Information on the 2023 Marsden Fund round
Information about the number of funded proposals in the 2023 Marsden Fund round broken down by research area and institution, also including gender and ethnicity data
Published on 2 Whiringa-ā-rangi November 2023
Number of applications by research area
The number of proposals by panel is given in Table 1. While overall 13.3% of the Expressions of Interest have been recommended for funding at the final stage, this percentage is not constant over all panels or categories as a change of just one proposal — attributed to either a Fast-Start or Standard award — in the number of successful proposals causes significant change in this percentage.
Here are the definitions of the 10 Marsden Fund panels
| EOI | Full | Proposed Contracts | Success Rate | |||||||||
| Panel | FS | SD | Tot. | FS | SD | Tot. | FS | SD | Tot. | FS | SD | Tot. |
| BMS | 24 | 71 | 95 | 6 | 17 | 23 | 3 | 10 | 13 | 12.5% | 14.1% | 13.7% |
| CMP | 21 | 63 | 84 | 6 | 18 | 24 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 19.0% | 11.1% | 13.1% |
| EEB | 28 | 72 | 100 | 9 | 15 | 24 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 14.3% | 12.5% | 13.0% |
| EHB | 31 | 56 | 87 | 8 | 15 | 23 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 12.9% | 14.3% | 13.8% |
| EIS | 44 | 62 | 106 | 10 | 12 | 22 | 6 | 7 | 13 | 13.6% | 11.3% | 12.3% |
| ESA | 37 | 44 | 81 | 7 | 10 | 17 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 13.5% | 13.6% | 13.6% |
| HUM | 33 | 32 | 65 | 8 | 9 | 17 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 15.2% | 15.6% | 15.4% |
| MIS | 32 | 53 | 85 | 9 | 13 | 22 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 15.6% | 13.2% | 14.1% |
| PCB | 12 | 56 | 68 | 5 | 12 | 17 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 25.0% | 10.7% | 13.2% |
| SOC | 61 | 84 | 145 | 15 | 21 | 36 | 8 | 11 | 19 | 13.1% | 13.1% | 13.1% |
| MFC | 6 | 0.0% | ||||||||||
| Grand Total | 323 | 593 | 922 | 83 | 142 | 225 | 47 | 76 | 123 | 14.6% | 12.8% | 13.3% |
Table 1: Number of funded proposals by panel (and as a percentage of number of EOIs). For the purposes of clarity, the Marsden Fund Council Award has been presented as a panel (MFC) and is assessed by the Marsden Fund Council.
Proposals by institution
| Institution | EoI | Full | Fund | Success Rate | ||||||||||||
| FS | SD | MFCA | Total | FS | SD | MFCA | Total | SD | FS | MFCA | Total | FS | SD | MFCA | Total | |
| CRI | 32 | 42 | 74 | 7 | 6 | 13 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 12.5% | 7.1% | 9.5% | ||||
| AgResearch | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | ||||
| GNS Science | 9 | 9 | 18 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 22.2% | 11.1% | 16.7% | ||||
| Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research | 6 | 5 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | ||||
| National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd | 9 | 14 | 23 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 11.1% | 14.3% | 13.0% | ||||
| Plant & Food Research | 5 | 9 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 20.0% | 0.0% | 7.1% | ||||
| Scion | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | ||||
| Institute of Environmental Science and Research | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | ||||
| Other | 5 | 6 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | ||||
| Private | 16 | 13 | 29 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 12.5% | 0.0% | 6.9% | ||||
| TEO | 270 | 532 | 6 | 808 | 72 | 134 | 0 | 206 | 41 | 73 | 0 | 114 | 15.2% | 13.7% | 0.0% | 14.1% |
| Auckland University of Technology | 6 | 8 | 14 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 33.3% | 25.0% | 28.6% | ||||
| Lincoln University | 4 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | ||||
| Massey University | 29 | 66 | 1 | 96 | 4 | 14 | 0 | 18 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 6.9% | 7.6% | 0.0% | 7.3% |
| The University of Auckland | 69 | 147 | 2 | 218 | 18 | 34 | 0 | 52 | 12 | 19 | 0 | 31 | 17.4% | 12.9% | 0.0% | 14.2% |
| University of Canterbury | 33 | 66 | 1 | 100 | 15 | 16 | 0 | 31 | 6 | 9 | 0 | 15 | 18.2% | 13.6% | 0.0% | 15.0% |
| University of Otago | 55 | 128 | 1 | 184 | 16 | 36 | 0 | 52 | 7 | 20 | 0 | 27 | 12.7% | 15.6% | 0.0% | 14.7% |
| University of Waikato | 24 | 28 | 52 | 6 | 10 | 16 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 12.5% | 28.6% | 21.2% | ||||
| Victoria University of Wellington | 45 | 83 | 1 | 129 | 10 | 22 | 0 | 32 | 9 | 10 | 0 | 19 | 20.0% | 12.0% | 0.0% | 14.7% |
| Unitec Institute of Technology | 3 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | ||||
| Universal College of Learning (UCoL) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | 0.0% | ||||||||
| Waikato Institute of Technology | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | 0.0% | ||||||||
| Grand Total | 323 | 593 | 6 | 922 | 83 | 142 | 0 | 225 | 47 | 76 | 0 | 123 | 14.6% | 12.8% | 0.0% | 13.3% |
Table 2: Number and percentages of funded proposals by institution, grouped by type of institution. The ‘Other’ category includes not-for-profit research institutes and the ‘Private’ category includes individuals and companies.
Gender and Ethnicity Data
Table 3 presents the percentages of applicants who self-identify as either female or as Māori researchers in the Expressions of Interest, Full Applications and those proposals recommended for funding.
| Investigators Identifying as Female |
Investigators Identifying as Māori |
||
| Principal Investigators |
EoIs | 40.9% | 5.7% |
| Full | 52.6% | 9.0% | |
| Funded | 55.4% | 8.8% | |
| Associate Investigators |
EoIs | 32.6% | 6.4% |
| Full | 37.0% | 9.5% | |
| Funded | 37.8% | 10.0% | |
| All Investigators |
EoIs | 35.8% | 6.2% |
| Full | 42.8% | 9.3% | |
| Funded | 44.7% | 9.5% |
Table 3: Gender and ethnicity data for 2023. Please note, gender identity data is collected in accordance with Stats NZ's Standard classification of gender identity.
Figure 1: The percentage of responding Principal Investigators identifying as Māori in the Marsden Fund for the 2023 round.
Figure 2: The percentage of responding Principal Investigators identifying as Female in the Marsden Fund for the 2023 round.