We offer funding of $400,000 per year up to a total of $1,200,000 for research projects that have the potential to vastly improve the health of New Zealanders.

Projects can cover a diverse range of areas, including biomedical, public health, clinical, Māori focused, and Pacific health research.

We expect to fund and encourage a range of grant values and durations. Most projects have a term of three years with a budget of $1,200,000, but shorter contracts are offered pro rata (e.g. a two-year project may have a budget of up to $800,000) and we can negotiate terms of up to five years within the $1,200,000 budget cap.

Additional funding is available for randomised controlled trial project applications if required and justified in the full application; the budget cap for these applications is $1,440,000.

Project categories

When applying for a Project Grant, you need to select one of the following project categories:

• General: Supporting excellent ideas and innovations designed to improve health outcomes for New Zealanders.
• Rangahau Hauora Māori: Supporting Māori health research that contributes to Māori health gains, upholds rangatiratanga and utilises and advances Māori knowledge, resources, and people.
• Pacific Health: Making significant improvements in, or developing knowledge contributing to, Pacific health outcomes.

The same application cannot be submitted to different categories (i.e. you cannot submit the same application for both the General category and the Rangahau Hauora Māori category). The HRC does not provide advice on which project category you should choose. You cannot change the project category between the Expression of Interest (EOI) and full stage application.

This page covers information on the General Project category. Please refer to the Rangahau Hauora Māori Project category or the Pacific Health Project category page for more information on these two categories.

Eligibility requirements

If you are the first named investigator (i.e. lead researcher) or the co-first named investigator on a Project application, you must be employed by a New Zealand host organisation, have New Zealand citizenship or permanent residency status and be domiciled in New Zealand.

There is a limit of one Project application per first named investigator/co-first named investigator.

(NEW) An individual researcher cannot apply as first named investigator (FNI) or co-FNI for a 2027 Project Grant if they are the current FNI or co-FNI on a Project or Programme Grant awarded in the past two HRC funding rounds.

This means both the FNI and co-FNI must not be the current FNI or co-FNI on any grant awarded in the following rounds:

• 2024 Health Delivery Projects
• 2025 Health Delivery Projects
• 2025 Project (including General, Rangahau Hauora Māori and Pacific Health Projects)
• 2026 Project (including General, Rangahau Hauora Māori and Pacific Health Projects)
• 2025 Programme (including General and Rangahau Hauora Māori Programmes)
• 2026 Programme (including General and Rangahau Hauora Māori Programmes

Please note: If a researcher currently holds another type of HRC grant (e.g. career development awards, Explorer Grants) this does not affect their eligibility to apply for a 2027 Project Grant.

So long as they meet the eligibility requirements outlined in the guidelines, researchers can submit a proposal to both the 2027 Programme and Project rounds as FNI or co-FNI as has been the case in previous years. The changes do not affect named investigators.

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.

In this funding round, Council will prioritise opportunities to invest in research that:

• Priority 1: maximises benefit for healthcare delivery, such as:
  • new models of care and treatments
  • improved effectiveness and efficiency
  • innovation and technology in healthcare, and/or
• Priority 2: contributes to achievement of the health and/or mental health and addiction targets,4 and/or
• Priority 3: enhances the development of clinician-researchers, 5 and/or
• Priority 4: demonstrates a pathway to commercialisation and/or
• Priority 5: High-quality clinical trials.

For further information about the HRC’s research priorities refer to pages 3 to 5 of the HRC’s Research Investment Plan 2026/27.

Changes in the 2027 Project Grant guidelines

We've made some important changes to the application and assessment processes for our 2027 Project Grant funding round. To ensure the number of applications being assessed is appropriate given the amount of funding available and the resource-intensive nature of high-quality scientific evaluation, we have made the following changes:

(NEW) 2027 Project Grants eligibility

As outlined in the eligibility section above, an individual researcher cannot apply as first named investigator (FNI) or co-FNI for a 2027 Project Grant if they are the current FNI or co-FNI on a Project or Programme Grant awarded in the past two HRC funding rounds

Reintroduction of external peer review

External peer review and applicant rebuttal is reintroduced for 2027 Project Grants, after being paused for the 2026 round. Assessment of all Full stage applications will include external peer review and applicant rebuttal.

Full details are available in the 2027 Project Expression of Interest Application Guidelines. We strongly recommend you read the guidelines carefully and take note of all important dates and requirements.

How do I apply?

Project funding has a two-stage application process. The first stage is the Expression of Interest (EOI) stage. Applicants submit an EOI, which is then assessed. Top-ranked applicants will be invited to submit a full application for the second stage of the process. The proposed research in the EOI must be substantially the same as that in the full application.

Before you can apply for any HRC grant, you need to ensure that you have an up-to-date profile on HRC Gateway. We recommend checking your profile at least once a year to ensure it’s up to date.

Choosing the right application form

If you are applying in the General Project category, you need to use the 2027 Project Expression of Interest form below.

If you are applying in the Rangahau Hauora Māori Project category or the Pacific Health Project category, you need to use the application form specific to that category.

Important points to note

Guidance on HRC priorities and requirements, including what is out of scope for the 2027 Project Grants round, can be found in the 2027 Project Expression of Interest Application Guidelines below. Please carefully read the new guidelines before preparing your application.

Guidance on the Māori Health Advancement (MHA) assessment criterion and examples of how to incorporate this in your research can be found here: Māori Health Advancement.

Guidance on the Research Impact assessment criterion and feedback for applicants can be found here: Research impact assessment slideshow.

Got a question?

If you have read through the documents below and the 'How to apply for HRC funding' section under 'Helpful links' and still have a question about Project funding, please send an email to info@hrc.govt.nz and one of our team will be in touch. Alternatively, you can phone us on (09) 303 5200.

Documents

Guidelines

2027 Peer Review Manual
7 Jul, 2026 2:53pm - 809KB

2027 Project Expression of Interest Application Guidelines
7 Jul, 2026 2:55pm - 1.2MB

Forms

2027 Project Expression of Interest Application Form
7 Jul, 2026 2:55pm - 95KB