Te Pūtea Rangahau a Marsden, the Marsden Fund, supports research of excellence in Aotearoa New Zealand in the areas of science, engineering, maths, social sciences and the humanities and again NPM researchers have succeeded in their bids to conduct research projects that will deliver impact and value to our communities.

Marsden Fund Council Chair Professor David Bilkey commented “International peer reviewers described some of this year’s research as the best they had ever seen. Te Pūtea Rangahau a Marsden supports our leading and up-and-coming researchers to carry out cutting-edge studies that advance knowledge in a wide variety of disciplines. The outcomes of their mahi work should have great scholarly impact and benefit Aotearoa in areas such as te taiao the environment, health care, and education.”

This year there has been increasing engagement with mātauranga Māori across multiple discipline areas include a project investigating kaitiakitanga over the Kāwhia, Manukau and Whangārei harbours, another that uses Māori oral history of seafaring and wayfinding to understand low-altitude clouds and their link to surface meteorological variables, and another revitalising whai Māori string figures, the unique, complex mnemonic system that documents and transmits Māori knowledge and practice.

NPM's congratulations go to Principal Investigators:

Dr Marama Muru-Lanning (University of Auckland)
- Listening to the Voices of our Harbours: Kāwhia, Manukau and Whangārei

Dr Ngarino Ellis (University of Auckland)
- Ngā Taonga o Wharawhara: The World of Māori Body Adornment

Drs Anne-Marie Jackson & Hauiti Hakopa (University of Otago)
- Te whai wawewawe ā Māuitikitiki-ā-Taranga: Revitalisation of Māori string figure knowledge and practice

Dr Tyron Love (University of Canterbury)
- It looks grim: The future of Māori academics in New Zealand universities

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