Search Marsden awards 2008–2017
Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2008
Title: Building sustainable peace in the South Pacific
Recipient(s): Prof J Bercovitch | PI | University of Canterbury
Prof K DeRouen Jr | AI | University of Alabama
Dr B Greener | AI | Massey University
Assoc Prof J Henderson | AI | University of Canterbury
Assoc Prof B Reilly | AI | Australian National University
Public Summary: Internal conflicts pose the greatest threat to regional peace and stability. They are usually brought to an end through mediation or U.N. intervention, but in most cases renewed violence takes place within two years. We wish to examine why internal conflicts produce this pattern, and what can be done to address it?
Lasting peace can only be achieved if a peace agreement is supplemented by real change in the basic dimensions of conflict and its structure of incentives. This means undertaking a programme of post-conflict activities, where political, military and jurisdictional structures are changed to make the resumption of violence between the adversaries much less likely.
Total Awarded: $752,889
Duration: 3
Host: University of Canterbury
Contact Person: Prof J Bercovitch
Panel: SOC
Project ID: 08-UOC-007
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2010
Title: Can firms spend their way out of a recession?
Recipient(s): Prof HJ Van Heerde | PI | University of Waikato
Prof MG Dekimpe | PI | Tilburg University
Prof JEM Steenkamp | PI | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Public Summary: Can firms spend their way out of a recession? The typical reaction of firms during a recession is to slash investments in product innovation, advertising and sales promotions, because these marketing expenses are often the easiest to cut. However, some economic theories now suggest that it is actually better to increase marketing investments during recessions. These theories claim that the return on these types of investment is higher during the recession phase of international business cycles. Although there has been intense theoretical debate on these conflicting views, to date, they have not been tested empirically. To resolve this conundrum, our study addresses the research question: 'Are marketing investments more effective during recessions than during booms?'.
To address our research question, we develop a new theory on how the return on investments in innovation, advertising and sales promotion varies across business cycles. To test this theory, we develop a novel econometric model and apply it to an unrivalled dataset covering more than two decades of weekly data for hundreds of New Zealand fast moving consumer good categories and thousands of brands. Our research will provide insights into how New Zealand firms can better navigate through economic turbulence using marketing investments.
Total Awarded: $643,478
Duration: 3
Host: University of Waikato
Contact Person: Prof HJ Van Heerde
Panel: EHB
Project ID: 10-UOW-068
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2013
Title: Can ice sheets help themselves? Investigating self-stabilisation and instability in Antarctica
Recipient(s): Dr HJ Horgan | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Professor S Anandakrishnan | AI | Pennsylvania State University
Professor H Conway | AI | University of Washington
Professor CL Hulbe | AI | University of Otago
Public Summary: Recent observations and glaciological theory show that marine ice sheets are highly sensitive to changes at their margins; small changes at the edges can lead to disproportionately large changes in ice volume. Much of the threshold behavior of marine ice sheets is thought to originate at the grounding zone, where the grounded ice sheet transitions into floating ice shelves. Some processes are known to stabilize the grounding zone position of marine ice sheets, however, it is unclear to what degree these mechanisms are at play in the Antarctic today. One of the more poorly understood stabilizing mechanisms results from sediment deposition at the grounding zone. This sedimentation can introduce a self-stabilizing feedback and lead to non-uniform rates of grounding zone retreat. Here we propose to use geophysical methods to examine the modern grounding zone of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Using active source seismology and radio echo sounding we will investigate the current and past role of sedimentation at the grounding zone of Kamb Ice Stream and assess the importance of grounding zone sedimentation for ice sheet stability.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Dr HJ Horgan
Panel: ESA
Project ID: 13-VUW-098
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2015
Title: Can slow subduction zone deformation rapidly increase stress on nearby faults?
