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Search Marsden awards 2008–2017

Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017

Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2014

Title: Intergenerational investments or selling ancestors? Maori perspectives of privatising New Zealand's electricity generating assets

Recipient(s): Dr ML Muru-Lanning | PI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: Against the wishes of many Maori and non-Maori New Zealanders the National government privatised Mighty River Power and Meridian in 2013 and Genesis Energy in 2014. Using kaitiakitanga (guardianship) as a lens I will examine how these contemporary privatisation processes redefine Maori relationships with their lands, resources and ancestral territories. I will investigate what kaitiakitanga means now and explore the moral dilemmas and contradictions that emerge for Maori from the combination of commercial interests that seem to underpin it. I ask: how are Maori dealing with the sale of electricity companies that draw on resources understood as tupuna (ancestors), taonga (treasures), atua (super-natural beings) and whanau (family); have Maori become shareholders in electricity assets; and how might that mediate their duties as kaitiaki?

I will examine the governance processes and unique tribal discourse in which kaitiakitanga operates as a fundamental concept and analyse and explain the role that the politics of language and korero plays in transforming identities, power relations and socio-political hierarchies. This innovative project will advance knowledge nationally by revealing the complex range of Maori experiences, and responses to, privatisation. It will also contribute significantly to international scholarship on the impacts of privatisation on indigenous peoples.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr ML Muru-Lanning

Panel: SOC

Project ID: 14-UOA-097


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2015

Title: Intolerable risks: the search for security in an age of anxiety

Recipient(s): Professor J Pratt | PI | Victoria University of Wellington

Public Summary: How we punish offenders has become one of the distinguishing features of democratic society itself. However, current changes in penal law and practice across the main English-speaking societies reverse some of the most fundamental principles that have come to be associated with this social institution. Instead of safeguarding individuals from over-excessive use of the state's penal powers, these principles are increasingly directed at protecting the public from those who might otherwise put community safety at risk by committing crime in the future. New preventive measures that have emerged from this reorganisation of penal values and norms include, on the one hand, post-prison detention on completion of sentence instead of release for sex offenders; and, on the other, controls and restrictions on movement in public space on those who have no committed no crime at all - vagrants, the homeless, and anti-social youth, for example. This project provides a sociological explanation of these changes, which represent the rise of a new penal phenomenon in New Zealand and similar societies - the security sanction.

Total Awarded: $580,000

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Professor J Pratt

Panel: SOC

Project ID: 15-VUW-001


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2011

Title: Inventing cattle: a genetic study of cattle domestication through next generation sequencing

Recipient(s): Dr KA Horsburgh | PI | University of Otago

Public Summary: Animal domestication was one of the most significant revolutions in human history. Cattle are one of the most important domestic animals, holding tremendous economic, social and cultural value worldwide. Their domestication fuelled significant human population expansions across much of the Old World. The processes of cattle domestication, which began around 10,000 years ago, however, remains obscure. Few of the traits valued in domesticated cattle, such as meat and milk quality, and hide colour preserve in the archaeological record. Consequently, we understand little about how or when these traits were selected. In fact, we do not even know how many times, or in how many places, domestication occurred. Several genetic markers associated with milk production, coat colour and body fat composition have been identified in studies of modern cattle. Using recently developed, state of the art DNA sequencing technology we can now obtain DNA from ancient archaeological cattle remains, sequence these gene regions, and observe when and where these genetic traits appeared; thus uncovering the process of domestication through time and across space. In doing so, we can finally understand how, when and where humans began manipulating wild species to “invent” the cattle we know and value so greatly today.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Dr KA Horsburgh

Panel: EHB

Project ID: 11-UOO-138


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2008

Title: Investigating features and algorithms for recognising hand-drawn diagrams

Recipient(s): Dr B Plimmer | PI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: Exploring ideas with hand-drawn diagrams is more thought provoking than using a computer drawing application. New pen-input computers provide a paper-like environment that, with algorithms to understand the diagrams, can translation create an interactive model of the sketches and translated them to formal diagrams. Exploratory recognition algorithms have been heuristically tailored to a specific diagram type and are ineffective for other diagrams types. No systematic comparisons of algorithmic approaches (and the ink features that drive these algorithms) have been conducted. This research will develop general diagram recognition techniques based on quantitative experiments to determine the most discriminatory ink features and effective algorithms.

