About Tāwhia Te Mana Fellowships

MBIE undertook a review of Tāwhia te Mana Research Fellowships after the completion of the inaugural 2024 funding round. The review presented an opportunity to gather comments on the Fellowships and the application process, with a view to identify areas for improvement for the scheme to be implemented in the 2025 funding round.

An updated Terms of Reference for the Tāwhia te Mana Fellowships is now available from the MBIE website. The following amendments have been made for the 2025 round:

General amendments:

• Amendment of the Tāwhia te Mana objectives to include “building SI&T capability in areas of Government Priority, including those that focus on generating economic impact from research”.
• Further support for how to prepare the Narrative CV and the application budget has been included in the application guidelines.
• The page limit for the Proposed Research does not have to include references.  Applicants can choose to include References in addition to this page limit, but references should not exceed ONE page total.

Amendments for Mana Tūāpapa Future Leader Fellowship:

• The eligibility window for the Mana Tūāpapa Future Leader Fellowship has been changed to applicants with 0-4 years post-PhD research experience. Early career researchers with 5-6 years of post-PhD research experience can instead apply for the Mana Tūānuku Research Leader Fellowship.
• The selection criteria have been amended with the inclusion of the criteria “potential as a future research leader”.
• To increase feedback for Mana Tūāpapa Future Leader Fellowship applicants, sections of the referee reports will now be made available to the applicant. Referees are asked to engage constructively with these sections and provide suggestions for improvement of the application and an applicant’s leadership development.

Amendments for Mana Tūānuku Research Leader Fellowship:

•  The eligibility window for the Mana Tūānuku Research Leader Fellowship has been changed to applicants with 4-12 years post-PhD research experience.
• One of the referee reports must be from an international referee (unless otherwise approved by Royal Society Te Apārangi).

Amendments for Mana Tūārangi Distinguished Researcher Fellowship

There are no  amendments to the Mana Tūārangi Distinguished Researcher Fellowship. As stated in the application guidelines, Mana Tūārangi Distinguished Researcher Fellowships are available from time to time in different research categories. In the 2025 funding round, Fellowships will be offered for Biological and Health Sciences.

Background

The Aotearoa New Zealand Tāwhia te Mana Research Fellowships are administered by Royal Society Te Apārangi (the Society) on behalf of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (the Ministry).

The Fellowships will support researchers at different career stages to produce excellent and impactful research and to develop into leaders in their fields, their respective host organisations and across the whole of the Aotearoa New Zealand science, innovation and technology (SI&T) system. It is expected that Fellows, throughout their careers, will contribute to positive outcomes for Aotearoa New Zealand, including by (where applicable) giving effect to the Vision Mātauranga policy in their work and their community.

Receipt of an Aotearoa New Zealand Tāwhia te Mana Research Fellowship is expected to have significant value for the future career development and leadership potential of a researcher.

Objectives

The overriding objective of the Aotearoa New Zealand Tāwhia te Mana Research Fellowships is to develop the future leaders of the Aotearoa New Zealand science, innovation and technology system. The Fellowships will:

• improve the retention of talented future research leaders within the SI&T system, both during the fellowship and in their post-fellowship careers, through development of a strong track record
• support career development, to empower Fellows to become leaders in their fields, their organisations and across the SI&T system
• improve equity and diversity within the SI&T system, in particular by creating opportunities for Māori, Pacific peoples and women who are excellent researchers and future leaders of research
• reward and support a range of boundary-pushing research activities that build SI&T capability in areas of Government priority, including those that focus on generating economic impact from research.

Description

The Aotearoa New Zealand Tāwhia te Mana Research Fellowships consist of three schemes, targeted at early, mid- and established career researchers respectively. The three schemes are:

• New Zealand Mana Tūāpapa Future Leader Fellowship
• New Zealand Mana Tūānuku Research Leader Fellowship
• New Zealand Mana Tūārangi Distinguished Researcher Fellowship.

The Māori terms in the fellowship names reference the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s values, which includes Tāwhia tō Mana (building and retaining your reputation) as part of enabling the aspiration to “Hīkina Whakatutuki - Grow Aotearoa New Zealand for all”. Tāwhia te Mana Fellowships contribute to building excellence in the SI&T sector.

The schemes target excellent candidates at three career stages: early-career researchers/future leaders building the foundations of their career (mana tūāpapa); mid-career researchers, further establishing themselves as research leaders (mana tūānuku); and distinguished researchers with expansive career success and a prominent international reputation (mana tūārangi).