2018 Endeavour Fund successful proposals
We received 399 applications for research funding from the 2018 Endeavour Fund, with 69 approved for funding.
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The successful proposals for the 2018 Endeavour Fund were selected by the Science Board, an independent statutory Board, following review by independent experts from New Zealand and overseas.
The new contracts started on 1 October 2018.
Read the Minister’s announcement on the Beehive website(external link).
Download the full list of Endeavour Round 2018 successful projects [PDF, 541 KB]
Successful 2018 Smart Ideas
The successful Smart Ideas for 2018 are listed below.
Download the full list of Endeavour Round 2018 successful projects [PDF, 541 KB]
| Organisation | Title | Duration (years) | Contract Value (GST excl) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AgResearch Limited | Enhancing early-life development and immune protective function using milk exosome-enriched dairy foods. | 3 | $999,999 |
| Engineering robust nano-protein delivery vehicles for tailored insect pest control | 3 | $1,000,000 | |
| High-throughput phenotyping of biological nitrogen fixation and metabolism to improve forage legumes | 3 | $999,999 | |
| Bodeker Scientific | Inferring city-scale particulate matter emissions sources through inverse modelling | 2 | $999,100 |
| Near real-time assessment of climate change impacts on extreme weather events | 3 | $999,932 | |
| Cawthron Institute | Rationally designing a ‘smart’ marine antifouling biocide based on novel synthetic peptides | 3 | $1,000,000 |
| GNS Science | Geologic sub-surface modelling of an active fault system: Cape Egmont fault zone | 2 | $728,628 |
| Energy harvesting from ambient heat using transparent thermoelectric materials | 3 | $999,999 | |
| Massey University | Functional carbon nanomaterials from harakeke fibres for sustainable energy applications | 3 | $999,978 |
| Airborne hyperspectral remote sensing for establishing New Zealand's baseline environmental and mineral indicators | 3 | $999,000 | |
| National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd | A reliable ocean forecast tool for managing marine disasters in New Zealand | 3 | $1,000,000 |
| Machine Learning approaches to downscale seasonal climate forecasts for New Zealand | 2 | $740,000 | |
| Drone flow: Aerial monitoring system for better river management | 3 | $1,000,000 | |
| Reducing the impact of LED streetlight conversions on cultural and ecological values | 3 | $999,000 | |
| Refining the spawning sites and larval dispersal routes of eels using isotopic landscapes | 3 | $954,000 | |
| Freshwater bioremediation using native mussels (kāeo) - focussed on shallow eutrophic lakes | 3 | $999,999 | |
| Rivers as dynamic transport vectors of plastic pollution to the ocean | 3 | $999,000 | |
| Scion | New Zealand seaweeds: unique cellulose nanocrystals for use in high-value products. | 3 | $987,249 |
| The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited | Are microbial partners the key to bioactive precursor production for high value mānuka honey? | 3 | $1,000,000 |
| Developing an artificial bi-trophic ecosystem maintained in dynamic equilibrium for sustainable control of a serious pest within honeybee hives, and a new paradigm for addressing other intractable pests in productive systems | 3 | $1,000,000 | |
| Novel process for making low glycaemic load starch ingredient for healthy innovative food products | 3 | $1,000,000 | |
| University of Auckland | Building a sustainable gender budgeting strategy for New Zealand | 3 | $859,815 |
| Photonic Device for Rapid Prostate Cancer Detection and Mapping | 3 | $999,999 | |
| Growing NZ optometry device industry, through developing novel technology for screening blindness | 2 | $999,757 | |
| Experimental approach for reducing eruption risks in New Zealand Geothermal Fields | 2 | $926,000 | |
| Titanium Foam Thermal Shielding - Returning Small Payloads from Space | 3 | $999,714 | |
| A Wave and Finite-Element Method for Calculating Sound Transmission in Lightweight Buildings | 3 | $999,999 | |
| University of Canterbury | Sustainable and cost-effective seismic-isolation foundation-soil systems for medium-density low-rise buildings | 2 | $1,000,000 |
| University of Otago | Bees as Biosecurity Biomonitors - using pollen testing to identify and monitor new plant incursions into New Zealand | 3 | $964,620 |
| Long distance connectivity for superconducting quantum-bits | 3 | $999,519 | |
| Highly efficient solar-to-hydrogen energy conversion based on innovative nanophotonic platform | 3 | $999,959 | |
| Understanding pollen abortion in female kiwifruit to create bisexual flowers | 3 | $999,720 | |
| Superhydrophobic lenses – Merging water droplets for fast surface ejection, preventing ice-formation | 3 | $999,677 | |
| University of Waikato | Eye on lakes: national monitoring of cyanobacterial blooms | 3 | $1,000,000 |
| An isotopic toolkit for cadmium management: from agrisystems to ecosystems | 2 | $999,808 | |
| Reduction of force transmission to buildings from vertical and horizontal seismic motion | 3 | $993,612 | |
| Identifying Solutions for Using Personal Monitoring to Support Workers in Hazardous Industries | 3 | $999,993 | |
| Harnessing Marine Invasive Allelochemistry to Fast Track Bioactive Applications | 3 | $1,000,000 | |
| New approaches to detect invasive freshwater fish using scent and environmental DNA | 3 | $1,000,000 | |
| Victoria University of Wellington | An engineered RNA ligase system for unbiased sequencing of diverse microRNA pools | 3 | $1,000,000 |
| Novel 3-dimensional sugar-based clusters for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer | 3 | $999,953 | |
| Synergistic pathways for remyelination in multiple sclerosis | 3 | $999,999 | |
| Enhancing the efficacy of veterinary vaccines by skewing the immune response to a Th1/Th17 profile | 3 | $1,000,000 | |
| Handheld, enzyme-based biosensors for monitoring grape quality, wine quality and fermentation | 3 | $1,000,000 | |
| Reconstructing Baseline Ocean Data Around NZ for Marine Management and Forecasting Models | 3 | $987,366 | |
| Water purification using solar energy captured by natural photonic crystals | 3 | $999,992 |
Successful 2018 Research Programmes
The successful Research Programmes for 2018 are listed below.
