Abstract
We describe the establishment of a First Nations governed grant program that built on an existing Australian research collaboration during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Following a generous philanthropic donation, a process was initiated to centre and privilege First Nations perspectives and governance in the grant dissemination process. Decision-making was driven by First Nations people, including setting research principles and priorities, eligibility and review criteria, and in overseeing the advertising and grant review. This led to a widely distributed and highly competitive application round and the funding of ten grants from diverse organisations addressing various aspects of the COVID-19 response. The resulting grant outputs were diverse and impactful, including academic publications, articles for general readership, internal reports, social and traditional media, and frameworks. The principles from the grant round have underpinned the more recent formation of the ongoing First Nations Research preparednesS neTwork (FIRST), to further embed the important principles of First Nations self-determination for ongoing and future pandemic research.