Search Marsden awards 2008–2017
Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2012
Title: He rongo i te reo rauriki, i te reo reiuru: whakatauki and conservation of biodiversity in Aotearoa
Recipient(s): Dr H Whaanga | PI | University of Waikato
Prof G Appell | AI | Brandeis University
Dr L Maffi | AI | Royal Roads University
Dr P Wehi | AI | Massey University
Public Summary: The ‘wisdom of the elders’ about how best to manage the environment is rapidly being lost, as is New Zealand’s biological and cultural diversity. This interdisciplinary research project will draw from linguistics, sociology, history and evolutionary theory to explore the knowledge and understanding of conservation and biodiversity embedded in whakatauki (Maori ancestral sayings). We will combine rigorous and innovative methodologies associated largely with the Western tradition of scholarship (Discourse Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis) with equally rigorous and innovative methodologies associated largely with indigenous approaches (consultation with cultural experts and Kaupapa Maori). Using the qualitative data analysis software NVivo, critical content analysis, an index of the cultural significance of New Zealand’s native flora and fauna, semi-structured interviews with Maori elders and other knowledge-holders, and network theory, we will investigate the contribution that whakatauki can make to contemporary issues associated with language and cultural sustainability, biodiversity and conservation. This project breaks new ground with an approach to modelling that sits at the interface between indigenous and mainstream understanding. We will collect and preserve a significant body of cultural and biological knowledge that might otherwise be lost, benefiting Maori language and culture, linguistics and conservation in New Zealand.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Waikato
Contact Person: Dr H Whaanga
Panel: SOC
Project ID: 12-UOW-093
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2009
Title: Health and social change in prehistoric Southeast Asia
Recipient(s): Dr SE Halcrow | PI | University of Otago
Dr NR Beavan-Athfield | AI | GNS Science
Dr HR Buckley | AI | University of Otago
Dr NG Tayles | AI | University of Otago
Public Summary: The 'Neolithic Revolution' was a critical transformation in prehistory, affecting health, demography and social organisation. However, recent work questions the applicability of the general model in Southeast Asia. Infant and child diet and weaning have not been assessed in this region, despite their potential for assessing health and demographic change. We propose a novel approach to address this issue, incorporating an analysis of diet using stable isotopes, bioarchaeological data on health, and funerary behaviour. This will enhance our understanding of the relationships between diet, health, mortality and social aspects as they contribute to demographic change with agricultural intensification in prehistory.
Total Awarded: $266,667
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Dr SE Halcrow
Panel: EHB
Project ID: 09-UOO-012
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2016
Title: Hearing the Difference: New Strategies for Listening in Contemporary Politics
Recipient(s): Dr EJ Beausoleil | PI | Massey University
Professor R Coles | AI | Australian Catholic University
Public Summary: Democracies require communication across profound social differences, yet little is currently known about the procedural conditions that facilitate listening. This project forms a radical break from democratic theory's traditional focus on the right to speak, by investigating the inverse and essential question of how people come to listen. To do so, it draws upon interdisciplinary expertise from four sectors where listening comprises an essential skill yet are currently overlooked in receptivity scholarship, and connects such expertise to civil organisations challenged to sensitise and engage the general public about the pressing issue of growing socioeconomic inequality in New Zealand. It employs a participatory action research (PAR) approach to collaboratively generate, implement and evaluate innovative models of democratic engagement designed to actively foster receptivity regarding this issue. The project's unique partnerships and applied approach offer to 'close the loop' of research so that recommendations find their way back into practical application where they are needed most. Tapping into a wider spectrum of expertise than conventionally attempted in political theory and connecting academic and civil sectors normally at a remove, it promises to contribute to current theory and practice regarding how democratic norms of receptivity and responsiveness are realised in concrete terms.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: Massey University
Contact Person: Dr EJ Beausoleil
Panel: SOC
Project ID: 16-MAU-097
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2008
Title: Hearing through someone else's ears: a signal processing approach
Recipient(s): Dr PD Teal | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr G Searchfield | AI | The University of Auckland
Public Summary: This project will research techniques to recover the electrical signals generated in the ear as a direct response to sound - in effect using the ear as a microphone. If this proves to be feasible it could profoundly effect the way that some hearing impairments are diagnosed and treated, and even the way that mass market audio systems are designed.
Total Awarded: $266,667
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Dr PD Teal
Panel: PSE
Project ID: 08-VUW-022
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2012
Title: Heart failure and remodelling: from images to mechanics
Recipient(s): Prof MP Nash | PI | The University of Auckland
Assoc Prof IJ LeGrice | PI | The University of Auckland
Assoc Prof AY Young | PI | The University of Auckland
Prof S Neubauer | AI | University of Oxford
Public Summary: The heart is a mechanical pump whose function can only be understood by combining engineering with biology. Heart failure is a leading cause of death in New Zealand and is particularly prevalent among Maori. Some patients with heart failure exhibit poor contraction whereas others show impaired relaxation and filling. Despite extensive research, effective diagnosis and treatments are hampered by a fundamental lack of understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the various forms of heart failure. We believe that medical imaging can be used in combination with engineering analysis and biological knowledge to understand the underlying mechanisms of the different types of heart failure. Our team has pioneered internationally acclaimed methods for measuring the structural and functional changes occurring in heart failure. In collaboration with Oxford University, we will apply these methods to state of the art patient imaging data. We will develop a new biophysical analysis of heart function that combines biological information with safe imaging examinations in an innovative engineering framework. This will result in personalised evaluations of heart failure mechanisms, which are adapted for each patient. This new knowledge will shed light on possible new heart failure treatments that target the specific forms of the disease.
