New panel members for Marsden Fund Council

  • Wayne Mapp
Economic Development

Minister for Research, Science and Technology Wayne Mapp has appointed three new members to the Marsden Fund Council.

The new members’ role is to provide guidance on investments made by the fund in leading-edge research projects. The appointees will convene three panels on the Council. They are:

  •          Juliet Gerrard (Cellular, Molecular and Physiological Biology)
  •          Grant Scobie (Economics and Human and Behavioural Science)
  •          Rod Downey (Mathematical and Information Sciences).

“I am pleased to appoint these three leading researchers to the Marsden Fund Council. I have great confidence in their ability to help guide Marsden Fund investments,” Dr Mapp said.

The Marsden Fund Council comprises ten eminent researchers - a Chair and nine convenors. Each heads a panel in their academic field.  Panels work to assess applications for funding of research projects.

Research supported by the fund is investigator-initiated, and awarding of funds is based on the research merit of the proposal, the potential to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and the enhancement of research skills in New Zealand. The fund is administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand and funded through the Government’s Research, Science and Technology portfolio.  In 2008/09, the Council invested $54 million in research projects.

Juliet Gerrard is Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Canterbury.  She is a member of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST) Food Domain Review and Strategy Expert Panels.  She is a Principal Investigator for the MacDiarmid Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) and associate investigator on the Maurice Wilkins and Riddet CoREs.  She has undertaken CCMAU governance training.  She won a National Award for Sustained Excellence in Tertiary Education and has a PBRF "A" ranking.

Dr Grant Scobie has been a Principal Adviser in The Treasury since 1999.  He was International Director of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (1995-99) and Professor and Chair of the Economics Department at the University of Waikato (1990-95).  He is Chair of the Motu Economic and Public Policy Trust and has been a Board Member of Save the Children.  He has published in the areas of returns to investment of R&D, agricultural research in developing countries and science policy.

Rod Downey is Professor of Mathematics at Victoria University of Wellington.  He was awarded a James Cook Fellowship in 2008 and was the inaugural McLaurin Fellow at the NZ Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (NZIMA) CoRE.  He is a Fellow of the RSNZ.  He is the only NZ-based mathematician to give an invited lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians.