Marsden Fund Council – Member/Panel Convenor
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About The Marsden Fund Council
The Marsden Fund invests in investigator-initiated research aimed at generating new knowledge, with long-term benefit to New Zealand. It supports excellent research projects that advance and expand the knowledge base and contributes to the development of people with advanced skills in New Zealand.
The Marsden Fund encourages New Zealand’s leading researchers to explore new ideas that may not be funded through other funding streams and fosters creativity and innovation within the research, science and technology system.
Council specification
Members of the Council each convene a discipline-based assessment panel comprising researchers who are experts in their field. The panels make funding recommendations to the Council. Members of the Council should have specialist knowledge relevant to the panel which they will convene.
Marsden Fund panels(external link) – royalsociety.org.nz
In addition, Council members collectively will have:
- governance experience
- a strategic view – including an understanding of the research, science and technology environment, an ability to take a broad view of RS&T requirements and an ability to take a leadership role
- networks at a community, national and international level
- significant achievement in research, science or technology
- a range of affiliations across Universities, Crown Research Institutes, and the public and private sectors
- knowledge of evaluation methodologies
- knowledge of research methodologies and frameworks
- knowledge of human capital formation
- an understanding of Vision Mātauranga
- a balance in terms of gender, ethnicity and geographical spread.
Conflicts of interest
Members have an obligation to act in good faith at all times and in the best interests of the Council. Members may have conflicts of interest at times. The Council has procedures in place for dealing with these.
Honorarium
Members receive an annual honorarium of $10,500. Reasonable travel and accommodation expenses are also paid.
The Marsden Fund objectives
The Terms of Reference for the Marsden Fund Council detail the role and monitoring of the Marsden Fund Council.
The functions of the Marsden Fund Council are to:
- oversee the assessment of proposals for funding from the Marsden Fund and recommend to the Royal Society of New Zealand each year those proposals which should be funded and the level of funding to be awarded;
- oversee the progress of research funded by the Marsden Fund by considering the results of monitoring and auditing of contracts undertaken by the Royal Society of New Zealand;
- develop best practice policies and procedures to implement the Terms of Reference for the Marsden Fund (including determining eligibility criteria);
- provide advice to the Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology on the performance and achievement of the Marsden Fund against its objectives; and
- ensure that the relevance and importance of Marsden funded research is monitored and communicated to the New Zealand public.
Marsden Fund Council Membership
Council members are appointed by the Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. Council members can expect a workload of about 20 working days per year, concentrated mainly in the periods leading up to the assessment of funding proposals in March and August.
The full Council normally assembles three times each year in Wellington, usually in May (one day), August (two days) and October (one day). In addition to preparing for those meetings, Council members may also participate in ad hoc videoconferences on specific issues two or three times per year.
Each Council member also convenes their own assessment panel. This involves:
- working with the Council secretariat to appoint panel members and plan panel meetings
- chairing two full-day panel meetings in Wellington, in March and August
- reading and grading approximately 100 preliminary proposals and 25 full proposals for funding
- assessing the proposals with other panel members
- being the point of contact for researchers seeking feedback on their proposals.
The Council Chair, as independent observer, normally attends each panel meeting. Other Council members act in this role whenever the Chair is unavailable. On average, this involves one additional full day in Wellington for each Council member.
Council members are also encouraged to help promote the Fund and to interact with the New Zealand community of researchers. There may be events at which Council members are asked to speak on behalf of the Fund. The secretariat will offer Council members the opportunity to join the secretariat on the monitoring of visits to researchers working at the Council member’s home site.
Further information
Terms of Reference for the Marsden Fund(external link) – royalsociety.org.nz