$5.5 million for new Massey research

More than $5.5 million has been awarded to eight Massey research projects ranging from Pacific Island business innovation to quantum thermodynamics.

The Marsden Fund, administered by the Royal Society on behalf of the Government, supports projects in sciences, technology, engineering, maths, social sciences and humanities.

The Massey projects are among 88 given funding this year. Two of the researchers received fast-start grants, which support outstanding researchers early in their careers.

Applications to the Marsden Fund are extremely competitive. Of the 1113 preliminary proposals received, 229 were asked to submit a full proposal with 86 ultimately funded, giving a success rate of 7.7 per cent. All of the funded proposals are for three years.

Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) Professor Brigid Heywood says Marsden funding provides support to some of the very best early-stage research. 

“Massey research teams commit significant effort to developing innovative proposals,” Professor Heywood says. “We are delighted to see them acknowledged for their intellectual leadership in the fundamental and applied sciences, biodiversity and conservation research, and economic and social science research of relevance to New Zealand in the 21st century. Another significant dimension is the level of international engagement with our Marsden-funded projects, which also speaks to the high quality and wider value of our research and researchers.”

Massey University projects awarded funding:
Associate Professor Mary Morgan-Richards: Punctuated evolution: is rapid morphological change linked to speciation? ($690,000)

Dr Phil Battley: The genetics and epigenetics of bird migration timing ($920,000)

Distinguished Professor Gaven Martin: Modern Analysis and Geometry ($615,000)

Dr Paul Plieger: The Good without the Bad: Selective Chelators for Beryllium ($930,000)

Professor Regina Scheyvens and Associate Professor Glenn Banks: Harnessing the power of business: the contested involvement of corporations in community development initiatives in the Pacific ($890,000)

Associate Professor Helen Moewaka-Barnes: Affective practice, identity and wellbeing in Aotearoa ($850,000)

Fast start grants:
Dr Oleksandr Fialko: Understanding quantum thermodynamics with the smallest heat engine ($345,000)

Dr Imran Muhammad: Institutional change, path dependence and public transport planning in Auckland
($345,000)