Search Marsden awards 2008–2017
Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2012
Title: Ecologies of skill in early modern England
Recipient(s): Prof EB Tribble | PI | University of Otago
Prof J Sutton | AI | Macquarie University
Public Summary: Skill links mind, body, and affect in intelligent action. Performers in theatre, dance, music, and sport, as well as experts in craft, conduct, and science, exhibit extraordinary skills when working in both bodily movement and material culture. Yet literary and cultural history lack full accounts of the vital but under-conceptualised domain of skill. The overall goal of this project is to build upon recent work in literary history, theory and culture, to develop an ecological model of skill. Skill is a property of biological, neurological, social, historical, and material forces operating in concert, and is best studied through a systems-level framework capable of considering all of these areas simultaneously. An ecological model of skill takes account of complex interactions among internal cognitive processes, embodied skill building, technologies, expert practices, and cultural situations to ask how skill is inculcated, appraised, transmitted, valued, and evaluated. This project proposes a historically specific treatment of skill in early modern England, anchored in detailed new studies of embodied knowledge networks and apprenticeship learning in drama and other embodied performance domains; an ethnographic study of the transmission and acquisition of skills in reconstructed Elizabethan playhouses; and a cross-historical collaborative re-assessment of the nature of skill.
Total Awarded: $421,739
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Prof EB Tribble
Panel: HUM
Project ID: 12-UOO-018
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2014
Title: Educating for emigration? Searching for appropriate education policy in the Pacific Islands
Recipient(s): Professor JD Overton | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr A Gamlen | AI | Victoria University of Wellington
Professor WE Murray | AI | Victoria University of Wellington
Public Summary: This research asks whether different types of education in the Pacific Islands region lead to emigration and how this might contribute to either positive or negative development outcomes. It seeks to question which strategies for education (by level, gender and curriculum) and associated aid policies promote higher levels of emigration. Furthermore, it explores how these forms of education and migration then relate to different conceptions of desirable development by individuals, communities and governments in the region. Drawing together a cross-disciplinary approach spanning migration, development and education, and several case studies from across the Pacific region, it will employ a mix of methods to review a range of both institutional and individual experiences. It aims to provide recommendations for aid and development policies.
Total Awarded: $710,000
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Professor JD Overton
Panel: SOC
Project ID: 14-VUW-081
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2009
Title: Effect of fluids on the strength of the mid-crustal coupling zone on major faults: insights from New Zealand’s Alpine Fault
Recipient(s): Dr VG Toy | PI | University of Otago
Dr NE Timms | AI | Curtin University of Technology
Dr P Upton | AI | GNS Science
Public Summary: Recent studies of active faults have highlighted the importance of fluids to strength and rheological behaviour in the mid-crust. New Zealand’s Alpine Fault offers a unique opportunity to examine deformation processes in this zone under both fluid-absent and fluid-present conditions. We will use field-based, microstructural, fluid inclusion and microchemical studies to determine the distribution of fluid in the exhumed fault rocks and the relationship to geophysical signatures of fluids in the presently-deforming middle crust. 3D mechanical models will be constructed to examine the effects of the observed rheological behaviours on surface deformation and the possible size of future fault ruptures.
Total Awarded: $266,667
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Dr VG Toy
Panel: ESA
Project ID: 09-UOO-057
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2009
Title: Efficient analysis with biased samples
Recipient(s): Professor CJ Wild | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor AJ Lee | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor AJ Scott | PI | The University of Auckland
Public Summary: Biased samples make the fitting of statistical regression models complicated. Fully efficient methods of analysis are available in special cases but not in general. Forms of analysis that work more generally are often inefficient, e.g. conditional maximum likelihood (CML). We will characterise the efficiency losses, identify situations where they are large and provide more efficient methods of analysis using recent advances in estimating equation theory. This is fundamental research with excellent potential to benefit New Zealand by allowing researchers in medicine and many other fields to obtain more precise information from the research dollars they spend.
Total Awarded: $533,333
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Professor CJ Wild
Panel: MIS
Project ID: 09-UOA-031
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2012
Title: Efficient conversion of individual microwave photons to individual optical photons
Recipient(s): Dr JJ Longdell | PI | University of Otago
Dr WJ Munro | AI | NTT Basic Research Labs
Dr MJ Sellars | AI | Australian National University
Public Summary: Rapid advances are currently being made in quantum information processing using superconducting qubits. Superconducting qubits naturally couple to microwave photons. This project aims to convert these microwave photons into optical photons. Using optical fibers would then allow the long distance transfer of quantum states between superconducting qubits. It would also allow access to the quantum memories that have been developed for light. The conversion will use cryogenic whispering gallery mode optical resonators containing rare earth ion dopants with integrated superconducting microwave resonators.
Total Awarded: $808,696
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Dr JJ Longdell
Panel: PCB
Project ID: 12-UOO-065
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2014
Title: Efficient energy processing at the nanoscale: the physics of how cells use energy
Recipient(s): Dr KJ Challis | PI | Scion
Dr MW Jack | AI | Scion
Public Summary: Energy use in biological cells is facilitated by specialized biomolecules called motor proteins. Unlike large-scale industrial energy systems, motor proteins convert energy at the nanoscale and can operate at near 100% efficiency. Common features in the way different motor proteins convert energy suggest that they are governed by overarching physical principles, but these fundamental principles are not yet fully understood.
Different theoretical approaches have been developed to try to explain the physics of energy conversion in motor proteins. Many existing approaches are either specific to a particular protein or are of theoretical interest with limited relevance for biology. One realistic overarching theory has been proposed. The mathematical complexity of this theory has meant that few results have been obtained so far.
