Innovative Otago research supported by Marsden funding

5 November 2015

Innovative Otago research supported by prestigious Marsden funding

More than $11.7M in new government funding has been awarded to University of Otago researchers to undertake 20 world-class research projects pushing the boundaries of knowledge in their fields.

Their innovative projects are being supported through the Royal Society of New Zealand-administered Marsden Fund, which is regarded as a hallmark of excellence that allows the country’s best researchers to explore their ideas and showcase them internationally.

Researchers from across the University will lead the new projects, which include 13 standard projects and seven ‘Fast-Starts’ designed to support outstanding early-career researchers.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Enterprise) Professor Richard Blaikie warmly congratulated the Otago recipients on their success in the prestigious funding round.

“The Marsden Fund is extremely competitive and is designed to encourage work of the highest quality on topics of great value. I am delighted that the excellence of our researchers’ proposals has been recognised and their world-leading studies supported,” Professor Blaikie says.

Professor Blaikie noted that Otago’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne was among this year’s recipients, becoming the first head of a New Zealand university to be awarded a Marsden grant while in that role.

“At Otago, one of our defining characteristics is that the Vice-Chancellor and other members of the senior academic leadership continue as active researchers and teachers. This reflects the University’s deep commitment to maintaining a vibrant academic culture at all levels,” he says.

Professor Hayne, a Department of Psychology researcher, will lead a team evaluating interview procedures used to obtain children’s testimony. In a series of empirical studies, they will test the effect of these procedures on the content and accuracy of children’s reports and on jurors’ decisions.

Nationally, a total of 92 research projects were allocated $53.54 million (excl. GST) of funding this year. Only 7.7 percent of the 1201 preliminary proposals put forward were ultimately funded.

The Otago researchers will pursue investigations at the forefront of disciplines that include anatomy, anthropology and archaeology, bioethics, chemistry, mathematics and statistics, microbiology, pathology, pharmacy, physics, physiology, psychology, religion, and zoology.

Their projects range from unravelling antiseptic resistance mechanisms in a bacterium commonly found in hospitals to studying how, and why, several new Buddhist monastic groups that preach messages of hatred and intolerance against religious minorities have emerged in South Asia.

Professor Blaikie says the wide span of topics being addressed by the Otago recipients reflects the breadth and depth of Otago’s research effort.

“I am particularly proud of the stellar performance of our early-career researchers, who were awarded nearly one quarter of all the ‘Fast-Start’ grants offered in this year’s round,” he says.

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