Total Awarded: $817,391
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Prof MP Nash
Panel: EIS
Project ID: 12-UOA-222
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2010
Title: High dispersion of nano-particles in alloy coatings
Recipient(s): Prof W Gao | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr ME Dickinson | AI | The University of Auckland
Public Summary: Tremendous effort has been made in the research of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in the last decade. One focus is to make nano-particle dispersed composites and coatings. It has been proved that nano-dispersion of hard particles in alloys or coatings can improve physical and mechanical properties. The traditional way to make nano composite coatings is to mix solid nanoparticles into an alloy matrix. However, the nanoparticles always agglomerate together to micron size due to extremely high surface energy, severely limiting strengthening effects. This is one of the most difficult problems that nanotechnology is facing.
We have discovered a new method that can avoid particle agglomeration: adding a solution containing the oxide into coating electrolyte, instead of adding solid particles. The nano-sized oxide deposited in-situ with metal, forms a truly nano-composite coating with significantly improved properties. This is a breakthrough in nano-technology. The proposed project is to understand the nano-dispersion process and its strengthening mechanisms by using detailed nano-mechanical property testing methods and electron microscopy. We will also expand this new concept to establish a wide range of alloy-oxide coating systems. This research will be an important step to bridge nanotechnology to materials engineering, and of great scientific and applied significance.
Total Awarded: $756,522
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Prof W Gao
Panel: EIS
Project ID: 10-UOA-124
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2012
Title: Highly symmetric polytopes
Recipient(s): Dr DJJ Leemans | PI | The University of Auckland
Prof MCE Conder | AI | The University of Auckland
Prof E Schulte | AI | Northeastern University
Public Summary: Polytopes are incidence structures generalizing well-known discrete
geometric figures in euclidian spaces including the Platonic solids
and their relatives. This project focuses on abstract polytopes
exhibiting a high degree of geometric, combinatorial, and/or algebraic
symmetry. As in classical geometric contexts, rich symmetry can best
be described in terms of the abundance of reflections and/or
rotations. There will be particular emphasis on the interplay between the
two kinds of maximum possible symmetry, namely chirality and regularity.
The regular polytopes have maximum possible symmetry, regardless of
any qualification, and are in fact symmetric by reflection. Chiral
polytopes, on the other hand, have maximum possible symmetry by
rotation but lack symmetry by reflection. The goal is to gain a deeper
understanding of chirality in polytopes, and in particular to
investigate the fundamental question of prevalence, asking whether the
world of polytopes is more chiral or more regular. The finite simple
groups are a natural source for highly-symmetric polytopes. We
investigate regular and chiral polytopes with automorphism groups
closely related to simple groups, and attempt to provide new
insights into the question of prevalence.
Total Awarded: $504,348
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Dr DJJ Leemans
Panel: MIS
Project ID: 12-UOA-083
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2009
Title: History of Liverpool as a trading port, 1700-1850
Recipient(s): Dr SD Behrendt | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Public Summary: The 'History of Liverpool, 1700-1850' will produce the first comprehensive history of the second-largest British port and center of the transatlantic slave trade for Cambridge or Oxford University Presses. The project will examine the legacy of the slave trade to Liverpool, and assess economic and social links between maritime (1700s-1815) and industrial eras. The creation of a multi-source relational database will teach research skills to students, and the public access online database will be a sustainable resource for scholars and users interested in Liverpool, the slave trade, the contested issue of reparations, immigration, maritime history and early Lancashire industrialisation.
Total Awarded: $490,667
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Dr SD Behrendt
Panel: HUM
Project ID: 09-VUW-063
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2009
Title: Hormonal regulation of bodyweight in reproduction
Recipient(s): Dr CH Brown | PI | University of Otago
Professor DR Grattan | PI | University of Otago
Dr V Scott | AI | University of Otago
Public Summary: During pregnancy, normal control of bodyweight is removed in preparation for the metabolic demands of lactation; food intake is increased when the pregnancy hormone, prolactin, renders mothers unresponsive to signals that usually limit food intake. Another reproductive hormone, oxytocin, decreases appetite and prolactin regulation of oxytocin cell activity depends on reproductive status. We will use recordings of oxytocin cell activity, measurement of brain oxytocin levels and neurochemistry in virgin, pregnant, lactating and post-weaning rats to develop strategies to prevent pregnancy-induced obesity by determining whether prolactin-induced changes in brain oxytocin release underpin reproductive changes in bodyweight regulation.
Total Awarded: $728,889
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Dr CH Brown
Panel: BMS
Project ID: 09-UOO-104
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2012
Title: Hormonal regulation of immune cells: does anti-hormone therapy inadvertently fuel cancer?
Recipient(s): Dr AK Dunbier | PI | University of Otago
Public Summary: The interaction of the immune system in cancer development and progression remains one of the most challenging questions in immunology. It has emerged that immune cells can suppress tumour growth but paradoxically, they may also promote tumour progression. Precisely what determines which of these roles will predominate is not well understood.
In breast cancer, conflicting studies show immune cell infiltration into the tumour can be an indicator of both good and poor outcomes. Our recent data suggest that anti-oestrogen therapy, a common treatment for oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer, increases immune cell infiltration and that infiltration is associated with poor response to treatment. We hypothesise that molecules secreted by oestrogen deprived tumour cells recruit immune cells, which then fuel the growth of the tumour, contributing to the observed resistance to treatment. We aim to demonstrate this in a mouse model of breast cancer. We will use this model to investigate which specific subtypes of immune cells are recruited when oestrogen is absent and trial using a common anti-inflammatory drug to modulate this response. This research will help elucidate the mechanisms that drive immune cells to infiltrate and fuel cancers, and identify ways that this can be regulated to improve outcomes.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Dr AK Dunbier
Panel: BMS
Project ID: 12-UOO-210