Download the full list of Endeavour Round 2018 successful projects [PDF, 541 KB]
| Organisation | Title | Duration (years) |
Contract Value (GST excl) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AgResearch Limited | Mapping the New Zealand Ruminotype Landscape – defining variation in the microbiome as a resource for fitness and adaptation |
4 | $3,588,899 |
| Improved weed control and vegetation management to minimise future herbicide resistance | 5 | $8,500,000 | |
| GNS Science | Optimising water management based on understanding of flow sources, pathways and lags | 5 | $9,500,000 |
| Institute of Environmental Science and Research Limited | Impacts of microplastics on New Zealand’s bioheritage systems, environments and ecoservices | 5 | $12,536,205 |
| Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd | More birds in the bush: large-scale restoration across complex forests | 5 | $9,000,000 |
| Cost-effective targeting of erosion control to protect soil and water values | 5 | $9,800,000 | |
| Beyond myrtle rust: Next-generation tools to 'engineer' forest ecosystem resilience to plant pathogens |
5 | $13,000,000 | |
| Lincoln Agritech Limited | Hand-held high resolution medical imaging using microwave metamaterial lenses | 5 | $5,995,000 |
| Critical Pathways: Unravelling sub-catchment scale nitrogen delivery to waterways | 5 | $7,775,000 | |
| Livestock Improvement Corporation Limited | Transforming dairy cattle improvement through next generation genomic selection and strategic mating |
5 | $7,000,000 |
| Massey University | Milks Mean More: Unlocking the potential of New Zealand's ruminant milks | 5 | $11,268,560 |
| MetOcean Solutions Limited | Understanding ocean circulation, connectivity and marine heatwaves to support an enduring seafood sector. |
5 | $11,500,000 |
| National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd | New technologies to double the effectiveness of on-farm diffuse pollution mitigation | 5 | $8,000,000 |
| Advancing New Zealand’s carbon inventory: forest, grassland, and urban environments | 5 | $11,455,000 | |
| Scion | Bark Biorefinery: Unlocking new hydrophobic polymers and a mountain of wealth | 5 | $9,980,000 |
| University of Auckland | Data informed decision making and automation in orchards and vineyards | 5 | $16,769,775 |
| Discovery and nonclinical development of an optimized disease-modifying therapy for type-2 diabetes |
5 | $13,036,530 | |
| Microbial conversion of kelp to high nitrogen plant and animal feeds | 5 | $6,091,955 | |
| University of Waikato | He Waka Eke Noa: Maori Cultural Frameworks for Violence Prevention and Intervention | 4 | $2,160,384 |
| Victoria University of Wellington | Efficient Drug Development from Transition State Theory | 5 | $7,394,610 |
| Addressing the need for magnetic memory to enable superconducting computing | 5 | $5,971,120 | |
| Tuneable monolithic magnetoresistive sensors for asset management | 4 | $4,800,000 | |
| Fungal factories: Synthetic Biology for the Manufacture of High Value Products | 5 | $8,861,560 |
2018 success rates by organisation
The table below details the 2018 Endeavour Fund success rates for the larger research organisations.
Download the full list of Endeavour Round 2018 successful projects [PDF, 541 KB]
| ORGANISATION | NUMBER APPLIED | NUMBER SUCCESSFUL | SUCCESS RATE (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| MetOcean Solutions Limited | 2 | 1 | 50.0 |
| Livestock Improvement Corporation | 2 | 1 | 50.0 |
| Bodeker Scientific Ltd | 4 | 2 | 50.0 |
| Victoria University Wellington | 29 | 11 | 37.9 |
| Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd | 11 | 3 | 27.3 |
| GNS Science | 11 | 3 | 27.3 |
| University of Waikato | 28 | 7 | 25.0 |
| Institute of Environmental Science and Research Limited | 4 | 1 | 25.0 |
| National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd | 37 | 9 | 24.3 |
| Lincoln AgriTech Ltd | 9 | 2 | 22.2 |
| Massey University | 15 | 3 | 20.0 |
| AgResearch Limited | 26 | 5 | 19.2 |
| Cawthron Institute | 6 | 1 | 16.7 |
| University of Auckland | 63 | 9 | 14.3 |
| The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research | 24 | 3 | 12.5 |
| University of Otago | 42 | 5 | 11.9 |
| Scion | 17 | 2 | 11.8 |
| University of Canterbury | 23 | 1 | 4.3 |
| Lincoln University | 6 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Auckland University of Technology | 16 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Other | 23 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Total | 399 | 69 | 17.3 |