Recipient(s): Dr BN Fry | PI | GNS Science
Dr LM Wallace | PI | University of Texas at Austin
Dr SA Henrys | PI | GNS Science
Associate Professor K Mochizuki | AI | University of Tokyo
Associate Professor SG Lebedev | AI | Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
Public Summary: The recent discovery of previously unknown deformation at subduction zones requires rethinking the traditional model of the earthquake-cycle, in which a locked fault slowly accumulates stress until it is too weak to resist failure. We now know that episodes of 'slow-slip' deformation occur within much shorter periods of weeks to years, leading to fluctuations in the stress or frictional strength of the fault over the same time periods. Pore fluid migration is thought to be a key factor driving these changes, but much is still unknown about the underlying physical process. Understanding these time-dependent changes on the subduction interface and their impact on neighbouring faults is key to more accurate earthquake forecasting in subduction regions.
We propose to apply newly developed seismic methods to map and identify changes in physical properties (i.e. stress) across a cycle of slow-slip deformation in the northern Hikurangi subduction margin of New Zealand. This will be achieved using a unique onshore-offshore data network that captured a recent significant shallow slow-slip event. Ultimately, we seek to test the hypothesis that seemingly innocuous 'slow' deformation can rapidly change stresses, not only on the subduction interface, but also on nearby faults, potentially increasing the likelihood of mega earthquakes.
Total Awarded: $775,000
Duration: 3
Host: GNS Science
Contact Person: Dr BN Fry
Panel: ESA
Project ID: 15-GNS-026
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2013
Title: CAPE: making capability policies explicit
Recipient(s): Professor RJ Noble | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Professor S Drossopoulou | AI | Imperial College, London
Public Summary: Computer security breaches, such as WINZ's information kiosks, or Telecom's YahooXtra email system, are becoming more frequent and more serious as our communications, commerce, entertainment, and government increasingly depend on computer systems. A key problem in developing security-critical programs is that the security policies they implement are implicit, scattered throughout each program's source code. This project will make developing secure programs easier, by making security policies explicit in programs. Building on the object-capability model, programmers will be able to specify security policies explicitly for the programs they develop, and then verify that their programs correctly enforce those policies.
Total Awarded: $521,739
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Professor RJ Noble
Panel: MIS
Project ID: 13-VUW-062
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2014
Title: Captured in amber: ecological complexity in New Zealand's ancient araucarian forests
Recipient(s): Associate Professor DE Lee | PI | University of Otago
Dr DC Mildenhall | PI | GNS Science
Dr A Schmidt | AI | Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Dr JK Lindqvist | AI | University of Otago
Dr JG Conran | AI | The University of Adelaide
Dr EM Kennedy | AI | GNS Science
Public Summary: Iconic araucarian forests have an 80 million-year-long history in New Zealand, determined from pollen and plant macrofossils. But, the fossil record is silent about the rarely-preserved but diverse, distinctive, fragile, mainly soft-bodied organisms such as arthropods and fungi that comprise 95% of biodiversity in forest ecosystems. Widespread amber (kauri resin) is a valuable archive that is abundant in coal and other sediments. However, New Zealand amber is opaque and was previously thought to be devoid of fossils. Using a special technique to restore its transparency, we have discovered exquisite 3-dimensionally-preserved organisms such as nematodes, spiders and their webs, pseudoscorpions, mites, springtails, midges, wasps, ants, beetles, bark lice, moths or butterflies and many types of fungi from amber collected during a pilot study. These groups play essential roles in modern forests but their evolutionary history in New Zealand is largely unknown. Our aim is to explore and integrate data on the biota captured in amber with research on modern kauri forests to reconstruct their history. The initial discoveries show remarkable ecological complexity and demonstrate the potential of the amber biota to revolutionize our understanding of the role of evolution, extinction and environmental change in the formation of New Zealand's forest ecosystems.
Total Awarded: $810,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Associate Professor DE Lee
Panel: ESA
Project ID: 14-UOO-102
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2017
Title: Capturing the growth of a destructive ubiquitin chain
Recipient(s): Dr AJ Middleton | PI | University of Otago
Professor SS Sidhu | AI | University of Toronto
Public Summary: The post-translational modification of proteins with ubiquitin has a central role in all eukaryotic
cells. Disruptions to ubiquitin transfer are associated with many diseases, including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. Many functions of ubiquitin, including targeting proteins for degradation, rely on construction of ubiquitin chains. Generation of chains requires highly specific, but weak interactions between ubiquitin and E2 enzymes. The weak interactions hamper investigations into the precise mechanism of assembly of ubiquitin chains.
