Response to changes to the Marsden Fund

Due to these substantive changes, the Marsden Fund Council has made the decision to delay the opening of the 2025 funding round. The funding round typically receives more than 1,000 applications and would normally open in early December, with ‘Expressions of Interest’ due in February.

Distinguished Professor Dame Jane Harding DNZM FRSNZ, President of the Royal Society Te Apārangi says, “The Society’s statutory role is to advance and promote science, technology, and the humanities. As part of this, the Society has administered investment of the Marsden Fund on behalf of the New Zealand Government for 30 years. Our staff support the members of the Marsden Fund Council by arranging international peer review for applications, managing assessment processes, and disbursing the grants. This includes ongoing evaluation and reporting on researchers’ progress with their projects.”

“The Marsden Fund was established to invest in excellent cutting-edge research, and has been extremely successful in answering a wide range of complex questions which make a difference to the lives of New Zealanders. The government’s investment through the Marsden Fund has generated unexpected breakthroughs and discoveries which have led to innovative products, techniques, or information. The Fund has also helped to attract and retain talent, to stimulate creativity and innovation, and to enable specialisation in advanced skills and knowledge.”

“The Society learned yesterday that the Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology has directed changes to the Investment Plan and Terms of Reference for the Marsden Fund that will necessitate a delay to the next funding round. The Society will continue to support the Marsden Fund Council to ensure that it can maintain its high standards, and that the government’s investments continue to go towards high-quality investigator-led research as per the Investment Plan. We will also assess the broader implications of these changes.”

“This year marks 30 years since the Marsden Fund was introduced, with the aim of raising standards of fundamental research and advancing human knowledge. Over that time, New Zealand researchers have excelled across the whole range of research disciplines, including the study of culture, indigenous knowledge, history, religion, philosophy, psychology, economics, education, law, classics, linguistics, literature, Māori studies, media studies, art history, and languages. The Society has been proud to encourage and celebrate excellence in all these fields of research over the years, with world-class results.”

“We would like to acknowledge the many contributions from the social sciences and humanities to the future of Aotearoa New Zealand. Increasingly it is understood that research needed to generate benefits for our country will need to be interdisciplinary, integrating knowledge from experts in the social sciences and humanities with science, engineering, and technology. The Society will continue to work to support the social sciences and humanities through a range of mechanisms in addition to funding. The ongoing review processes for the science system and the university sector also present an opportunity to reinforce the value of a broad range of research disciplines, including science, technology, and the humanities, for Aotearoa New Zealand.”

Read the media release from the Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology.

Read about the changes to the 2025 funding round, with links to the Terms of Reference and revised Investment Plan.