Universities secure bulk of 2008 Marsden Fund allocation

Universities accounted for 80 of the 91 new research projects to gain support from the Marsden Fund over the next three years.  The University of Otago will receive funding of $13.9 million for 20 projects, the University of Auckland $10.4 million for 20 projects, Victoria University of Wellington $6.5 million for 12 projects, the University of Canterbury $7.2 million for 11 projects, Massey University $5.4 million for 11 projects and the University of Waikato $3.6 million for 6 projects.  That amounts to $47 million of the total 2008 allocation of $54 million.

The fund is administered by the Royal Society on behalf of the Marsden Fund Council.  It supports excellence in leading-edge research in this country with projects selected annually by nine expert panels guided by input from international referees.  Investigator-driven, the fund is contestable and while funded by government, is not subject to government priorities.  Of the non-university parties funded out of the 2008 round, the most successful was the GNS Crown Research Institute which will receive $2.4 million for three projects.

Although the $54 million was the largest investment ever made by the fund, the overall success rate for applications was only 11%.  Of 817 preliminary proposals received, 219 were asked to submit a full proposal with 91 ultimately being funded.  Of those, 25 are in the fast-start category which receive up to $100,000 per year for three years of research.  The Marsden Fund Council says a $2.2 million increase for the fund in this year’s Budget and a decision to spend accumulated funds had enabled it to increase its investment in New Zealand early career researchers, and seed fund a number of projects it would have been impossible to support otherwise.  However, in a media release commenting on this year’s Marsden allocation, the NZVCC said fund growth must continue and while this year’s result was good, it was still not good enough.