Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund 2025 Call for Proposals

About this opportunity

We fund Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund projects through two investment schemes – Connect Scheme and Placement Scheme.

The aims of the Fund are to:

• strengthen capability, capacity, skills and networks between Māori and the science, innovation and technology system, and
• increase understanding of how scientific research* can contribute to the aspirations of Māori organisations and deliver benefit for New Zealand.

*Science definition: Science is the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence.

This Call for Proposals provides you with information on how to apply to the Fund, how your application will be assessed, what happens if your application is successful, and how to contact us for assistance with the application process. Please read the Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga 2025 Investment Plan and the Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga web pages for information on the Investment aims, objectives, and descriptions of both the Connect and Placement Schemes.

Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund 2025 Investment Plan

Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund

What funding is available?

Approximately $2.0 million (excluding GST) is available to fund successful new proposals in the Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund 2025 investment round.

The total funding available is $4.0 million (excluding GST) per year with the remaining approximate $2.0 million (excluding GST) per year being allocated to existing contracts from the Fund’s previous investment rounds.

The work programme term for both Connect and Placement schemes is up to two years. For a project with a work programme of:

• up to one year in length, the maximum funding per successful proposal is $150,000 (excluding GST)
• between one and two years, the maximum funding per successful proposal is $250,000 (excluding GST). It is not a requirement to apply for the full funding available or the full two-year project term.

Project costs must be solely and directly related to the project work programme. Funding can be used to cover costs towards the work programme development, delivery, and operating costs (including travel). Capital expenditure is not funded.

Who can apply for funding?

For a proposal to be considered for assessment for either the Connect Scheme or Placement Scheme, it must meet all the eligibility criteria set out below. Proposals that we consider do not meet these criteria will be declined for funding on eligibility grounds.

To be eligible for funding, proposals must:

1. Be made by a New Zealand based single legal entity that is a Māori organisation, Research organisation or individual researcher.
   
   A Māori organisation is defined as an organisation that identifies itself as Māori and uses (or wishes to use) science, innovation and technology or related activities.
   
   A Research organisation is defined as an organisation that has the internal capability to carry out science, innovation and technology or related activities. Government departments (as defined in Schedule 2 of the Public Service Act 2020) are not considered to be Research organisations and are not eligible to apply for this funding.
   
   An individual researcher is defined as a person operating on his or her own, and is not employed by a Research organisation, with the capability to carry out science, innovation and technology or related activities.
   
   
2. Include both a Research organisation or individual researcher and a Māori organisation, with one or the other taking the lead as Contracting organisation and the other as Partner organisation.
   
   A relationship must not be solely between the applicant and an organisation that is either a parent entity, subsidiary, or co-subsidiary of another organisation; or between departments within a single organisation (for example, a tertiary institution).
   
   
3. Not be for activities for the same purpose already funded by any government agency.
   
   
4. Not include any full-time tertiary students or school students.
   
   Proposals with work programme activities that are eligible for funding from the Ministry of Education, are a poor fit for Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund.
   
   
5. Be for activities the majority of which are to be undertaken in New Zealand, unless MBIE considers there are compelling reasons to consider the proposal.
   
   If the majority of the work programme will not be carried out in New Zealand, then explain in your proposal the reasons for this and why they are compelling. If a work programme is to have significant linkages with indigenous knowledge practitioners in other countries, demonstrate how this will be of benefit to New Zealand.
   
   
6. Not benefit a Russian state institution (including but not limited to support for Russian military or security activity) or an organisation outside government that may be perceived as contributing to the war effort.
   
   
7. Be submitted in Pītau - MBIE’s Investment Management System and meet any applicable timing, formatting, content, or other administrative requirements.
   
   Placement or Connect Scheme
   
   
8. Be for activities that fit one of the two schemes, and the requirements of one of the two schemes as set out in the Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund Investment Plan. For the Placement Scheme, a proposal must name the individual(s) who will be the placement person(s).
   
   Vision Mātauranga theme(s)
   
   
9. Address one or more Vision Mātauranga themes, and not solely address hauora/health.
   
   The MBIE-led investments outlined in the Investment Plan and the Health Research Council (HRC) investments are designed to complement each other. To avoid duplication with the investments made by the HRC, MBIE does not provide funding for programmes exclusively relevant to the health/hauora area. Proposals where hauora improvements are part of a much broader suite of outcomes will be considered.

Co-development Letter

If you submit an application, you will need to upload a co-development letter. This letter needs to state that the work programme has been co-developed by both parties and that it has been signed by both the Contracting organisation and the Partner organisation(s).

