$84.6m awarded by Marsden Fund - Expert reaction
2 November 2017
A total of 133 research projects have been funded in the latest round of the Marsden Fund, for a total of $84.6 million – an increase over last year's
$65m.
The Fund received a boost in the 2016 Budget of an additional $66m over four years, which allowed more proposals to be funded and increased the success rate from
10.7% last year to 12% this year.
Full Marsden Fund results are available on the Royal Society Te Apārangi website.
The SMC gathered expert reaction to the results, please feel free to use these comments in your reporting. Any further
comments will be posted on the SMC website.
Associate Professor Nicola Gaston, Department of Physics, University of Auckland, comments:
"It’s great to see that the Marsden Fund continues to act as it should, in supporting researchers across the science and
humanities research spectrum. It is fantastic to see the anticipated increase in success rates deliver, and in
particular to see the effect of this on the number of early career grants coming through.
"Success rates remain low, however, and the increase in research funding to OECD averages promised by the new government cannot come soon enough. In particular, the Marsden Fund continues to hold itself to account and report carefully on
gender and ethnic equity; this demonstration of best practice should make the Fund a worthy target of that promised
increase.
"It’s even nicer to see that there has been a significant increase in the number of Māori researchers funded: this
metric has been too low for too long, and it is to be hoped that this year’s data is a sign of real progress - though
this is yet to be seen, time will tell.
"It is also really exciting to see the range of projects that have been funded. This is work that underpins and enhances
the expertise of our universities and research institutes, and we are all richer for it."
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Professor Shaun Hendy, Director, Te Pūnaha Matatini, University of Auckland, comments:
"This is the largest number of Marsden projects awarded in one year and is also one of the highest success rates - in
fact, with just over 12% of proposals funded, it is the highest success rate for applicants to the fund since 2003. This
is due to the largest real increase in funding since the Marsden Fund was created.
"It is also pleasing that this large increase in funding didn’t simply lead to more proposals being submitted, which
would have lowered the success rate and increased the burden across the sector. It was established researchers that
benefited most from this increase in funding, with early career applicants receiving the lowest proportion of funds
since 2008."
ends