UC awarded more than $8 million in Marsden funding

UC awarded more than $8 million in Marsden funding

University of Canterbury researchers have been awarded more than $8 million in funding in this year’s Marsden Fund round.

The government-funded awards, administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand, are regarded as a hallmark of excellence, allowing New Zealand’s best researchers to explore their ideas. The fund supports projects in the sciences, technology, engineering and maths, social sciences and the humanities.

Canterbury University has received grants for 13 research projects totalling $8,336,702, which is just over $1 million more than UC researchers received in last year’s round. In at least three other projects UC researchers are sub-contractors.

Projects receiving funding cover a range of topics such as determining the role body odours are playing in the decline of our native birds, adapting computer-based cognitive training for post-stroke rehabilitation, analysing Sanskrit numerical tables and computational procedures of the second millennium and identifying early factors in childhood communication disorders.

Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Steve Weaver congratulated UC researchers on their success and said the grants illustrated the broad range of research currently being undertaken at UC.

“The fact that many disciplines feature in this year’s round demonstrates a widespread commitment to research excellence here at Canterbury.”

He said it was an excellent result for the University and a significant endorsement of Canterbury’s world-class research.

“The University of Canterbury’s share represents 14% of the total pool of funding available to NZ universities, Crown Research Institutes and other research organisations. This significantly improved performance is testimony to the growing research talent at the University.”

The UC principal investigators awarded funding are Dr Ximena Nelson (Biological Sciences), Associate Professor Jim Briskie (Biological Sciences), Professor Thomas Klee (Communication Disorders), Professor Tanja Mitrovic (Computer Science and Software Engineering), Professor Andy Cockburn (Computer Science and Software Engineering), Associate Professor Maan Alkaisi (Electrical Engineering), Professor John Hearnshaw (Physics and Astronomy), Dr Clemency Montelle (Mathematics and Statistics), Dr Benjamin Martin (Mathematics and Statistics), Professor Peter Steel (Chemistry), Associate Professor Simon Brown (Physics and Astronomy), Dr Jon-Paul Wells (Physics and Astronomy) and Dr Renwick Dobson (Biological Sciences).

Dr Arvind Varsani (Biological Sciences), Dr Adrian McDonald (Physics and Astronomy) and Dr Dean Sutherland (Health Sciences Centre) are also involved in externally-led projects awarded funding in this round.

ENDS

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