Our prior studies have allowed us to predict the surface of ubiquitin that interacts with an E2 to build degradative chains; and suggest E2-ubiquitin contacts that allow assembly of ubiquitin chains of only one linkage type. To study these interactions in detail we will use phage display to develop forms of ubiquitin that bind tightly to E2s. The isolated ubiquitin variants will be analysed using biochemical techniques and visualised in complex with E2 enzymes by X-ray crystallography. Our goal is to reveal the molecular details that underpin the selective assembly of ubiquitin chains; and to capture the complex that builds degradative ubiquitin chains. The ubiquitin system regulates many, if not all aspects of cellular function, and a detailed mechanistic understanding is central to the development of improved therapeutics.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Dr AJ Middleton
Panel: CMP
Project ID: 17-UOO-211
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2008
Title: Carbon neutrality: fact or fiction?
Recipient(s): Prof MJ Milne | PI | University of Canterbury
Prof A Ball | PI | University of Canterbury
Prof K Anderson | AI | Tyndall Centre at Manchester
Prof DL Levy | AI | University of Massachusetts, Boston
Public Summary: This critical and interpretive research programme seeks to understand New Zealand organisational claims for carbon-neutrality given both theoretical and policy demands for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission contractions. Carbon markets, credits and 'offsetting' (e.g., tree planting) are emerging as key strategies in climate change debates, but are they creating a myth that impedes genuine organisational social and environmental responsibilities? Can, and how do organisations measure, manage, report and audit GHG reductions in light of conventional aspirations for economic success? The programme will contribute new knowledge about the barriers and opportunities organisations face in demonstrating accountability for action on climate change.
Total Awarded: $732,444
Duration: 3
Host: University of Canterbury
Contact Person: Prof MJ Milne
Panel: SOC
Project ID: 08-UOC-025
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2008
Title: Cardinality constraints for XML: challenging the trade-off between expressiveness and tractability
Recipient(s): Assoc Prof S Link | PI | Massey University
Prof S Hartmann | PI | Massey University
Public Summary: The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) has become the 'lingua franca' for data integration/exchange. This has resulted in a dramatic increase of XML data that must be stored, managed and processed in its native format.
We will develop a well-founded theory of cardinality constraints that account for many desirable, yet unexplored, properties of XML data. This provides original insight into the characteristics of XML and enhances its so-far limited semantic capabilities. We will enable designers to make informed choices about which classes of cardinality constraints to incorporate into specification, query, and transformation languages; and provide efficient algorithms to advance XML data processing.
Total Awarded: $355,556
Duration: 3
Host: Massey University
Contact Person: Assoc Prof S Link
Panel: MIS
Project ID: 08-MAU-095
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2012
Title: Causality and cosmological models in general relativity
Recipient(s): Dr J Hennig | PI | University of Otago
Dr F Beyer | AI | University of Otago
Prof J Frauendiener | AI | University of Otago
Public Summary: This project is concerned with cosmological models within general relativity, Albert Einstein's theory of gravitation, and the investigation of their properties and causal structures. The starting point is the interesting observation that there are mathematical solutions to Einstein's field equations with a strange feature: they contain regions where causality is violated and time travel backwards in time is possible. This unexpected behaviour and the resulting philosophical problems are in disagreement with the current picture that physicists have of our universe. Moreover, it might indicate a lack of determinism in the theory of general relativity. Intimately connected to these problems is the famous cosmic censorship conjecture, according to which generic cosmological solutions cannot be extended into acausal regions. Hence, it is believed that acausal models - despite their existence - cannot be realized in nature. However, we claim that there are indeed large families of such peculiar mathematical solutions and our goal is to prove their existence. In particular, we will study their properties with both analytical and numerical methods, and construct exact solutions. Our investigations will provide essential contributions towards a better understanding of the mathematical structure of general relativity and, therefore, the geometry of the universe.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Dr J Hennig
Panel: MIS
Project ID: 12-UOO-143