The Marsden Fund received a total of 1170 proposals, made up of 721 Standard and 443 Fast-Start Expressions of Interest (EOIs), and six Marsden Fund Council (MFC) Award proposals.
This represents a slight increase compared to last year’s total of 1163.
The Marsden Fund supports excellence in science, engineering, maths, social sciences and the humanities in New Zealand by providing grants for investigator-initiated research.
There are three categories of proposals available for the fund:
Fast-Start: For emerging researchers, capped at $100,000 per year for up to three years.
Standard: Open to all eligible researchers, amount of funding is flexible and is capped. These are larger than Fast-Start proposals. Funding can be sought for up to three years.
Marsden Fund Council Award: Open to all eligible researchers. Larger than Standard grants, up to $1 million per year for up to 3 years.
The great bulk of proposals – 1062 – this year came from tertiary education organisations. Seventy came from Crown research institutes and there were 38 “other”.
Among the universities, Massey University accounted for 132 of the initial proposals and Lincoln University for 14.
The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd (24), had the most proposals among the CRIs. Plant and Food Research submitted 13 proposals, AgResearch 11, GNS Science 12, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research 7 and the Institute of Environmental Science and Research 3.
In total, 287 applicants this year have been invited to submit full proposals – 163 Standards and 124 Fast-Starts – and two MFC Award proposals have progressed to stage 2. That means a total of 289 proposals are through to the second round.
Among the CRIs, the total was trimmed to 11. These came from GNS Science (3), Landcare Research (3), Plant and Food Research (3) and NIWA (2).
The total of TEO proposals has been trimmed to 274 and “other” proposals to four.
Massey’s tally has been reduced to 26 and Lincoln’s to two.
The fund administrators anticipate approximately 127 proposals will eventually be contracted.
The projected amount of funding available is about $83.2 million (excl. GST).
Source: Royal Society of New Zealand
