This call is for attendance at a 2026 conference or event that supports professional development of fixed term early career researchers (ECRs). This funding round will open on 25 September 2026 and closes on Friday 16 October 2026 at 5pm. Decisions will be announced on the week of 26 October 2026.
Eligibility:
The applicant must be a fixed-term Early Career Researcher (ECR; e.g., postdoc/research fellow, research assistant, teaching fellow, or equivalent) who holds a doctorate and is based in Wellington. Specifically, they must:
have successfully defended their PhD thesis before the time of submission;
be within 10 years post-conferment of their PhD;
be on a fixed term contract (with term dates provided) at the time of submission;
be employed in and living in Wellington at the time of submission.
The proposed travel must be for a conference, a workshop, fieldwork, archival research, or a collaboration directly related to research development. Eligible costs include registration fees, airfares, and/or accommodation.
The proposed travel must take place within six months of the date on which funding is announced (i.e. before the end of April 2027).
The application form must not be greater than 2 pages in length (delete this page before submission) and must be accompanied by a CV. An abstract should be included if applicable.
Funding available: Up to $500 per award (and up to five awards granted per round).
How to apply: Applications should be submitted via email to wellington.postdoc.society@vuw.ac.nz by the closing date above. Please include “2026 Maunuhanga Travel Grant” in the subject line of your email and send through the application form together with your CV. Draft abstracts and/or abstracts where acceptance by the event is still pending are acceptable, but the final abstract and notification of acceptance must be forwarded once obtained.
For applicants seeking support to attend a conference, priority will be given to those who are actively participating through an oral or poster presentation.
The Aotearoa New Zealand Tāwhia Te Mana Research Fellowships are administered on behalf of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
The Fellowships will support researchers at different career stages to produce excellent and impactful research and to develop into leaders of the Aotearoa New Zealand research system. It is expected that Fellows, throughout their careers, will contribute to positive outcomes for Aotearoa New Zealand. Receipt of an Aotearoa New Zealand Tāwhia Te Mana Research Fellowship is expected to have significant value for the future career development and leadership potential of a researcher.
Categories are as follows:
- Early Career (0-4 years post-PhD), 4 year fellowships worth $820,000
- Mid-Career (5-12 years post-PhD), 4 year fellowships worth $1,160,000
- Distinguished Researcher (senior academic with global reputation), 1-2 years, $220,000
The 2026 Tāwhia Te Mana Fellowships round has been delayed and is now expected to open no later than May 2026. Final round timings will be published once confirmed.
Administered by the Royal Society, The Catalyst: Seeding facilitates new small to medium pre-research strategic partnerships with international partners that cannot be supported through other means, with a view to developing full collaborations that could be supported through other research funding mechanisms, including those administered by the Ministry.
The January 2026 call is now open. The closing date for New Zealand applications is 23 April 2026.
The fund is an opportunity for VUW to identify key strategic research directions opportunities that enhance VUW’s reputation, create new relationships with communities and collaborators and seed new large-scale initiatives. The majority of successful research project applications will be funded for up to $25,000 for projects lasting up to two years, although the committee may award funding of up to $40,000 in exceptional cases.
The fund supports:
1. Staff to engage in ambitious research.
2. The delivery of the University’s strategic aims and/or of Faculty- specific research strategies aligned to the Ambitiousresearch for transformative impact strategy.
3. Projects that leverage VUW’s location in Aotearoa New Zealand including those that reflect the significant value inherent in bringing mātauranga Māori to bear on both basic and applied research across all disciplines.
4. Projects with the potential to mobilise research outcomes for transformative impact, including impact within the academy.
5. High-quality research with the potential to contribute to key strategic outcomes including but not limited to applications for external research income, the production of high-impact outputs, increased international collaboration and developing or strengthening connections with external partners outside the academy locally, nationally, and internationally.
FSRG funding rounds are Faculty-specific. Please consult with your Faculty for application deadlines.
The Health Research Council established the Sir Charles Hercus Health Research Fellowship as a contribution to building New Zealand’s future capability to conduct world-class research. This fellowship provides support for emerging scientists who have demonstrated outstanding potential to develop into highly skilled researchers able to initiate new avenues of investigation. Up to $600,000 is available over four years. Registrations are expected to open in June 2026.
The Ki te Pae Research Excellence Awards celebrate ambitious research that delivers transformative impact. The Awards acknowledge the excellence of our researchers:
- asking bold questions
- pursuing innovative solutions
- expanding creativity and human knowledge
- imagining different ways of understanding the human condition
- collaborating and engaging with iwi, hapū, marae, communities, government, scholarship, industry, and commerce to develop new insights of direct relevance to these groups.
Each year, up to three Early Career Researcher Awards of $10,000 will be awarded.
Marsden Fund Fast-Start grants come from a special pool of funds set aside for emerging researchers (up to seven years after the conferment of their PhD). Funding is set at NZ$120,000 (excluding GST) per year for three years.
Applications open annually, with the Expressions of Interest deadline usually falling in February.
If you are a VUW staff member and have Marsden-related questions, please contact Hayden at the research office (hayden.thorne@vuw.ac.nz)
The HFSP fellowship program supports proposals for frontier, potentially transformative research in the life sciences. Applications for high-risk projects are particularly encouraged.
The projects should be interdisciplinary in nature and should challenge existing paradigms by using novel approaches and techniques. Scientifically, they should address an important problem or a barrier to progress in the field.
HFSP postdoctoral fellowships encourage early career scientists to broaden their research skills by moving into new areas of study while working in a new country.
Two different fellowships are available:
Long-Term Fellowships (LTF) are for applicants with a PhD on a biological topic who want to embark on a novel and frontier project focussing on the life sciences.
Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships (CDF) are for applicants who hold a doctoral degree from a non-biological discipline (e.g. physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering or computer sciences) and who have not worked in the life sciences before.
The 2025 round has closed, keep an eye out in early 2026 for details of the next round.
