Welcome
We manage the Government's investment in health research. Our vision is to improve the health and quality of life of all New Zealanders.
Funding Opportunities
The HRC allocates funding through an annual funding round for researcher initiated projects, Requests for Proposals, and a range of career development awards.
About Us
We invest in a broad range of research on issues important to New Zealand, and support the development of health research careers. Our mission is 'benefiting New Zealand through health research'.
News and Publications
We produce a wide range of publications and documents, which provide information about funding opportunities, research outcomes and HRC-related news.
Ethics and Regulatory
We help ensure all research involving human participants is based on good science, meets ethical standards and complies with best practice.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about the HRC or would like to know more about how our funding process works, please drop us a line.
Gene Technology Advisory Committee
News and Media
Our latest and archived media releases and news articles.
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Media Release22 June 2017
New Zealand’s first health research strategy will help nurture and grow a strong health research workforce that can provide solutions to New Zealand’s unique health challenges, says HRC's Acting Chief Executive Dr Tania Pocock.
Health Minister Jonathan Coleman and Science and Innovation Minister Paul Goldsmith today launched the New Zealand Health Research Strategy 2017–2027 at the Clinical Trials Unit at Wellington Hospital.
The Ministry of Health, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), and HRC will lead the implementation of the strategy, with advice from an advisory group made up of experts from across the health system.
Dr Pocock says the health research strategy was developed following extensive consultation with more than 500 people at regional consultation meetings and targeted focus groups. She says that this, coupled with the 166 written submissions received, has had a major influence on the final strategy.
“We’re extremely grateful to all those New Zealanders who contributed to this strategy. The feedback we’ve received has been crucial to helping shape the development of strategic priorities that will guide the direction of the health research and innovation system over the next 10 years,” says Dr Pocock.
The new strategy sets out four strategic priorities for health research. The HRC will lead the strategic priority to “invest in excellent health research that addresses the health needs of all New Zealanders”, and provide support to the Ministry of Health and MBIE for the others.
“We welcome the focus on the health system playing a greater role in health research. To help us identify health research priorities, we’ll be actively seeking to engage communities and end-users in what we do, including consumers, researchers, health sector agencies, health practitioners, philanthropic bodies, iwi, Pacific peoples, community organisations, disability groups, and government agencies,” says Dr Pocock.
In 2016, the HRC received the largest-ever increase for health research in New Zealand – $97 million – and by 2020 that annual investment will increase to $120 million.
Dr Pocock says the health research strategy is another great boost for health research and health researchers in New Zealand.
“Our health researchers consistently produce excellent research that helps put our science on the map, and we are highly regarded internationally. This strategy recognises this great work – and the huge potential there is to develop the health research sector even further to maximise the impact of health research on the lives of all New Zealanders.”
Download a copy of the New Zealand Health Research Strategy from the Ministry of Health's website.
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Dr El-Shadan TautoloMedia Release15 June 2017
An unprecedented seven research projects focused on improving the health of New Zealand’s Pacific community have been awarded combined funding of more than $6.3 million in the Health Research Council of New Zealand’s latest funding round.
Five of the successful projects are led by Pacific health researchers, while the other two projects have strong Pacific representation on their research teams.
HRC Acting Chief Executive Dr Tania Pocock says this is a fantastic result for Pacific health research in New Zealand, providing support to high-quality Pacific health research in priority areas that will achieve better outcomes for Pacific people, families and communities.
“We target about 20 per cent of our funding into identifying and growing emerging research talent, and our Pacific health research funding and career development programme is the only government funding of its kind in New Zealand,” says Dr Pocock.
“This year the quality of Pacific applications we received was extremely high, which reflects our long-standing commitment to growing the capacity and capability of New Zealand’s Pacific health research workforce.”
Auckland University of Technology researchers Dr El-Shadan Tautolo and Professor Janis Paterson have each received a HRC project grant to lead different aspects of The Pacific Islands Families (PIF) study.
Dr Tautolo’s research is focused on identifying the specific cultural and acculturative factors that make some Pacific people vulnerable to mental illness and others resilient, while Dr Paterson’s project looks at hearing loss in Pacific youth.
The PIF study is following a cohort of 1398 Pacific children within their family environment over the first 13 years of the child's life.
In addition, Dr Tautolo has also received a second HRC project grant to investigate the impact of early-life and childhood events on the respiratory health of Pacific youth aged 18 to 19 years. His two project grants mark a significant milestone for Dr Tautolo whose research career has been supported by a HRC summer studentship, PhD scholarship and postdoctoral fellowship. Dr Tautolo was also appointed as a member of the HRC’s Pacific Health Research Committee at the end of last year.
