Applications are now open for the 2021 Health Research Council Career Development Awards.

Researchers are able to apply for opportunities in three categories: General round, Māori Health Research, and Pacific Health Research.

Visit the Career Development Awards section for more details, including the application guidelines and forms.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and challenges faced by all health research stakeholders, changes have been made to the 2020 HRC Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases Cancer Call timeline. The registration closing date has been extended till 1pm, 23 July 2020, and full applications will now close at 1pm, 30 July 2020. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of Alert Level 4 on the work of the research community, the HRC has cancelled its planned full-stage science assessing committee (SAC) meetings for its current annually-run funding rounds, and instead will collect scores from individual SAC members through HRC Gateway. 

Though the cancellation of meetings means round table committee discussions will not take place, SAC members will still have access to applications, committee reviewer and external reviewer reports, in addition to applicant rebuttals to inform their assessment and scoring of a proposal. 

This change was deemed necessary to ensure continuity in the HRC’s funding processes during this phase of the COVID-19 crisis, and to enable research to proceed once the restrictions of the Alert 4 lockdown are eased and a return to work is feasible. Read more in this Special Update.

Further to the deadline extension for the Health Delivery Research Project Grant outlined last week, the HRC has made additional changes to the 2020 Health Delivery Research Investment Round, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and challenges faced by all health delivery research stakeholders:

• Health Delivery Research Career Development Awards – deadlines have been delayed by three months.
• Health Delivery Research Activation Grants – this will now be offered in two streams, with applications for the second stream due later in the year.
• Health Sector Research Collaboration Grants – flexible timeframes have been introduced.
• Health Delivery Research Project Grants – as previously communicated, the full application deadline has been extended. 

All details are in this Special Update and further questions can be directed to Luke Garland, Research Investment Manager: lgarland@hrc.govt.nz

Note for Research Office staff:

The HRC has been considering how to manage its portfolio of research contracts in light of the delays and uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The potential impact on investigators endeavouring to undertake research under these circumstances may be significant with limited access to their workplace, restricted travel around New Zealand and internationally, activation of quarantine protocols, doubtful availability of research supplies, and limitations working with study or patient groups.

In order to support our researchers, the HRC will accept any extensions and/or changes to research contracts directly or indirectly caused by COVID-19. In order to minimise administrative burden for research providers, contract variation requests do not require the detail normally needed, but should simply state the COVID-19 cause. Requests should be made in writing to the HRC by research providers. Providers may either ask for contract suspension until further notice or may seek a time extension. 

Please take care through these challenging times and feel free to call our staff if you have further concerns or questions. 

For those who are planning to apply for funding in the 2021 annual funding round, please note the dates below: