Our He Ara Whakahihiko – Hauora Fund provides funding for high-quality biomedical and clinical research that will contribute to improving Māori health outcomes, strengthen Māori health research capability, create clear pathways to impact, and deliver both health and economic outcomes. Funding is available to support up to four research grants each valued at $495,500 (excluding GST) for a term of 24 months.

Proposals should demonstrate alignment with the Fund’s objectives to produce timely, actionable evidence with clear pathways to clinical application, grow Māori health research capability and capacity and foster partnerships and collaborations between Māori-facing organisations, Māori health researchers and communities with industry and/or health providers.

Eligibility requirements

If you are the first named investigator (i.e. lead researcher) or the co-first named investigator on a grant 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 grant application per first named investigator/co-first named investigator.

Applications must be hosted and led by a Māori-facing organisation that is a legally established entity based in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The host organisation must have the internal capability to carry out science, innovation and technology.

All proposed research activities must be completed within a 24-month funding term and have a budget of $495,000 (excluding GST).

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

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

Guidance on what is in scope and out of scope for the 2026 He Ara Whakahihiko – Hauora Fund can be found in the 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’ve read through the documents below and under the ‘Helpful links’ section on the right and still have a question about our He Ara Whakahihiko – Hauora Grants, please send an email to info@hrc.govt.nz and one of our team will be in touch.

Documents

Guidelines

2026 He Ara Whakahihiko - Hauora Fund Application Guidelines
16 Dec, 2025 10:43am - 1.2MB

Forms

2026 He Ara Whakahihiko - Hauora Budget Form
16 Dec, 2025 10:44am - 46KB

2026 He Ara Whakahihiko - Hauora Grant Application Form
16 Dec, 2025 10:43am - 115KB