The application and assessment process

This section outlines the:

• key dates
• key reference documents and content
• application process
• assessment and decision-making process
• contracting and reporting requirements.

Key dates

Register for the information webinar on 18 September:

2025 Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund Webinar(external link) – zoom.us

Dates are subject to change. We will notify all date changes by email. To be added to the email notification list, subscribe to updates.

Key documents and content

When developing your application, we encourage you to consult the following key reference documents:

• The Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund 2025 Investment Plan for the fund investment objectives and outcomes
• The Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund web pages
• The Vision Mātauranga policy(external link) outlines the Government’s policy framework that aims to unlock the innovation potential of Māori knowledge, resources, and people to assist New Zealanders to create a better future.
• Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Cability Fund 2025 Proposal Template [DOCX, 211 KB]
• Assessment and scoring guide Te Pūnaha Hihiko Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund 2025
• Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund General Funding Agreement Contract Template 2025 [DOCX, 158 KB]
• Te Pūnaha Hihiko Vision Mātauranga Combined Progress and Final Reporting Template [DOCX, 202 KB]
• Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund Call for Proposals and Scoring Guide 2025 Investment Round PDF [PDF, 525 KB]

Application process

Applicants are required to complete their proposals in Pītau our Investment Management System ­- a secure online portal. To help you prepare your proposal we’ve provided a proposal template.

1. Proposals are entered and submitted in Pītau. If you do not have a login, contact your Research Office to get one, or if you don’t have a Research Office you can request access (see link below). Before developing your proposal, you are encouraged to consider the eligibility criteria, the assessment criteria, and the terms and conditions relating to this Call for Proposals.
2. The proposal template provides guidance on how to prepare your proposal and the information you are required to provide. We recommend you use the proposal template provided to draft the required information in a word processer of your choice and then when ready to submit, copy and paste the necessary segments into the appropriate Pītau fields and upload your supporting documentation where directed.
3. MBIE staff will be able to assist you with accessing Pītau and providing guidance about how to go about entering content.
4. The information in your proposal is used for assessment and forms the basis of the contract for successful projects.
5. Proposals submitted in te reo Māori are welcomed. The assessment of proposals may take place in English. Applicants may choose to provide a translation of their proposal or rely on MBIE to commission a translation without further recourse to the Applicant. The choice of language will not influence assessment outcomes. Translations must be upload into Pītau, and any translations must be consistent with the original te reo Māori version.

Pītau Investment Management System Portal

Assessment process

The following assessment process applies:

1. Applicants submit a funding proposal.
2. MBIE will check all proposals against the eligibility criteria.
3. Assessors will accept/decline assigned eligible proposals and declare any conflicts of interest.
4. All eligible proposals are assessed by four independent assessment panel members against the assessment criteria and recorded in Pītau.
5. The Assessment Panel meet and discuss the proposals and reach a consensus on scores, feedback comments, and recommendations which will inform the Panel Chair's report.
6. The Panel Chair provides a report that includes funding recommendations to the Deputy Secretary, Labour, Science and Enterprise.

If you are submitting a proposal, check the list of Assessment Panel members below (names will be published by 29 September 2024) for any potential conflicts of interest. If you identify an actual, potential, or perceived direct or indirect conflict of interest, you must notify us before the application closing date by emailing vmcf@mbie.govt.nz with the details for further discussion.

Conflicts of interest may occur on two different levels:

A direct conflict of interest, where an Assessor is:

• directly involved with a proposal (as a participant, manager, mentor, or partner) or has a close personal relationship with the applicant, for example, family members
• a collaborator or in some other way involved with an applicant’s proposal.

An indirect conflict of interest, where an Assessor:

• is employed by an organisation involved in a proposal but is not part of the applicant’s proposal
• has a personal and/or professional relationship with one of the applicants, for example, an acquaintance
• is assessing a proposal under discussion that may compete with their business interests.

A close personal relationship is generally considered in relatively narrow terms, for example, that of a direct relationship (spouse/partner, sibling, dependent). Iwi or hapū affiliation would not normally be considered a direct conflict of interest.

Assessment Panel members

A list of Assessment Panel members will be published here by 29 September 2024.

Assessment criteria

The Assessment Panel members will assess Connect and Placement Scheme proposals on each of the criteria below and score them from 1 (Low quality) to 7 (High quality).

Each criterion has a 25% weighting.

