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.
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News and Media
Our latest and archived media releases and news articles.
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News ArticleIt's time to have your say on how the national health research priorities for New Zealand are set.
The Health Research Council (HRC), Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment have been working together to implement the New Zealand Health Research Strategy 2017-2027 (NZHRS). The vision is that by 2027, New Zealand will have a world-leading health research and innovation system that, through excellent research, improves the health and wellbeing of all New Zealanders.
The HRC is leading Strategic Priority 1, Action 1 of the NZHRS, which states that an inclusive priority-setting process will take place.
We are proposing a process to consult broadly and bring together some of the best people, both nationally and internationally, so that we can gain a shared understanding of what health research questions need to be answered here in New Zealand. If you would like to review and comment on the process, you can do so here until Monday 19th March.
Your input on the priorities themselves will be sought later in 2018.
Background documents
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News ArticleNominations are now open for the HRC’s prestigious Liley and Beaven Medals for 2018.
The Liley Medal recognises an individual or team whose recent research has produced a significant breakthrough within the health and medical fields. It will be awarded for the publication or application of a piece of work between the period of January – December 2017.
The Beaven Medal is offered annually for excellence in translational health research. It recognises the translation of research into clinical practice, engagement with community and providers of clinical healthcare, and a commitment to making a difference to the lives of patients.
Nominations for both medals close at 1pm, Wednesday 6 June 2018. For more information, see our Medals page.
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News ArticleBrain injury is a family injury and the fact that rehabilitation has largely focused on individuals is an injustice, claims clinical psychologist Elisa Lavelle Wijohn who recently completed a PhD into traumatic brain injury and its impact on families.
Her study – the Brain Injury Whānau Action Project (BIWAP) – was funded by a career development award from the Health Research Council of New Zealand and looked at how to make lives better for families of adults with serious brain injury.
“Brain injury is a particular category of illness – the person who’s affected might not be aware of the changes that have happened to them because the illness is in the brain, and because of what it does to someone’s identity and sense of self,” says Lavelle Wijohn. “Quite often, you’ll find families of brain injury patients suffer more than people with other illnesses.”
Part of her motivation for doing the research came from her own observations that families had hugely differing levels of skill and success in managing the help available from rehabilitation services and the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). She also felt that the systems in place were a particularly poor fit for Māori families, given the emphasis within Māori culture on the wellbeing of whānau.
Lavelle Wijohn teamed up with the Auckland Brain Injury Association and conducted her study using the principles of Māori-centred Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR).
Along with her co-researchers (members of families affected by brain injury), she brought together families (including people with brain injury, children and elders) and health professionals for a wānanga – a weekend of marae-based learning designed to educate and strengthen all the families in attendance. They talked about advocacy, neuropsychological assessments, relationships, fatigue, and feelings of isolation.
The first wānanga was attended by 80 people; a second one (organised at a later stage and co-sponsored by ACC) was attended by 160 people.
The benefits of the wānanga can be seen in these video clips, but Lavelle Wijohn says it also resulted in relationship-building with like-minded groups. Importantly, thanks to having an ACC representative in attendance at the second wānanga, she believes the views and needs expressed by families have since had an influence in policy design, too.
She says ACC’s recently-released Traumatic Brain Injury Strategy and Action Plan (2017 – 2021) has a focus on whānau, human rights and the rights of patients and children. “They’re thinking about how families could be more supported, and I’d like to think we were a part of that,” she says.
She believes this project was an effective way of conducting research that has direct relevance to the community of concern.
“The follow-on has been beyond all my hopes,” she says, adding that wānanga participants experienced a feeling of universality throughout the weekend which helped them feel that they weren’t alone.
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Media ReleaseDespite growing evidence for the role of culturally-centred programmes in addressing mental health needs, few programmes have been embedded into practice, says one researcher who hopes to change all that.
Dr Kahu McClintock, Research Manager with Te Rau Matatini, has just been awarded $789,771 to test the use of indigenous approaches for helping at-risk Māori and Pacific youth. Funding comes from the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) and the Ministry of Health, as part of New Zealand’s first Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases funding round.
Dr McClintock’s Indigenous Solutions Research Programme will provide a suite of innovative, culturally-focused and community-based programmes to ensure young people are given access to culturally-responsive early intervention approaches to increase mental health resilience.
The Māori research, conducted with Te Rau Matatini, covers two projects: one in partnership with Cindy Mokomoko from Te Puna Hauora ki Uta ki Tai in the Bay of Plenty, investigating a cultural and theoretical programme for at-risk Māori youth, aged 12 – 18, who have been identified within the education system as having issues with either anxiety, violence, alcohol, drug abuse or depression; the other is in partnership with Eugene Davis from Te Ahurei a Rangatahi in Hamilton, based on marae (traditional spaces) learnings to help young Māori males aged 12 – 18, to strengthen coonections to Te Ao Māori enabling positive future focuses.
Dr McClintock says both projects will challenge what is in place and not working, and states that indigenous solutions are an effective and sustainable way forward for improving mental health outcomes.
Pacific youth also stand to benefit from more culturally-relevant services, says Dr McClintock. When Pacific peoples do engage in mainstream mental health, they sometimes find it foreign and alienating, she adds.
The Pacific research will be conducted in conjunction with the Family Centre (Pacific section) led by Taimalietu Kiwi Tamasese, and also covers two projects: one aims to increase Pacific communities’ understanding of mental health problems, enabling youth and families to act upon them earlier; the other focusses on the mental health workforce, equipping them to embed more culturally-relevant and responsive practices for Pacific people. The hope is that these projects, combined, will improve Pacific responsiveness and prevention of mental health problems while building up confidence in the mental health workforce.
The HRC’s senior manager of Māori Health Research Investment, Mr Stacey Pene, says these projects aim to translate well-recognised concepts into action.
“The research partnership between Te Rau Matatini, Te Ahurei a Rangatahi, Te Puna Hauora ki Uta ki Tai and the Family Centre Pacific Section represents an exciting opportunity to apply indigenous knowledge to improve mental health for our Māori and Pacific youth, their whānau, and communities,” he says.
“The development of such culturally-responsive programmes is vital for increasing the resilience of our youth, and reducing inequity.”
The Ministry of Health’s Māori Leadership spokesperson, Alison Thom, says the prevention and management of mental health is one of the priorities of the New Zealand health system.
“We are pleased to see research proposals that help inform the development and delivery of more effective mental health services and support for Māori and Pacific youth.”
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