Maunuhanga Travel Grant Recipients
Each year, we award travel grants to help researchers further their professional development. Hear from these recipients below.
2025 Recipients
Dr Abigail Sharrock
School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington
“I was incredibly grateful to receive support to attend the 2025 Synthetic Biology Australasia Conference in Wellington, where I presented my postdoctoral research on engineering bacterial enzymes for medical applications. This was my first time attending this conference, and it was an amazing opportunity to meet others in the field, hear about emerging research, and build invaluable connections across Australasia.”
Dr Ria Te Uira Holmes
Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington
“I was exceptionally privileged to attend a workshop at Corpus Christi, Oxford University. In the workshop I presented with my colleague Dr Carwyn Jones on Māori legal instruments. I was grateful to participate in kōrero with Indigenous academics from around the world, and to explore different ways Indigenous legal History can be lovingly excavated, understood and shared. Attendance at this workshop has formed ongoing relationships across the world and I am currently working on a chapter which we be published alongside other participants.”
Dr Liz McKibben
School of Health, Victoria University of Wellington
“Attending the Critical Autoethnography Conference was one of the most rewarding scholarly experiences I’ve had. Bringing together an international community of researchers and artists, the conference fostered a rich exchange of ideas, creativity, and critical reflection. At its core, the conference was about hope, and about finding hope in creative storytelling, performance, and courageous inquiry. I left with a renewed sense of the importance of research that is critical, imaginative, and willing to blur disciplinary boundaries in pursuit of a more compassionate world.”
Dr Sarah Sczelecki
School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington
“With the generous support of the Maunuhanga Travel Award, I was able to attend the annual Australia New Zealand Society of Extracellular Vesicles (ANZSEV) meeting in Te Whanganui-a-Tara in November 2025. My abstract was selected for an oral presentation, and it was the first time presenting at an extracellular vesicle (EV)-focused conference. This meeting was fantastic and one of the best conferences I have been fortunate enough to attend. I made valuable connections with Australasian EV researchers, including many ECRs, learned about advancing methodologies in the field and gained ideas for future research projects.”