The Physiotherapy Research Foundation (PRF) was established in 1988 as a charitable trust.

The corporate trustee of the Foundation is Physiotherapy Research Foundation Pty Ltd; the Directors of which are the National President and National Vice President of the Australian Physiotherapy Association.

The trust deed enables the Foundation to support a range of physiotherapy research initiatives and physiotherapy research-related initiatives, such as seeding grants for clinical research projects, tagged grants for research in a defined area of physiotherapy practice, grants that support the integration of research evidence into clinical practice, grants for non-clinical research, and grants to promote physiotherapy research.

The financial statements of the PRF are reported separately in the annual report of the Australian Physiotherapy Association and are not included in the Association's consolidated financial statements. The APA subsidises the administrative costs of the Foundation to maximise the funds that can be directly allocated to research-related projects.