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Search Marsden awards 2008–2017

Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017

Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2009

Title: Spin crossover driven molecular switches triggered by external stimuli: toward spin-switching chemosensors

Recipient(s): Associate Professor PE Kruger | PI | University of Canterbury
Professor R Clerac | AI | University de Bordeaux
Professor KS Murray | AI | Monash University

Public Summary: A molecular switch is a molecule which can reversibly change its configuration between two stable states in response to changes in external stimuli such as temperature, light and microenvironment. We recently made a breakthrough discovery in producing an optically and temperature switchable complex which showed striking colour changes upon switching. We will engineer these compounds to selectively respond to chemical triggers in the unprecedented development of switchable chemo-sensors. These molecular switches will find future applications in molecular sensors, molecular memory, data storage, and visual displays

Total Awarded: $622,222

Duration: 3

Host: University of Canterbury

Contact Person: Associate Professor PE Kruger

Panel: PSE

Project ID: 09-UOC-085


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2016

Title: Splitting up the farm? A cross-cultural history of land and inheritance in Aotearoa

Recipient(s): Dr JM McCabe | PI | University of Otago

Public Summary: The New Zealand rural sector faces a twin crisis of absentee land ownership and pressing environmental issues to which industrial farming has undeniably contributed. Settler colonial rhetoric believed that farming families provided a model for land ownership that was not only economically efficient, but socially and morally responsible. As New Zealand moves increasingly towards corporate ownership of rural land, this study asks: what is the connection between the ideology of family inheritance and care for the land? Taking an innovative multicultural approach, the research looks beyond white settler logic and widens the definition of a “farming family” to include different ethnicities, family formations and land uses. This in-depth study engages with families and communities to ascertain the practices and problems of intergenerational land transfer in two districts in New Zealand – Hokianga in the north of the North Island, and Taieri in the south of the South Island. What does guardianship of the land mean to different cultures in these districts, and how has this shaped the landscapes and waterways of Aotearoa?

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Dr JM McCabe

Panel: HUM

Project ID: 16-UOO-112


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2015

Title: Sport in the red zone: youth and social change in spaces of war and disaster

Recipient(s): Dr HA Thorpe | PI | University of Waikato
Associate Professor BM Wheaton | AI | University of Waikato

Public Summary: Children and youth are among the most at-risk groups in contexts of war and disaster. Yet some are adopting innovative strategies to facilitate individual and community recovery and resilience. This project examines youths' engagement with informal sports to improve their own and others' health and wellbeing, and for unique forms of civic engagement, via four case studies: (1) Afghan youths' participation in skateboarding; (2) a grassroots parkour group in Gaza; (3) post-earthquake Christchurch; and (4) post-Katrina New Orleans. Critically examining trends within and across locations, I will explore the potential of youth engagement in non-competitive 'action sports' (e.g., skateboarding, parkour, surfing, climbing) for development and peace building in disrupted and damaged geographies. In this interdisciplinary project, I will adopt a multi-method ethnographic approach including interviews, participant-observations, and media analysis, to understand youths' (10-24 years) and action sport enthusiasts' individual and collective struggles, strategies and ambitions in particular contexts, and how broader social forces influence each initiative. This research will be the first global investigation into the different possibilities non-competitive, informal sporting activities offer for achieving positive policy outcomes in war and post-disaster situations, as well as the various forms of power and politics that enable or constrain such endeavours.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Waikato

Contact Person: Dr HA Thorpe

Panel: SOC

Project ID: 15-UOW-096


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2010

Title: Springing into flower after winter: Analysis of the molecular identity and function of SPRING flowering-time genes from the model Legume Medicago truncatula

Recipient(s): Assoc Prof J Putterill | PI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: Unlike animals, plants are unable to flee from external threats and have developed a wide range of responses to cope with the environment they find themselves in. One survival adaptation is to tailor flowering to optimum times to ensure successful sexual reproduction and seed development. To achieve this control, many plants require vernalisation – an extended exposure to cold temperatures- before they flower. This ensures that flowering occurs after winter. Vernalisation is best understood in the laboratory model Arabidopsis. Here, vernalisation down regulates a floral repressor allowing flowering to be triggered in spring. However, genome sequencing indicates that this repressor is missing from other plants. Thus different groups of plants may employ a variety of mechanisms to control flowering by winter. This proposal tests the hypothesis that the model legume Medicago has novel vernalisation genes. The basis of this application is the spring1 flowering-time mutant we identified. By investigating spring1 and other spring mutants we will be able to develop a model of the circuitry controlling flowering in Medicago. This work will yield fundamental insights into regulation of flowering time. It may ultimately facilitate breeding of plants for optimal adaptation to particular geographic regions and climates.

