Our Explorer Grants provide seed support for researchers with transformative, innovative, exploratory or unconventional research ideas that have a good chance of making a revolutionary change to how we manage health in New Zealand. These grants are available in any health-related field (e.g. basic, clinical, behavioural, social, public health, kaupapa Māori, Māori health, Pacific health, and translational sciences) and are worth $150,000 for a term of up to 24 months.

Eligibility requirements

You must have New Zealand as your principal domicile and place of employment to apply as the first named investigator or co-first named investigator of a 2026 Explorer Grant. Your application must also have the support of your host organisation.

You can only submit one Explorer Grant application as the first named investigator or co-first named investigator.

You can find more information about our eligibility criteria in the application guidelines below.

Health research priorities

New Zealand’s investment in health research must contribute to achieving the goals of the health system and the science, innovation and technology system.

For the health system, the Government is committed to improving health outcomes by providing New Zealanders with timely access to high-quality health services.

A key focus for the science system is to harness the benefits of research and innovation to drive economic transformation. The Government wants to ensure that the research it funds is progressing its priorities, and that there is a clear pathway to translate new ideas into successful commercial enterprise.

Therefore, it is important for researchers and research organisations to identify how research to be funded by the HRC will add value and contribute to these goals and wider system performance.

All HRC-funded research must meet all the following requirements:

1. The research is focused on health and improving health outcomes, where health outcomes are defined as:
   1. absence or reduction of disease, symptoms or morbidity, and/or
   2. timely access to quality healthcare, for all New Zealanders, and/or
   3. longer life expectancy, and/or
   4. improved quality of life.
2. The research proposal provides an evidence base when describing areas of high health need and population groups with high health need.
3. The research directly addresses known health and health system issues in New Zealand.
4. The research proposal clearly articulates why the research should be done now, in New Zealand, and supported by government funding.

Changes in the 2026 Explorer Grant guidelines

The HRC has made the following changes to the application and assessment processes for the 2026 Explorer Grant round:

1. The 2026 application guidelines clearly outline HRC requirements and what is in scope and out of scope for the 2026 round. Please carefully read the new guidelines before preparing your application so that your proposal aligns with the round’s requirements.
2. You can only submit one Explorer Grant application as the first named investigator or co-first named investigator. There is a limit of one co-first named investigator on an application.
3. Salary and overheads for named investigators and research personnel can now be claimed within the budget of $150,000 for a term of 24 months.
4. Applications will only be assessed through an independent online scoring process. In previous years, applications were first assessed through pre-scoring, which determined which applications required an additional review in an assessing committee meeting. This year, applications will only be scored online (which is similar to the previous pre-scoring process). Further information on the assessment process is provided in the application guidelines.

How do I apply?

First, you’ll need to ensure that you have an up-to-date profile on HRC Gateway. You can then create an application via HRC Gateway. The application guidelines are available below.

Important points to note

Unlike any of our other grants, the assessment process for Explorer Grant applications is anonymous. When describing your proposed research, you cannot provide any identifiable information.

Your application will be assessed by the HRC’s Explorer Grant Assessing Committee to see if it meets the criteria of being transformative, viable, and advancing Māori health. Further information on the score criteria is available in the application guidelines.

All applications that meet the criteria are equally eligible to receive funding. Eligible applications will be randomly ordered, with funding awarded down the ranked list until the available budget is exhausted.

Got a question?

If you’ve read through the documents below and under the ‘Helpful links’ section on the right and still have a question about our Explorer Grants, please send an email to info@hrc.govt.nz and one of our team will be in touch.

Documents

Guidelines

2026 Explorer Grant Application Guidelines
18 Nov, 2025 7:27am - 749KB

Forms

2026 Explorer Grant Application Form
18 Nov, 2025 7:27am - 94KB