Our Pacific Health Projects support high-quality Pacific health research in priority areas that will contribute towards achieving better health outcomes for Pacific peoples, families, and communities. They also build the capability of early-to-mid career Pacific health researchers. Applications with a budget of between $400,000 and $1,200,000 are welcome, but a maximum of $400,000 per year applies.

Update - 3 March 2021: rebuttal due date

Despite the recent change to alert levels on Sunday 28 February, and subsequent lockdown restrictions, the due date for rebuttals will remain set at 12 March, 1pm.

Where the ability of an applicant(s) to complete their rebuttal has been significantly affected by COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, the HRC will consider providing a short extension to the rebuttal due date.

Extension requests should come from a Research Office (where possible) and be sent to mduncan@hrc.govt.nz by 8 March, 1pm. The extension request should be accompanied by a justification as to how the applicant(s) has been significantly impacted by the change to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and why an extension is required. The HRC will then consider each request on a case by case basis and communicate the extension outcome to the Research Office contact.

Eligibility criteria 

The first-named investigator (i.e. lead researcher) on a Pacific Health Project application must be of indigenous Pacific descent, as well as based in New Zealand and employed with a New Zealand host organisation. Collaborating researchers from outside New Zealand can, at the HRC’s discretion, be included as named investigators on a HRC Pacific Health Project. However, the HRC will not contribute to the overhead of the overseas investigator, and the total proportion of contract budget allocated to overseas investigators must not exceed 20 percent.

For more information about our contract requirements, please read the HRC rules document under 'Helpful links'. 

Application process 

Project funding has a two-stage application process. The first stage is registration, followed by the expression of interest (EOI) stage. Applicants submit an EOI which is then reviewed by an HRC assessing committee. 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. 

Please note the following main changes for the 2021 annual funding round application process: 

In the EOI application form, named investigators will need to indicate their FTE commitment by selecting one of three 'FTE bands': 3%-10% (low FTE); 11%-40% (medium FTE); or 41%-100% (high FTE). In the full application, a defined FTE value will need to be entered for each named investigator, and this value should fall within the band that was selected in the EOI application. 

The same proposal cannot be submitted to different HRC funds, e.g. HRC Project, Rangahau Hauroa Māori Project or Pacific Project, as this creates avoidable duplication of both application and assessment effort. 

In the full application, the milestones and objectives section is now included directly after the list of named investigators in the final PDF version.

Choosing a research investment stream

If you are applying for a Pacific Health Project, you'll need to specify which one of the following research investment streams your application applies to. We cannot advise you on which research investment stream to choose. We highly recommend that you review the HRC's research investment streams document under 'Helpful links' to guide your decision. 

The research investment streams for the Pacific Health Projects are: 

Health and Wellbeing in New Zealand - Keeping populations healthy and independent throughout life 

Improving Outcomes for Acute and Chronic Conditions in New Zealand - Improving outcomes for people with illness or injury

Please note: For the 2021 annual funding round, the New Zealand Health Delivery investment stream will be run out-of-cycle to the other investment streams.

Got a question? 

If you have a question about this funding, please email our Manager of Pacific Research Investment, Ms Tolotea Lanumata, or phone Tolotea on 09 303 5224.

Documents

Guidelines

2021 Pacific Health Project Full Application Guidelines
9 Oct, 2020 3:10pm - 505KB

Peer Review Manual
19 Aug, 2020 4:17pm - 1.3MB