2016 Endeavour Fund successful proposals

Our 2016 Endeavour Round saw 56 new scientific research programmes receive funding of more than $209 million over the next 5 years.

The successful proposals are listed below by investment mechanism:

We received 563 proposals through the application process. The successful proposals were selected by the Science Board, an independent statutory Board, following robust assessment by around 300 New Zealand and international independent experts.

The new research contracts started on 1 October 2016, for periods of between 2 and 5 years.

Smart Ideas

Organisation

Title

Duration
(years)

Contract value
(excl GST)

AgResearch Limited

Plugging into electron flow in the rumen: developing a microbial fuel cell to control electron flow and direct rumen fermentation towards better ruminant nutrition

 

3

$1,000,000

World first proof-of-application of Trojan female pest control

3

$869,562

Auckland University of Technology

Smart sensor design for high-quality, non-invasive, long term biopotential measurement

3

$999,000

Institute of Environmental Science and Research Limited

Concurrently tracking multiple sources of water contamination using synthetic DNA tracers

3

$900,000

Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences Limited - Trading as GNS Science

Ion sources and silicon-28 islands for quantum bits

2

$1,000,000

Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd

'Biosecure-ID': Machine learning to automate image-based identification of species

3

$1,000,000

Optimal release strategies to maximise biological control: RHDV in rabbits

3

$750,000

Using genome mining to identify targets for developing species-selective toxins

3

$1,000,000

Wetland Assessment and Monitoring Tool (WAAM): pre-human baselines for assessing, monitoring and restoring New Zealand’s wetland ecosystems

3

$1,000,000

Lincoln University

Reducing environmental damage following urea application in pastures by using a bio-inoculant

3

$977,500

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd

Growth and productivity of fish populations in a changing world

2

$506,000

Using crustacean body chemistry to assess human induced impacts on seafloor environment

3

$861,000

New Zealand Forest Research Institute Ltd Trading as Scion

A new model for the rapid evaluation of reproductive control in conifers

3

$1,000,000

A novel biotech route to new biobased high performance engineering plastics

2

$1,000,000

The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited

Elastomeric, conductive and functionalised electrospun nanofibres for high-performance anti-fouling microfiltration membranes

2

$1,000,000

The Research Trust of Victoria University of Wellington

Aptamers for customisable analytical devices: application to methamphetamine detection

3

$999,999

Improving New Zealand’s Tax Policy via International Tax-Transfer Model Benchmarking

3

$625,366

Wave-guiding piezoceramics for high resolution medical imaging and non-destructive testing

3

$1,000,000

University of Auckland

University of Auckland Fundamental redesign of percutaneous drains for effective drainage and reduced infection

2

$999,870

University of Canterbury

Autonomous Forest Pruning and Data Collection of Tree Metrics

2

$1,000,000

A Neuromorphic Computer Chip: computational hardware that works like the brain.

3

$1,000,000

A New Route to High-Purity Titanium: Ultra-high-temperature electrolytic production of titanium from waste slag

2

$1,000,000

Development of a solar redox flow battery for direct solar energy capture and storage.

3

$1,000,000

Maximising genetic diversity in endangered species: a conservation genomic approach

3

$1,000,000

University of Otago

enGAGing the brain; sugar-coated clusters as potent drugs to restore brain-function

3

$1,000,000

Intelligently deformable skin penetrating nanoparticles for drug delivery through skin

3

$933,037

"Silverbone" - Otago's nano-silver technology plus NZ-manufactured bonegraft produces unique antibacterial biomaterial

3

$999,804

University of Waikato

University of Waikato Tipping-Point Responses of Coastal Primary Productivity to Projected Ocean Acidification Scenarios

3

$999,960

 Research Programmes

Organisation

Title

Duration
(years)

Contract value
(excl GST)

AgResearch Limited

Capturing the true value of NZ meat: Objective measurement of meat quality in beef, lamb and venison

5

$4,250,000

Evaluating the potential of forages with elevated photosynthesis and metabolisable energy

5

$10,000,000

Cawthron Institute

Improving Chinook salmon feed efficiency for industry growth

5

$12,854,857

Novel farming systems enabling multiple shellfish species culture in open ocean sites

5

$5,303,458

Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences Limited - Trading as GNS Science

Diagnosing peril posed by the Hikurangi subduction zone: New Zealand’s largest plate boundary fault

5

$6,497,375

Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd

Building resilience and provenance into an authentic Māori honey industry

5

$4,500,000

Innovative ways to reduce farm nitrogen losses by manipulating carbon inputs

5

$7,301,000

Integrated research and tools for wilding conifer management and ecosystem restoration

5

$14,000,000

Science to underpin next-generation S-map and smarter land management decisions

5

$9,250,000

Security for iconic species: kiwi rescue

4

$3,600,000

Soil ecosystem health and resilience – a pathway to prosperity and wellbeing

5

$7,500,000

Lincoln Agritech Limited

A sensor and model-based analyser for blockscale grape yield prediction

5

$5,986,600

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd

Are we there yet? Sustainable co-management and restoration of Cultural Keystone Species

4

$4,554,920

Maximising the economic benefits of irrigation through dynamic, high-resolution weather forecasting

5

$4,750,000

Moving from limiting fisheries juvenile habitat bottlenecks to open high production pipelines

5

$6,500,000

Overcoming dispersal and recruitment constraints on native freshwater biodiversity

5

$7,275,000

Resilience of deep-sea benthic fauna to sedimentation from human activities

5

$3,748,110

New Zealand Forest Research Institute Ltd Trading as Scion

Preparing New Zealand for extreme fire

5

$8,750,000

The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited

Enhancing production of New Zealand’s seafood sector using accelerated breeding techniques

5

$5,413,145

New breeding technologies for New Zealand’s high value plant industries

5

$8,500,000

Perfecting storage life prediction for delivery of high quality fruit

5

$14,000,000

The Research Trust of Victoria University of Wellington

Enhanced Geothermal Energy Recovery Through Nanotechnology: An innovative enduring solution to the worldwide silica deposition problem

4

$3,190,000

Manufacture of self-adjuvanting peptide vaccines for cancer and infectious disease

5

$9,677,865

University of Auckland

Building damage-avoidance seismic technology using a novel resilient slip friction joint

4

$3,438,500

University of Otago

Development of next-generation sanitisers for the control of bovine mastitis in the dairy industry

3

$1,681,443

Ending homelessness in New Zealand: Housing First

5

$2,537,514

Targeting drug delivery within the brain - Building a system for human application

4

$4,859,256

University of Waikato

People, Cities and Nature: Restoring indigenous nature in urban environments

4

$2,862,684