Information on the 2025 Marsden Fund round
Information about the number of funded proposals in the 2025 Marsden Fund round broken down by research area and institution, also including gender and ethnicity data
Published on 6 Whiringa-ā-rangi November 2025
Number of applications by research area
The number of proposals by panel is given in Table 1. While overall 10.9% 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 8 Marsden Fund panels
| EoIs | Full | Proposed Contracts | Success Rate (%) | |||||||||
| Panel | FS | SD | Tot. | FS | SD | Tot. | FS | SD | Tot. | FS | SD | Tot. |
| BMS | 42 | 126 | 168 | 10 | 24 | 34 | 5 | 12 | 17 | 11.9 | 9.5 | 10.1 |
| CMP | 25 | 71 | 96 | 6 | 17 | 23 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 12.0 | 11.3 | 11.5 |
| EEB | 48 | 73 | 121 | 12 | 15 | 27 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 12.5 | 11.0 | 11.6 |
| EHB | 62 | 91 | 153 | 15 | 17 | 32 | 7 | 9 | 16 | 11.3 | 9.9 | 10.5 |
| EIS | 53 | 105 | 158 | 12 | 18 | 30 | 6 | 10 | 16 | 11.3 | 9.5 | 10.1 |
| ESA | 34 | 65 | 99 | 7 | 16 | 23 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 11.8 | 10.8 | 11.1 |
| MIS | 27 | 73 | 100 | 8 | 16 | 24 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 14.8 | 11.0 | 12 |
| PCB | 19 | 59 | 78 | 4 | 13 | 17 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 10.5 | 10.2 | 10.3 |
| MFC | 5 | 3 | 2 | 40.0 | ||||||||
| Total | 310 | 663 | 978 | 74 | 136 | 213 | 37 | 68 | 107 | 11.9 | 10.3 | 10.9 |
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 organisation
| EoIs | Full | Funded | Succsess Rate (%) | |||||||||||||
| FS | STD | MFCA | Tot. | FS | STD | MFCA | Tot. | FS | STD | MFCA | Tot. | FS | STD | MFCA | Tot | |
| PRO | 33 | 65 | 1 | 99 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 14 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 9 | 9.1 | 7.7 | 100 | 9.1 |
| Earth Sciences New Zealand | 13 | 25 | 0 | 38 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 15.4 | 8.0 | 10.5 | |
| Bioeconomy Science Institute | 15 | 34 | 1 | 50 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 6.7 | 8.8 | 100 | 10.0 |
| PHF Science | 5 | 6 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| OTH (8 organisations) | 12 | 9 | 0 | 21 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 25.0 | 22.2 | 23.8 | |
| PRI (19 organisations) | 17 | 26 | 0 | 43 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 11.8 | 0.0 | 4.7 | |
| TEO | 238 | 563 | 4 | 815 | 64 | 123 | 2 | 189 | 29 | 61 | 1 | 91 | 11.7 | 10.8 | 25.0 | 11.2 |
| Auckland University of Technology | 8 | 20 | 0 | 28 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0.0 | 10.0 | 7.1 | |
| Lincoln University | 3 | 7 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 | 14.3 | 10.0 | |
| Massey University | 12 | 40 | 0 | 52 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0.0 | 12.5 | 9.6 | |
| The University of Auckland | 77 | 181 | 2 | 260 | 17 | 47 | 1 | 65 | 9 | 21 | 1 | 31 | 11.7 | 11.6 | 50.0 | 11.9 |
| University of Canterbury | 54 | 74 | 1 | 129 | 14 | 12 | 1 | 27 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 17 | 14.8 | 12.2 | 0.0 | 13.2 |
| University of Otago | 39 | 127 | 1 | 167 | 14 | 31 | 0 | 45 | 7 | 13 | 0 | 20 | 17.9 | 10.2 | 0.0 | 12.0 |
| University of Waikato | 17 | 30 | 0 | 47 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5.9 | 3.3 | 4.3 | |
| Victoria University of Wellington | 35 | 80 | 0 | 115 | 8 | 17 | 0 | 25 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 13 | 11.4 | 11.3 | 11.3 | |
| Unitec Institute of Technology | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| New Zealand College of Chiropractic | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| Eastern Institute of Technology | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | ||
| Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | ||
| Grand Total | 310 | 663 | 5 | 978 | 74 | 136 | 3 | 213 | 37 | 68 | 2 | 107 | 11.9 | 10.3 | 40.0 | 10.9 |
Table 2: Number and percentages of funded proposals by institution, grouped by type of institution. The ‘Other’ category (OTH) includes not-for-profit research institutes and the ‘Private’ category (PRI) 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 | 38.6% | 4.3% |
| Full | 41.5% | 4.2% | |
| Funded | 34.2% | 5.1% | |
| Associate Investigators | EoIs | 33.8% | 4.8% |
| Full | 31.9% | 3.8% | |
| Funded | 30.9% | 3.1% | |
| All Investigators | EoIs | 35.5% | 4.6% |
| Full | 34.9% | 3.9% | |
| Funded | 31.9% | 3.7% | |
Table 3: Gender and ethnicity data for 2025. Please note, gender identity data is collected in accordance with Stats NZ's Standard classification of gender identity.
The following graphs presents the engagement of female and Māori researchers in the preliminary proposals, full proposals and recommended contracts.
Figure 1: The percentage of responding Principal Investigators identifying as Female in the Marsden Fund.
Figure 2: The percentage of responding Principal Investigators identifying as Māori in the Marsden Fund.