A promising future for scientific Endeavours

“Endeavour is Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest contestable fund to invest in excellent, innovative research with a focus on areas of future value, growth or critical need for New Zealand,” says MBIE Manager Contestable Investments Alan Coulson.

"Year after year, it’s inspiring to see the fresh thinking, innovative ideas and high calibre of applications submitted. From exploring future food system scenarios and impacts to developing wearable technology that targets neurological disorders, projects selected truly push the boundaries for the good of New Zealand through excellent and ambitious research.”

The Endeavour fund is split into 2 categories: Smart Ideas and Research Programmes. 

Smart Ideas funding catalyses and rapidly tests promising, innovative research ideas with high potential for benefit to New Zealand. Research Programmes funding supports ambitious, excellent, and well-defined research ideas which, collectively, have credible and high potential to positively transform New Zealand’s future in areas of future value, growth or critical need.

A total of $246 million has been allocated across the 68 projects selected through the 2023 funding round. Some of these successful projects include:

• Cawthron Institute project Our lakes, Our future: holistic approaches to transform lake management and restoration in a changing world. This programme has been co-developed with Māori, primary industry, and freshwater management agencies to enable rapid deployment of tools and policy uptake of new approaches. It follows an earlier project known as Lakes 380 - the biggest scientific study of New Zealand’s lakes in our history. 
• A window into the brain: smart wearable technologies to target neurological disorders from the University of Otago. An international team of world-class scientists will develop new wearable technology to change the way neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s and brain cancers are treated. 
• Kai anamata mō Aotearoa – exploring future food system scenarios and impacts. This Massey University and Wakatū Incorporation led project involves development of a computational model of our food system to help transition our food sector to a carbon-neutral economy, underpinned by field trials and data collection in Te Tauihu.

Endeavour funding decisions are made by the Science Board – a statutory body whose members are appointed by the Minister of Research, Science and Innovation. View a full list of Endeavour recipients for the 2023 investment round on the MBIE website.

Endeavour recipients for the 2023 investment round