Other projects funded include a study led by University of Auckland research fellow Dr Ofa Dewes that will involve measuring fructose uptake in high school students to identify those who are most at-risk of the harmful effects of sugar and to understand how this links to obesity and its consequences.
University of Otago research fellow Dr Rosalina Richards has also received a HRC Pacific project grant to explore the little-known area of sleep in Pacific children and how to best support good sleep/wake patterns within Pacific contexts for physical and emotional health.
See below for the full list of 2017 HRC Pacific project and project grant recipients (Pacific focused only) or to read lay summaries of the research projects, go to www.hrc.govt.nz/funding-opportunities/recipients and filter for ‘Researcher Initiated Proposals,’ ‘Projects’ and ‘2017’.
2017 HRC Pacific project grants
Dr Ofa Dewes, the University of Auckland
Differences in fructose uptake in Pacific adolescents
36 months, $599,987Dr Rosalina Richards, University of Otago
Sleep and well-being among Pacific children and adolescents
32 months, $577,528Dr Debbie Ryan, Pacific Perspectives Limited
Pacific patients’ perspectives of treatment of chronic conditions
24 months, $400,0002017 HRC project grants with a focus on Pacific health
Professor Jacqueline Cumming, Victoria University of Wellington
Integrated services to improve the health of Pacific peoples
42 months, $1,194,152Professor Janis Paterson, Auckland University of Technology
Pacific Islands Families Study: Impact of hearing loss on Pacific youth
36 months, $1,196,242Dr El-Shadan Tautolo, Auckland University of Technology
Pacific Islands Families: Cultural resiliency and vulnerability in mental health
36 months, $1,189,886Dr El-Shadan Tautolo, Auckland University of Technology
Respiratory health of Pacific youth: Risk and resilience throughout childhood
36 months, $1,183,935 -
Media Release15 June 2017
A New Zealand-based study with strong international collaboration from Australia and the UK is set to provide a major step forward in understanding how one of the world’s most problematic superbugs survives antibiotic treatment during infection.
Biochemist Professor Iain Lamont from Otago University has received a project grant worth $1.15 million from the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) to uncover the genetic mutations that lead to antibiotic resistance in the superbug Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
P. aeruginosa causes hundreds of thousands of infections each year internationally and is a very common cause of infections in people with a wide range of predisposing conditions such as severe burn wounds, cancer, and chronic lung disease due to cystic fibrosis or other forms of bronchiectasis. It is also a major cause of both hospital-acquired and urinary tract infections.
Professor Lamont says P. aeruginosa intrinsically has low levels of antibiotic resistance, but constant exposure to antibiotics has led to an alarming increase in resistant strains that are difficult or impossible to treat, resulting in thousands of deaths per year.
“During infection, the superbug P. aeruginosa undergoes multiple mutations and evolves very high antibiotic resistance. However, only a subset of the mutations causing resistance have so far been identified,” says Professor Lamont.
In this research, Professor Lamont’s team will aim to provide the first full overview of mutations that lead to high-level resistance. To do this, they will develop highly resistant mutants of P. aeruginosa under controlled laboratory conditions and compare the underlying mutations with those that occur during infection.
“Our results will provide a major step forward in understanding how bacteria resist antibiotics and may lead to improved treatment for P. aeruginosa and other superbugs,” says Professor Lamont.
HRC Acting Chief Executive Dr Tania Pocock says an estimated 700,000 people die worldwide each year from infection by antibiotic-resistant superbugs and the number of deaths is predicted to rise to 10 million people a year unless new treatments or approaches are adopted.
“We take very seriously New Zealand’s engagement in the international research effort to find solutions to antimicrobial resistance. This new study will contribute to international efforts to develop DNA-based diagnostic methods based on resistance mutations that will provide clinicians with point-of-care tools to improve treatment,” says Dr Pocock.
“By fully understanding how bacteria evolve to resist antibiotics, we can also realistically expect to improve strategies for using current antibiotics, prolonging their effectiveness.”
Professor Lamont’s study will join at least three current large HRC-funded projects underway specifically in the area of antimicrobial resistance, along with a number of smaller exploratory studies. In addition, the HRC also funds a wide range studies in immunology, infectious diseases and other areas related to antimicrobial resistance.
