Research and evaluation

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 families of veterans. This also helps identify emerging issues facing the veteran, families of veterans and defence communities, 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

DVA and Phoenix Australia – Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health have partnered to deliver a new model for research and evaluation, the Veteran and Family – Learning and Innovation Network of Knowledge (VF-LINK). Phoenix Australia will lead a consortium that brings together leading researchers and research translators from across Australia with expertise in suicide and suicide prevention, mental and physical health, co-design, innovative treatment, research and evaluation, alongside veteran and veteran family advisors. The VF-LINK model aims 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 of veterans, 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.

Read more about VF-LINK on Phoenix website.

DVA Research Strategy

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 families of veterans.

Research Strategy stakeholder consultation is now open

You are invited to share your views through a survey being run by Phoenix Australia on behalf of DVA. Your feedback will help shape the research issues and priorities that matter most to the veteran community. 

More information about the stakeholder consultation process (PDF 299 KB).

The survey can be accessed via the following link: https://redcap.link/DVAResearchStrategy and will be open until 18 May 2026.

Current research priorities

DVA’s current approach is guided by DVA’s Strategic Research Framework 2019-2021 (PDF 1.08 MB) that outlines the analytical and research priorities and principles for DVA, to focus future research and data gathering efforts. DVA’s current research priorities are:

• Suicide
• Service Impact
• Occupational Exposures
• Clinical Outcomes
• Compensation
• Wellbeing

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

Research publications

Completed research studies are published and can be found on our Research and Studies page.

Reports published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) on Australia’s veteran population can be found on AIHW’s website.

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.