Total Awarded: $266,667

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr B Plimmer

Panel: MIS

Project ID: 08-UOA-193


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2011

Title: Investigating prehistoric Moriori settlement on Rekohu (Chatham Islands)

Recipient(s): Dr JM Wilmshurst | PI | Landcare Research
Prof A Anderson | PI | Canterbury University
Mr MA Solomon | PI | Hokotehi Moriori Trust
Prof AJ Cooper | AI | The University of Adelaide
Dr J Wood | AI | Landcare Research

Public Summary: When were the Chatham Islands (Rekohu) settled by Moriori? This is a puzzling and controversial question in New Zealand prehistory. The widely accepted date for settlement is AD 1500, but is based on only a small number of radiocarbon dates from the 1970s. However, Moriori traditional knowledge, linguistic divergence of Moriori from Maori, and the archaic nature of their stone artefacts suggests settlement much earlier in the 13th century. Supporting this, a reappraisal of East Polynesian settlement shows rapid dispersal from the Society Islands to the outer islands of the region, including mainland New Zealand, at about AD 1200-1300. If the Chathams were settled 200-300 years later, as the current radiocarbon dates indicate, this has profound implications for its human and biological history and suggests long-distance voyaging in mainland New Zealand persisted well after settlement. Alternatively, previous archaeological excavations have completely missed the first few centuries of settlement.

This project will provide a precise age for Moriori settlement and establish the trajectory of cultural and ecological change on the Chathams. New archaeological investigations, microfossil sequences, rat-gnawed seed, ancient DNA analyses and radiocarbon dating will settle long-standing controversies, and expand our knowledge of the broader dispersal of people from East Polynesia.

Total Awarded: $721,739

Duration: 3

Host: Landcare Research

Contact Person: Dr JM Wilmshurst

Panel: EHB

Project ID: 11-LCR-001


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2009

Title: Investigating the genetic basis for and adaptive significance of cryptic female choice in an external fertiliser – the chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tschawytscha)

Recipient(s): Professor NJ Gemmell | PI | University of Otago
Professor R Montgomerie | AI | Queen's University
Ms PC Rosengrave | AI | University of Canterbury

Public Summary: In some species, females control fertilisation after mating through cryptic female choice (CFC). Recently we demonstrated in salmon that ovarian fluid alters sperm function in a female-dependent fashion, suggesting that females exert CFC. The adaptive significance of this is unknown, but ovarian-fluid-mediated sperm selection may favour genetic combinations that enhance offspring fitness. Using state-of-the-art sperm analyses, competitive fertilisations, and parentage assignment we will determine if this female-dependent sperm function affects male fertilisation success and if so whether there is a genetic basis for this CFC. This work has implications for fertility enhancement and control in aquaculture, agriculture, conservation and medicine.

Total Awarded: $773,333

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Professor NJ Gemmell

Panel: EEB

Project ID: 09-UOO-133


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2012

Title: Investigating the role of ozone in New Zealand and Southern Hemisphere climate change

Recipient(s): Dr O Morgenstern | PI | NIWA - The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd
Dr SM Dean | AI | NIWA - The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd
Dr AR Klekociuk | AI | Australian Antarctic Division
Dr AJ McDonald | AI | University of Canterbury
Dr G Rickard | AI | NIWA - The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd

Public Summary: We propose to investigate the impacts of ozone depletion and increasing greenhouse gases on Southern Hemisphere and New Zealand climate. 21st century climate will be governed by increasing long-lived greenhouse gases and by stratospheric ozone recovery due to the implementation of the Montreal Protocol. Stratospheric ozone depletion has been suggested to dominate recent Southern-Hemisphere climate change. The formation of the ozone hole may have caused precipitation regimes to move poleward. However, climate models which this finding is based on are generally characterized by one of two shortcomings. They either include an interactive ocean but exclude interactive ozone chemistry, or vice versa. In both cases, such models incompletely capture the climate impact of ozone depletion on near-surface climate. Within this project, we will build and validate a novel climate model encompassing both chemistry and an interactive ocean. We will use the model to project how long-lived greenhouse gases and ozone recovery will affect Southern Hemisphere and New Zealand climate. We will perform sensitivity studies addressing the relative influences of these two climate drivers. We will use a regional climate model to produce high-resolution projections for New Zealand which adequately account for the New Zealand topography and land-sea contrasts.

