By LIBBY MIDDLEBROOK education reporter
The University of Auckland has pulled off a coup by securing Government money for three research projects.
There were 45 contenders.
The Government yesterday announced the five centres to benefit from its new $60.6 million Centres of Research Excellence (Core) fund in the next four years.
Three will be based at the University of Auckland, although they will all involve research by other institutions.
The university has also been named a research partner in another project to win support.
The five centres are: the Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery, at the University of Auckland; New Zealand Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, Auckland; National Institute of Research Excellence for Maori Development and Advancement, Auckland; Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Massey University, Palmerston North; MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Victoria University, Wellington.
Forty-five projects sought a cut of the $60.6 million fund and the final five were selected from a shortlist of 11. They have not yet been told how much they will get.
The University of Auckland deputy vice-chancellor research, Tom Barnes, said the institution was delighted. The grants would mean extra jobs for researchers, improvements to the quality of research and new equipment.
The Government spends almost $500 million a year on research, a small amount by OECD standards. About $400 million of that goes to universities.
Professor Barnes said the university received about $85 million in total research grants last year, including $43.3 million from commercial sources.
"So the Core funding will be a reasonably small fraction of what the university gets."
But it was important because the university would not be constrained by having to fulfil commercial contracts. The only similar research fund in New Zealand is the Government's Marsden Fund, which can support only about 9 per cent of the applications it receives.
Massey University's Professor Mike Hendy, a co-director of the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, said the grant would allow the employment of more quality researchers.
"We are now in a position where we can keep our best graduates and attract our best graduates back from overseas."
The fund was set up last year after the Tertiary Education Advisory Commission recommended concentrating New Zealand's limited research budget on a handful of fields and projects. The winners were picked by six panels of local and overseas experts.
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