Excellence

Investment in Excellence will help the science, innovation and technology system develop, retain, and attract talented individuals, develop people and organisations to benefit from new knowledge, increase relevant skill levels to carry out Vision Mātauranga relevant research.

Development of People, Relationships, and Skills (25%)

Key Question: To what extent are longer-term skills, capability, networks, relationships, and research opportunities likely to emerge and be sustained from the project?

Ability to Deliver (25%)

Key Question: What is the likelihood that the proposed outputs of the project will be achieved?

Impact

The Fund seeks Impact through programmes of work that explore the ways in which scientific research and its development and application can benefit individuals, whānau, Māori communities and Māori organisations.

Vision Mātauranga Outcomes (25%)

Key Question: To what extent does the project support the Vision Mātauranga policy and support unlocking the science, innovation and technology potential of Māori knowledge, resources, and people for the benefit of Aotearoa New Zealand?

Benefits to Science, Innovation and Technology (25%)

Key Question: Describe how will the increased capability, capacity, skills and networks benefit the science, innovation and technology system, and the expected impacts of the project post-contract?

For more information on how Assessors will assess and score proposals see the Assessment and scoring guide pages

Assessment and scoring guide Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund 2025

Applicant feedback

Following eligibility checks, all applicants will be notified whether they were eligible or not. If applicants are not eligible, we will let you know the reasons why.

After the full assessment process has been completed, all applicants will receive written notification and feedback about their applications. Feedback will be based on information gathered from assessment panel members about the main strengths and weaknesses of their proposals.

Funding decisions

MBIE’s Deputy Secretary, Labour, Science and Enterprise will make the final investment decision based on recommendations from the Panel Chair’s report, and may:

• set pre-contractual conditions which must be met before the investment is contracted
• set special conditions in addition to the general terms and conditions set out in the Fund’s Funding Contract
• vary the contract title (in consultation with the applicant)
• vary the proposed term of the project
• vary the funding allocated from that proposed
• require the proposed project plan be negotiated to MBIE’s satisfaction to reflect the changed funding
• take into account prior performance in previous VMCF Funding Contracts. Where an applicant is recommended to be funded but has an outstanding reporting requirement, or unmet VMCF contractual obligations, at the time of contracting, we may withhold the funding contract until such a time as previous VMCF contracting obligations are fulfilled. Please note that the new contract start date could be delayed where earlier VMCF contractual obligations are unfulfilled.

We will advise the proposal’s Application Administrator of the funding decisions in March 2025. The successful applicants will be published on our Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund webpages and announced via a press release, or announced by the Ministers for Science, Innovation and Technology and Māori Development.

The contracting process

Successful applicants will enter into a Funding Contract with us (subject to any pre-contractual conditions being met).

This agreement must be signed and returned to us within one month of receipt.

The terms and conditions of the Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund Funding Contract will apply to the provision of funding agreed between us and the contracting organisation. By submitting a proposal, you are agreeing to the terms and conditions of the Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund Funding Contract. A sample Funding Contract is available in our Key documents and content section above.

Payment

The contract holder must manage the funding to ensure delivery of the contracted work programme and adhere to any reporting requirements. Subject to specific contract conditions, MBIE funding will be provided as follows:

• 50% at the start of the work programme,
• 40% at the mid-point (after submission of a progress report to our satisfaction), and
• 10% on completion of the work programme (after submission of a final report to our satisfaction). The following table provides an overview of the contract reporting requirements for contracts.

Reporting and monitoring

The following table provides an overview of the contract reporting requirements for contracts.

These reports should be prepared jointly and include information provided from both the contract holder and Partner organisation(s), including a co-development letter from the Partner organisation(s) to confirm that the report has been prepared in conjunction with that organisation and that the information contained in the letter is accurate.

The progress report should include information on the status and progress towards delivering on the work programme as contracted.

The final report should also include information on:

• the status and progress towards delivering on the Deliverables and Tasks as contracted
• co-funding contributions (if applicable)
• mentoring arrangements (for Placement Scheme only)
• key achievements
• emerging risks and what is being done to address them
• public statement
• an assessment of whether or not the work programme has or will lead to further Vision Mātauranga opportunities, the project’s success in building skills and networks, and the effectiveness of the overall work programme.

Reports will be submitted in Pītau and evaluated by us.

Contact us

For application queries, email:

vmcf@mbie.govt.nz

For Pītau queries, email:

imssupport@mbie.govt.nz

Phone:

0800 693 778 (Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4:30pm)

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