Royal Society of New Zealand

The Royal Society's purpose

The aim of the Royal Society Te Apārangi (the Society) is the advancement and promotion of science technology and humanities in New Zealand.

Its functions include fostering a culture supportive of science and technology and providing expert advice on important public issues to the government and community.

As a non-government organisation, the Society represents individual scientists and their professional societies who make up the science community.

How we work with the Society

On behalf of the Government, the Society receives approximately $100m (excluding GST) annually from us. This funding is to administer and manage a range of research programmes and funding opportunities which promote science and technology in New Zealand.

Our main responsibility is to provide funding to the Society to deliver research programmes and monitor the delivery of these contracts. Funding agreements are in place which set out the objectives and performance measures for each research programme.

Funds and programmes administered by the Society

The Marsden Fund is the largest investment managed by the Society on behalf of the Government. It supports excellent investigator led blue sky research that can be of economic, environmental or health benefit to New Zealand.

Other funding programmes include:

• Science Media Centre
• Prime Minister's Science Prizes and Rutherford Medal
• Science Teaching Leadership Programme
• Fellowships for Excellence including New Zealand Tāwhia te Mana Research Fellowships
• ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID)
• Influence, Leaders and Seeding (Catalyst Fund)
• Powering Potential.

The Society also administers one-off programmes such as such as the Whitinga Fellowships and the Ngā Puanga Pūtaiao Fellowships.