Newsletter
Volume 28 | 2005 | Number 2
Getting Research Funding in New Zealand
Michael Davison, Ph.D., The University of
Auckland, New Zealand
If you read JEAB, it may appear that funding for behavioural
research is plentiful in New Zealand, but sadly this is not so.
Indeed, funding for research equipment is very hard to come by.
I'll come to sources later, but first it's important to explain the
cultural milieu, which itself provides quite a bit of support for
research. I'll explain the situation at the University of
Auckland.
Staff at New Zealand universities are expected to spend,
usually, 40% of their time on research, and we see university
education as research-led. As a result, university money - which
comes from student fees, the government, and research contracts -
is used to support research. By research, we mean both research
done for higher degrees and research done on a more individual
basis by academics, though it is generally easier to get continuing
funding for graduate students (both from faculty and from
departmental coffers) than for individual research. Because of the
general level of research support, most departments supply
considerable technical support for IT, electronics, mechanical
engineering, and animal care, no grant required. Equally, our
computers are supplied, one per academic and one per Ph.D. student,
0.5 per Masters research student, and, being leased, these (and
their software) are naturally replaced every three years. Our other
research equipment resides on an Assets Database, and again becomes
liable for replacement after an agreed life - so, for instance,
some of the MED-PC interfacing equipment in my lab is currently
being replaced (after a lifespan of 10-15 years - that long simply
because it was still doing great service). Many other facilities
such as space and library access, do not have to be paid for by
researchers. Thus, doing research is, here, rather easier in many
ways than doing research in the US.
On the other hand, here are really no governmental or private
agencies in New Zealand that seem willing to provide equipment for
purely behavioural research which, as you will all realize, is
about the least sexy research that can be contemplated. We have to
gain most of our equipment from within-university funding rounds,
and the amounts are rather limited (and greatly oversubscribed). I
did, some years ago, manage to get two years of funding for
equipment and personnel from the Foundation for Research, Science,
and Technology (see below), but only before the ring-fence around
university research funding was in place. Now, this source has
become difficult for me to use as it is also used by government
research organizations (agriculture, conservation, and so on), and
some reasonably immediate benefit to New Zealand needs to be agued.
I find that hard to do. Thus, it is difficult to build a lab: the
best way seems to be to be a combination of within-university
research grants and being given second-hand equipment (or build it
yourself, as we did), and sneak it onto the asset databases so that
it can be replaced.
Obtaining money for people to do purely behavioural research -
graduate support, postdocs, and salary - is probably slightly
easier than money for equipment, but not much easier.
The most effective way of getting research money generally is to
snuggle up to sexier areas of research - particularly, here,
neuroscience, medical science, agricultural science, and applied
research. I did this by joining the National Research Centre for
Growth and Development. This organization, which consists of many
different researchers from agricultural to genetics to
neurochemistry to, indeed, behaviour, is one of a small number of
government funded Centres of Research Excellence (CoRE) that were
set up a few years ago. This particular one, which is multicentre,
was funded at about $36 million for an initial six years, including
considerable amounts of money for research infrastructure. From
this, I get 10% salary and 10% overheads, plus a large new rat lab
with all new equipment located in the Faculty of Medicine and
Health Sciences. This lab focuses on the effects of fetal nutrition
on choice and learning over the lifespan. However, when
applications for CoREs were sought, a number of us experimental
behaviour analysts from different New Zealand universities tried to
put together an application for basic behavioural research - but
none of the universities had the political will to agree to house
the focus of such a CoRE, and we never were able to complete the
application.
Further CoREs may occur someday, but it seems unlikely that
behaviour analysis will be able to gain much there.
Another major source of funding is the Marsden Fund, again a
government fund administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand.
Applications are called yearly for "blue skies" research proposals,
and usually funded proposals are $100,000 to $400,000 per annum (1
NZD buys 0.71 USD) for three years inclusive of overheads (which
are 120%). This fund only supports people, consumables, and
equipment depreciation. The selection process is unusual (to put it
nicely) - an initial one-page application that is assessed by the
committee without referees being called. There are separate
committees for areas - for instance, a Social Sciences Committee
and an Ecology, Evolution, and Behaviour Committee. About 10% of
initial applications are selected for a further round of
applications, this time both extensive and refereed. I think I have
tried nine times for purely behavioural research without getting
past the initial stage, and I don't believe that any purely
behavioural research has ever been funded. The criteria seem very
unclear to me. However, the next time I apply it will be with
medical researchers, and I am hopeful, because others (Geoff White,
Brent Alsop, Mike Colombo) have gained grants from this source for
research with clinical or applied or neuroscience partners.
Other options are: (1) Lottery Health Research ($2 million in
2004), which supports health-related research from the profits from
government lotteries. This agency does not support overseas travel
or conference attendance, and they do not pay overheads (which
means what you get, you can use). "Health" is interpreted quite
widely, but applications need to be relevant to the health of New
Zealanders; (2) the Health Research Council ("To improve human
health by promoting and funding health research") supports
Partnership Initiatives, annual research contracts, career
development, conferences, and seeding grants. Again, it is
government funded. (3) The Foundation for Research, Science and
Technology funds research that is generally germane to New Zealand
and is focused on attaining government-defined outcomes. Of the
five areas supported, the one most germane to behavioural research
is probably Environment & Biodiversity, in particular
Animal-Based Industries, Families, Hazards and Sustainable
Management. As an example, they support a lot of research on
possums, a serious pest in New Zealand. Behaviourally, this is
quite interesting and, for example, behavioural research done at
Waikato University is looking at food preference in possums, the
better to attract and eliminate them (e.g., Bron, Sumpter, Foster,
& Temple, 2003).
Other sources of funding that New Zealand behavioural
researchers use are Dairy Industry Funding (for example, applied
topics on animal stress and welfare - a happy cow is a succulent
cow), the Animal Health Board and the Ministry of Agriculture and
Forestry for applied topics on animal stress and welfare (Waikato
University has the Animal Welfare and Behaviour Research Unit).
Because New Zealand is an agricultural country (our beef is in your
Big Macs), many sources of funding are animal and agriculture
focused; being a very small country, we don't have a great deal in
the way of funding. But, traditionally, New Zealanders do a lot
with string and sealing wax and No. 8 wire and certainly contribute
a lot of new ideas and inventions to the world; unfortunately, we
also provide educated people to the world.
Finally, there is funding for specific private and public sector
contract research from many different organizations and companies.
For example, Max Jones is currently carrying out one of these
projects involving teaching hunting dogs not to chase and kill
Kiwi, which are endangered. The funding is from a regional office
of the Department of Conservation.
References
Bron, A., Sumpter, C. E.,
Foster, T. M., & Temple, W. (2003). Contingency
discriminability, matching, and bias in the concurrent-schedule
responding of possums (Trichosurus vulpecula). Journal of the
Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 79, 289-306.