Total Awarded: $830,435

Duration: 3

Host: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research

Contact Person: Dr O Morgenstern

Panel: ESA

Project ID: 12-NIW-006


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2017

Title: Investigating the role of peroxiredoxin redox relays in cell signalling

Recipient(s): Professor MB Hampton | PI | University of Otago
Dr PE Pace | AI | University of Otago
Professor CC Winterbourn | AI | University of Otago

Public Summary: Hydrogen peroxide acts as a signalling molecule in cells by oxidizing cysteine residues in important regulatory proteins such as phosphatases, kinases and transcription factors. It is currently unclear how these proteins are specifically targeted by hydrogen peroxide. One proposal is that sensor proteins called peroxiredoxins react with hydrogen peroxide, and then relay this oxidation to closely bound target proteins. We are investigating whether these relays operate in human lymphocytes that either generate or are exposed to hydrogen peroxide as part of their normal function. The peroxiredoxins will be removed from the lymphocytes, or mutated in such a way as to disrupt their structure, and we will search for target proteins that are no longer susceptible to oxidation. We will also investigate a putative redox relay between peroxiredoxins and a cytoskeletal protein that regulates the movement of cells, and test the ability of a peptide to disrupt the interaction between peroxiredoxins and the cytoskeletal protein inside cells. The ability to uncouple redox relays would provide a novel antioxidant strategy for protecting cells from pathological levels of hydrogen peroxide.

Total Awarded: $959,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago, Christchurch

Contact Person: Professor MB Hampton

Panel: BMS

Project ID: 17-UOO-086


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2013

Title: Investigation of macromolecular assembly and signalling by an antiretroviral host protein

Recipient(s): Dr DC Goldstone | PI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: The post-entry restriction factor Trim5alpha blocks infection by a range of retroviruses including HIV-1. Restriction of a particular virus by Trim5alpha requires recognition of the lattice of capsid protein that forms the inner shell of the retrovirus. To recognise the virus, Trim5alpha itself forms a large hexameric assembly that takes advantage of multiple binding sites present on the capsid shell. Recognition results in the premature disassembly of the virus, preventing integration into the host cell, and stimulates signalling pathways that trigger a cellular innate immune response protecting the cell. The molecular details of the Trim5alpha assembly and how recognition of the capsid lattice is linked to the activation of signalling is currently unknown.
Using protein crystallography and biophysical techniques, we will probe the molecular details of the Trim5alpha assembly and examine the recruitment of ubiquitylation machinery that activates signalling. This work is fundamental to our understanding of how Trim5alpha recognises and blocks infection of multiple retroviruses.

Total Awarded: $847,826

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr DC Goldstone

Panel: BMS

Project ID: 13-UOA-064


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2014

Title: Investigation of SUSHI-mediated early signalling events in plant innate immunity

Recipient(s): Dr K Sohn | PI | Massey University

Public Summary: Plants and animals use specialized immune receptors to detect invading pathogens and activate a complex network of immune responses. In plants, disease resistance (R) proteins that resemble mammalian NOD (nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain)-like receptors recognize pathogen-derived effector molecules and activate innate immunity. How R proteins activate signalling cascades, in particular transcriptional responses, upon recognition of pathogen effectors, is one of the most important yet unsolved questions in plant biology. Thus, our proposal aims to gain insights into how a plant immune receptor complex can regulate rapid transcriptional changes upon recognition of pathogen molecules. The Arabidopsis immune complex comprising two R proteins, RRS1 and RPS4, provides an excellent opportunity to investigate the molecular mechanisms by which R proteins regulate transcriptional activation of defense genes. Based on our unpublished and novel discoveries, we propose to apply established genetic, genomic and biochemical tools on this model system to further advance our understanding of the plant immune system. The results of this research will provide fundamental insights into how plants defend themselves against a diverse range of microbes in nature. Moreover, understanding the genetic and biochemical basis of R protein-mediated activation of innate immunity will help us develop advanced strategies to control pathogens in crops.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: Massey University

Contact Person: Dr K Sohn

Panel: CMP

Project ID: 14-MAU-102


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