Fifty-one projects have received funding worth a combined total of $56.5 million in the HRC’s latest funding round. For the full list of 2017 HRC project grant recipients go to www.hrc.govt.nz/funding-opportunities/recipients and filter for ‘Researcher Initiated Proposals,’ ‘Projects’ and ‘2017’.
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Media Release15 June 2017
A new multimillion dollar trial involving more than 3,900 infants born at Auckland, Middlemore and Wellington hospitals will aim to find out if using paracetamol in infancy to treat pain and fever is associated with childhood asthma.
Auckland paediatric emergency medicine specialist at Starship children’s hospital, Dr Stuart Dalziel, has received a $4.99 million programme grant from the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) to carry out the trial – the first of its kind in the world.
Dr Dalziel will lead the trial alongside a highly experienced team of asthma and child health experts from the Auckland and Counties Manukau district health boards, Medical Research Institute of New Zealand (Wellington), and the universities of Auckland, Otago and Calgary (Canada).
Some of the New Zealand members of the research team led the highly respected International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), the largest international epidemiological study of childhood asthma.
The ISAAC study, which included data from over 200,000 children in 31 countries, has suggested that paracetamol given in the first year of life may influence the risk of developing later asthma. However, Dr Dalziel says that it is unclear if this finding is due to paracetamol itself or to the illness that led to it being given – for example, a chest infection.
“With this new trial, we will definitively answer whether paracetamol treatment, compared with ibuprofen treatment, as required for pain and fever in the first year of life, increases the risk of asthma at age six years,” says Dr Dalziel.
Paracetamol is the most commonly prescribed and over-the-counter medication dispensed to children in the first year of life, both in New Zealand and the developed world.
Dr Dalziel says he is thrilled to receive this HRC programme grant as there is an urgent need for research that leads to evidence-based primary prevention strategies to reduce the prevalence of asthma in children.
“To date, randomised controlled trials looking at the primary prevention of asthma have focused on dietary modification, probiotics, encouraging breast feeding, and avoidance of environmental triggers such as tobacco smoke, house dust mites and other allergens. Unfortunately, none of the intervention strategies trialled has provided sufficient evidence to lead to widespread public health intervention programmes,” says Dr Dalziel.
HRC Acting Chief Executive Dr Tania Pocock says asthma rates in New Zealand remain stubbornly among the highest in the world. One in seven children and one in nine adults receives treatment here for asthma, and Māori and Pacific children are disproportionately affected.
She says the results from this programme will be of relevance to all parents and health care providers who see young infants.
“If the results confirm that there is an association between paracetamol in infancy and later asthma, we will have the evidence for a public health intervention that has the potential to reduce New Zealand’s high rate of asthma. If, on the other hand, the results don’t confirm an association, it will provide reassurance to parents and medical professionals that this most commonly used medicine is safe,” says Dr Pocock.
Dr Dalziel’s research is one of five programmes awarded a combined total of $24.85 million in the HRC’s 2017 funding round. Others include a programme led by Professor Martyn Nash from the Auckland Bioengineering Institute at the University of Auckland who, together with a team of engineers, cardiologists and medical imaging specialists, is developing novel patient-specific tools to evaluate biomechanical factors such as stiffness and stress in heart damage.
See below for the full list of 2017 HRC programme grant recipients or to read lay summaries about the research programmes, go to www.hrc.govt.nz/funding-opportunities/recipients and filter for ‘Researcher Initiated Proposals,’ ‘Programmes’ and ‘2017’.
Note: Dr Stuart Dalziel has established paediatric emergency medicine (PEM) research in New Zealand and is a recognised international leader in the field. He is currently the deputy chair of the global PEM research network and chairs the Paediatric Research in Emergency Departments International Collaborative (PREDICT), a network of children’s hospital emergency departments in Australia and New Zealand. Dr Dalziel currently leads a HRC clinical practitioner research fellowship study and project grant.
2017 HRC programme grants
Dr Stuart Dalziel, Auckland District Health Board
Prevention of asthma
132 months, $4,993,727Professor Jeroen Douwes, Massey University, Wellington
Interventions to reduce occupational disease (IROD)
60 months, $4,999,989Professor Parry Guilford, University of Otago
Reducing the burden of gastric cancer in New Zealand
60 months, $4,971,155Professor Alistair Gunn, University of Auckland
Pathogenesis, detection and treatment of perinatal brain injury
60 months, $4,919,534Professor Martyn Nash, University of Auckland
Biomechanics in heart disease
60 months, $4,964,879
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