up to 12 health consumers. This panel will provide advice to the Dietary Guidelines Expert Committee on how to communicate the revised guidelines clearly and effectively to the public.
The panel is expected to:
Read through the evidence report used to support the guideline review and its recommendations,
Provide feedback and suggestions to help make the evidence and recommendations easier to understand for different groups in the community. This includes reading reports, summaries, and communication materials prepared for the public launch.
Note: The panel will not be involved in deciding the actual dietary recommendations.
Who should apply?
You’re encouraged to apply if you:
Have an interest or experience in providing a consumer perspective on health communication.
Are not involved in the food industry (e.g. supermarkets, food manufacturers, or related businesses).
Have strong written and verbal communication skills.
Have some experience in consumer engagement activities (for example, being part of a consultation group, advisory group or committee that helped shape communication materials, policies, reports or research).
NHMRC is not seeking people with a nutrition background or those who follow specialised diets for medical reasons.
What you’ll need to do:
If selected, you’ll be asked to:
Join 4 to 5 online meetings (up to 2 hours each) between November 2025 and mid 2027 (this timeframe includes potential scope for advice required after release of the revised guidelines in 2026).
Read up to 1 hour of background material before meetings.
If required, a pre-meeting with NHMRC staff may be organised to support the individual panel members with pre-meeting expectations and requirements.
Share your views on how the guidelines and related resources can be made clearer and more accessible. This includes:
Reading through the evidence report used to support the guideline review
Feedback on how well understood the review report, summary reports and communications material (e.g. brochures and social media messaging) will be for a broad population, and for specific population groups (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD), regional and rural communities.
Sign a formal confidentiality and conflict of interest agreement.
You’ll be paid $95.20 per hour (ex GST) for your time.
Note:
The NHMRC hourly rate for session/meeting attendance is inclusive of any pre-reading required for each meeting.
If the panel is asked to do any extra work outside of scheduled meetings, it will be paid at NHMRC’s standard hourly rate.
Other details:
NHMRC is looking for a diverse group of people from different states, regions, cultures, age groups, and genders.
You’ll need access to a computer and reliable internet. If this is a barrier, please contact the team (dietaryguidelines@nhmrc.gov.au)
How to apply:
To be considered for appointment, you MUST provide:
A word or PDF document responding to these questions:
Why are you interested in joining the Australian Dietary Guideline Community Panel? (Maximum 200 words)
Share what motivates you to be part of this panel. You might want to include your personal experiences, interests, or perspectives that you think would help improve how the review and guidelines are communicated to the public.
What is the most important thing the panel should think about when reviewing how the evidence is shared with the public (Maximum 100 words)
Briefly explain what you believe is key to making the information clear and useful for a wide range of people in the community
A summary list (or CV) of your employment and consumer engagement activities in the last 5 years. The summary should include:
Name of the organisation
Date/year of employment/activity
Position title/type of consumer engagement activity (e.g. consultation, advisory group).
Confirm your availability for the meetings and commitment through to early 2027 (this timeframe includes potential scope for panel advice required after release of the revised guidelines in 2026).
NHMRC will assess applications on their eligibility and perceived or actual conflicts of interest.
All shortlisted candidates will be required to complete a formal conflict of interest form.
Send your application to dietaryguidelines@nhmrc.gov.au by 3:00 PM AEST, Friday 10 October 2025.
Late or incomplete applications will not be considered.
Questions?
If you have questions about applying, please email dietaryguidelines@nhmrc.gov.au.
