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Published 8 May 2025

Marsden Fund preliminary proposals for 2025

The Marsden Fund received a total of 978 proposals - 663 Standard and 310 Fast-Start Expression of Interest (EOIs), and 5 Marsden Fund Council (MFC) Award proposals. This is slightly down on last year's 1013 EOIs.

In total, 210 applicants have been invited to submit full proposals – 136 Standards and 74 Fast-Starts – and 3 MFC Award proposals have progressed to stage 2, making a total of 213 proposals through to the second round.

We anticipate approximately 106 proposals will eventually be contracted. The projected amount of funding available is approximately $80.3 million (excl. GST).

Submitted and invited to full round by panel

EOIs received                                                                    Invited to full round                                 
Panel Standard Fast-Start MFC TOTAL Standard Fast-Start MFC TOTAL
BMS 126 42   168 24 10   34
CMP 71 25   96 17 6   23
EEB 73 48   121 15 12   27
EHB 91 62   153 17 15   32
EIS 105 53   158 18 12   30
ESA 65 34   99 16 7   23
HUM                
MIS 73 27   100 16 8   24
PCB 59 19   78 13 4   17
SOC                
MFC     5 5     3 3
Totals 663 310 5 978 136 74 3 213

Organisational Statistics

Total proposals submitted by organisation

Organisation 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
AgResearch 11 7 5 4 4 10
GNS Science 12 13 11 18 21 25
Institute of Environmental Science and Research 3 7   2 6 11
Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research 7 9 9 11 15 18
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd 24 32 27 23 39 13
Plant and Food Research 13 7 2 14 16 15
Scion   1 5 2 6 7
CRI Total 70 76 65 74 107 99
             
Auckland Institute of Studies 1          
Auckland University of Technology 29 32 19 14 23 28
Eastern Institute of Technology         1 1
Ara Institute of Canterbury   1        
Lincoln University 14 18 11 8 12 10
Manukau Institute of Technology 2          
Massey University 132 127 99 96 78 52
New Zealand College of Chiropractic         4 2
Te Wānanga o Aotearoa   1     3  
Te Wānanga o Awanuiārangi   1     2  
Unitec - Institute of Technology 2 1 2 5 3 3
The University of Auckland 283 268 211 218 237 260
University of Canterbury 108 103 91 100 125 129
University of Otago 235 217 200 184 180 167
University of Waikato 89 82 47 52 54 47
Universal College of Learning (UCOL) 1     1    
Victoria University of Wellington 166 176 138 129 132 115
Waikato Institute of Technology       1 2  
Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology           1
TEO Total 1062 1027 818 808 856 815
             
Other* Total 38 49 18 40 50 64
             
Grand Total 1170 1152 901 922 1013 978

*Other applicants include: private individuals, health boards, museums and independent research organisations

Total invited to submit a full proposal

Organisation 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
AgResearch            
GNS Science 3 2 4 4 6 4
Institute of Environmental Science and Research       1 1  
Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research 3 1   1 2 1
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd 2 8 6 5 3 3
Plant and Food Research 3 1 2 3 1 6
Scion         2  
CRI Total 11 12 12 14 15 14
             
Auckland University of Technology 5 8 7 5 4 5
Eastern Institute of Technology            
Lincoln University 2 2       2
Massey University 26 23 29 18 14 9
New Zealand College of Chiropractic            
Te Wānanga o Aotearoa            
Te Wānanga o Awanuiārangi         2  
Unitec - Institute of Technology         1  
The University of Auckland 82 65 68 53 59 65
University of Canterbury 17 20 29 31 16 27
University of Otago 69 51 50 51 52 45
University of Waikato 23 15 6 16 14 11
Victoria University of Wellington 50 33 21 32 34 25
Waikato Institute of Technology            
TEO Total 274 217 210 206 196 189
             
Other* Total 4 6 5 6 9 10
             
Grand Total 289 235 227 226 220 213

*Other applicants include: private individuals, health boards, museums and independent research organisations

Source: Royal Society Te Apārangi