Total Awarded: $756,522

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Assoc Prof J Putterill

Panel: CMP

Project ID: 10-UOA-200


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2010

Title: Stable carbon isotope constraints on methane sources during fast climatic transitions

Recipient(s): Dr H Schaefer | PI | NIWA - The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd
Dr EJ Brook | AI | Oregon State University
Dr P Franz | AI | NIWA - The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd
Dr K Riedel | AI | NIWA - The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd
Dr JP Severinghaus | AI | Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Public Summary: Atmospheric methane, i.e. CH4, is a powerful greenhouse gas (GHG) and its natural sources are strongly climate dependent. For example, wetlands and permafrost emit more CH4 in wetter and warmer conditions. In response to anthropogenic climate change, natural CH4 emissions could therefore increase strongly, leading to further warming through higher greenhouse forcing. Interestingly, at the end of the last ice age CH4 did respond to abrupt warming with strong concentration increases. What were the CH4 sources that drove these rises? Could modern anthropogenic warming trigger an equivalent CH4-increase and lead to further climate forcing? To address these questions we propose to measure the stable carbon isotope ratio of CH4, a characteristic that is indicative of its different source types. This global atmospheric parameter has been preserved in air occlusions of polar ice. A record covering the last deglaciation from a newly explored Antarctic site where ancient ice is pushed to the glacier surface will reveal detailed changes throughout warming periods with unprecedented precision, thus overcoming the limitations of previous work. This study of past CH4 sources will allow better assessment of whether natural emissions of CH4 are likely to add to anthropogenic GHGs and their climate feedbacks under future conditions.

Total Awarded: $260,870

Duration: 3

Host: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research

Contact Person: Dr H Schaefer

Panel: ESA

Project ID: 10-NIW-001


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2010

Title: Starting from scratch: the genetic fate of a recently established island population

Recipient(s): Assoc Prof IG Jamieson | PI | University of Otago
Prof GP Wallis | AI | University of Otago

Public Summary: When a new population is established on an island by a few individuals, genetic changes will occur. These changes are a result of rare alleles being lost in founding events and increases in homozygosity due to genetic drift and inbreeding in subsequent generations. The nature of these changes has important bearings on issues in evolution and on the broad-scale use of islands in threatened species management in New Zealand and elsewhere. Longitudinal studies of newly established island populations “from scratch” provide a rare opportunity to investigate whether natural selection can overcome the loss of genetic diversity in the face of continuous inbreeding. We have DNA samples from the descendants and original founders of an isolated island population of Stewart Island robins (reintroduced 10 years ago). We have amassed a complete pedigree along with data on survival and breeding success of virtually every individual. This is one of the first studies of a wild population to use a pedigree to track changes in neutral microsatellite markers and functional MHC immunity genes over time. The proposal will increase our understanding of the respective roles of drift, inbreeding and selection in determining the loss, or persistence, of genetic diversity in threatened populations.

Total Awarded: $772,174

Duration: 3

Host: University of Otago

Contact Person: Assoc Prof IG Jamieson

Panel: EEB

Project ID: 10-UOO-225


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2015

Title: Statistical learning with and without a lexicon

Recipient(s): Professor JB Hay | PI | University of Canterbury
Associate Professor JM King | AI | University of Canterbury
Professor JB Pierrehumbert | AI | Northwestern University

Public Summary: Native speakers of a language display a vast amount of statistical knowledge. For example, they know where different sounds tend to occur in their language, and the relative likelihood of particular sounds occurring together in combination. This knowledge is believed to be drawn from the speaker's vocabulary - their lexicon. However speakers of a language also possess knowledge about the statistical properties of sounds in running speech, which they use to segment the speech stream into words. The relationship between knowledge of lexical statistics (generated from the lexicon) and pre-lexical statistics (generated from running speech) is not understood. What is the nature of learning that takes place when you do, or don't have a lexicon?

