Tertiary education institutions are encouraged to consider establishing cross-institutional centres of research excellence and submitting applications for the funding that will be available from 1 January 2021.

Having institutions that work collaboratively allows researchers to achieve ‘critical mass’ in their specific field of research. This encourages researchers with complementary and contrasting expertise to combine their knowledge and work together on pioneering research projects.

CoREs have an important role to play in developing the breakthroughs that help build an economy that is growing and working for all of us. 

Currently funded CoREs have developed important research projects like the Dementia-Prevention Research Clinics established by Brain Research New Zealand. Other research projects include sustainable pest-management solutions, food science, human health, and earthquake resilience.

The 2019/20 funding will support the work of up to ten CoREs and includes specific funding for a CoRE focussed on Māori research.

A contestable process will be used for this funding round, which will initially call for expressions of interest to be submitted.  We will publish more information on our website about the round.

CoREs have been operating in New Zealand since 2002. In that time the government has provided over $434.5 million in funding to current and previous CoREs. There are currently 10 CoREs, which are funded until 31 December 2020.

For more information, please see the additional information published on the TEC website and the Royal Society Te Apārangi website.