A new national centre is being established to allow a deeper level of research into the disparity in health and healthcare for Indigenous Australians.

The University of Adelaide announced that it will receive $2.3 million to study the gap and why previous attempts to close it have failed. The centrally-located site will work in collaboration with 24 Aboriginal health services around the country.

Professor of Evidence-based Health Care, Alan Pearson, says many methods will be trialed: “Federally there's been a massive investment, trying to address this gap, and it hasn't been hugely successful... this new national centre, hopefully, will take a much more rigorous approach to try and address this terrible, terrible gap that most Australians are embarrassed about.”

Professor Pearson says no time should be wasted addressing one of the most important yet under-publicised issues in contemporary Australia.

“We hope in the five-year period to tackle 12 critical issues. That may be around particularly chronic diseases... diabetes or renal disease. It may be around how services are delivered,” Prof Pearson said.

“It's called 'translational research' where you are trying to make sure the best knowledge we've got is actually translated into action in both health policy and in health service delivery.”

The centre will combine the efforts of South Australia’s Health and Medical Research Institute and the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation to hopefully, finally deliver effective measures for change.