New Zealand provides a unique testing-ground for this question. Many New Zealanders have regular exposure to Maori, but do not know many words. This enables us to study pre-lexical statistical learning in considerable depth. We will document the statistical properties of Maori sound structure. Then, using our established experimental architecture to present experiments in the form of computer games, we will investigate what knowledge of these properties non-Maori-speaking New Zealanders actually have.

Total Awarded: $767,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Canterbury

Contact Person: Professor JB Hay

Panel: EHB

Project ID: 15-UOC-105


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2012

Title: Statistical methods for complex samples

Recipient(s): Prof T Lumley | PI | The University of Auckland
Prof AJ Lee | PI | The University of Auckland
Prof AJ Scott | PI | The University of Auckland
Prof CJ Wild | PI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: For financial reasons it is often necessary to collect some data only on a small, carefully chosen, subset of people. We are developing methods for analysing these data that require minimal specialist knowledge from the user, but result in estimates that are as precise and reliable as possible. The two main areas of focus are surveys that sample from a whole population, and medical studies that sample from an existing participant panel. We will try to find robust methods that produce efficiency gains that are not too sensitive to model misspecification.

Total Awarded: $608,696

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Prof T Lumley

Panel: MIS

Project ID: 12-UOA-178


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2012

Title: Sticky or creepy: what causes abrupt changes in seismic behaviour along subduction plate boundaries?

Recipient(s): Dr SM Ellis | PI | GNS Science
Dr DHN Barker | AI | GNS Science
Dr PM Barnes | AI | NIWA - The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd
Dr A Fagereng | AI | University of Cape Town
Dr F Ghisetti | AI | University of Canterbury and TerraGeologica
Dr A Reyes | AI | GNS Science
Dr D Saffer | AI | Pennsylvania State University
Dr LM Wallace | AI | The University of Texas at Austin

Public Summary: Subduction of one tectonic plate beneath another produces the largest earthquakes on Earth, yet our understanding of subduction thrust faults is still imperfect. The Hikurangi subduction margin offshore of the North Island, New Zealand, is an ideal place to study subduction thrust faults, because it shows contrasting behaviour along its length; in the south, the subduction fault is currently mostly stuck, accumulating stress to be released suddenly in the next large earthquake, whereas in the north it is mostly creeping and relieving stress gradually. This transition in current fault behaviour is mirrored by other changes in the structure of the subduction margin, but the link between these changes remains a mystery. We will test the idea that fluid pressure variations along the subduction margin control sticking vs. creeping behaviour, by combining estimates for fluid sources and sinks with rock mechanics in a coupled fluid-mechanical model. Model predictions will be tested against geochemical evidence for residence times and fluid pathways and the 3D structural evolution of the margin in time. This project proposes the first ever integration of structural geology, geochemistry, geophysics and numerical experiments to form a comprehensive model of Hikurangi mechanics and earthquake potential.

Total Awarded: $778,261

Duration: 3

Host: GNS Science

Contact Person: Dr SM Ellis

Panel: ESA

Project ID: 12-GNS-029


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2017

Title: Stiffness matters: Unravelling the reciprocal relationship between tissue mechanical stiffness and cellular mechanosensitivity

Recipient(s): Dr SR McGlashan | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr YS Choi | AI | The University of Western Australia

Public Summary: Cells are exquisitely sensitive to the physical signals experienced in their tissue environment. Seminal studies have shown that varying the rigidity or stiffness of external cell culture surfaces can be used to stimulate for the development of stem cells into either neurons, bone or muscle cells. However, how cells ‘feel’ these changes remains poorly understood. This proposal will examine how the cells’ own sensory probe called the primary cilium is influenced by the mechanical stiffness of the extracellular matrix. We will use advanced techniques in material science to produce cell compatible surfaces that mimic the stiffness of different tissues. In combination with cellular imaging, we will then determine if and how tissue stiffness controls the sensing ability of the primary cilium. We will examine how stiffness impacts on cell function and understand the role of the primary cilium within the complex signalling response to mechanical cues. This fundamental and groundbreaking study will ultimately elucidate novel mechanical mechanisms to manipulate cell behaviour. It will create a new ways of thinking about, interpreting and potentially treating ‘mechano-regulated’ diseases such as cancer, fibrosis and osteoarthritis.

Total Awarded: $920,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr SR McGlashan

Panel: EIS

Project ID: 17-UOA-301


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