We will develop theoretical physics methods to obtain results for the proposed overarching theory. We will test its validity by comparing our results with experimental data from other groups, and analyse our results for the theory to explain fundamental principles of energy conversion in motor proteins.
Ultimately, knowledge of the underlying physics of motor proteins informs the artificial synthesis of nanoscale motors and the design of new efficient energy technologies.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: Scion
Contact Person: Dr KJ Challis
Panel: PCB
Project ID: 14-FRI-003
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2012
Title: Electrocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide to methanol
Recipient(s): Dr AT Marshall | PI | University of Canterbury
Prof DA Harrington | AI | University of Victoria
Public Summary: Efficient conversion of carbon dioxide into methanol would revolutionise energy technologies. This can be achieved through electrocatalytic reduction. While the process has low thermodynamic energy requirements, the reaction is hindered by large activation barriers which substantially increase the energy demands. These barriers can be reduced by well-designed electrocatalysts. We propose investigating how the structure of the reaction sites determine the activity of electrocatalysts for carbon dioxide reduction. From this, we will develop a structural rationale for electrocatalytic activity, paving the way for the development of highly active electrocatalysts and the efficient conversion of carbon dioxide to methanol.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Canterbury
Contact Person: Dr AT Marshall
Panel: EIS
Project ID: 12-UOC-091
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2010
Title: Elucidating the origin and ecology of TTX: the phantom marine toxin
Recipient(s): Prof SC Cary | PI | University of Waikato
Mr PS McNabb | AI | Cawthron Institute
Prof BA Neilan | AI | University of New South Wales
Dr SA Wood | AI | Cawthron Institute
Public Summary: Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is an enigmatic natural toxin found in multiple genetically unrelated marine and terrestrial organisms. Despite many decades of intensive research the exact origin of TTX remains uncertain. Recent evidence suggests that in marine taxa TTX is not endogenously produced but that it bio-accumulates from TTX-producing bacteria, either symbiotically or through the diet. A major impediment to research on the origin of TTX has been an inability to culture any marine TTX-containing organism through all life stages. In 2009 we identified TTX for the first time in NZ in the grey side-gilled sea slug - Pleurobranchaea maculata. Pleurobranchaea maculata has been raised through its complete lifecycle in captivity and our recent research identified high concentrations of TTX in all development stages surveyed. This provides a unique opportunity to solve this international marine science paradox in NZ. Using a combination of immunohistochemical and molecular procedures coupled with advanced microscopy we will identify the location of TTX in all life stages. Chemical, microbiological and molecular techniques will then be used in concert with environmental surveys and hypothesis-driven manipulative experiments to resolve the point source of TTX and explore TTX transmission among individuals and between generations.
Total Awarded: $652,174
Duration: 3
Host: University of Waikato
Contact Person: Prof SC Cary
Panel: EEB
Project ID: 10-UOW-083
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2012
Title: En garde! The development of a stress response in bees and its impact on learning and memory
Recipient(s): Prof AR Mercer | PI | University of Otago
Dr EMG Urlacher | PI | University of Otago
Dr AB Barron | AI | Macquarie University
Dr JM Devaud | AI | Université Paul Sabatier
Dr DB Jarriault | AI | University of Otago
Mr HJ McQuillan | AI | University of Otago
Public Summary: Honey bees are critical for pollination, they are an integral part of the natural ecosystem. The proposed research will see three internationally recognised honey bee research groups focus their knowledge and expertise on a problem of significance world wide, colony collapse disorder.
Environmental stressors such as pesticides and Varroa are having profoundly detrimental effects on honey bee survival. We hypothesise that early in adult life, insults to neural circuits essential for learning and stress reactivity compromise honey bee survival and contribute to colony collapse.
The discovery of an opioid-like signalling system in the honey bee provides us with a novel and potentially very powerful tool with which to examine stress reactivity and its ability to shape learning behaviour in the honey bee. We will use this and other tools to establish whether chronic stress leads to deficits in brain function that impact negatively on the survival of this economically important insect.
Honey bees are under threat world wide. Finding ways to enhance the survival of this important insect pollinator is one critically important long-term goal of this research.
Total Awarded: $791,304
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Prof AR Mercer
Panel: CMP
Project ID: 12-UOO-161
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2017
Title: Encapsulation of an aqueous liquid in a drop of aqueous liquid
Recipient(s): Dr E Nowak | PI | Massey University Auckland
Professor AW Pacek | AI | University of Birmingham
Dr CP Whitby | AI | Massey University Manawatu
Dr GR Willmott | AI | The University of Auckland
Public Summary: Encapsulation is an important tool for modern drug and food systems and has potential to add value to New Zealand food, pharmaceutical products and also to energy storage materials. The essence is that one droplet of a compound is encapsulated in a shell made of another compound.
We will exploit the Marangoni effect to achieve aqueous encapsulation. We propose to utilise surface tension gradients to induce surface flow and form a film of one aqueous phase covering another aqueous drop and explore the underlying dynamics of such engulfing process. The film and drop will keep their identity (no or controlled mixing). Peripheral polymerization will provide elegant routes to aqueous drop-in drop morphologies, ridding the industry of the complications of ‘traditional’ encapsulation methods, which focus on immiscible systems.
Encapsulation as a form of product formulation has grown to be a field of science with many applications in our daily lives that would greatly benefit from the possibility of miscible aqueous drop-in-drop formation. Exploring the poorly understood contact between miscible phases means we can exploit processes occurring at these interfaces to create novel capsule formation routes.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: Massey University Auckland
Contact Person: Dr E Nowak
Panel: EIS
Project ID: 17-MAU-117