Are the words we frequently use stored in our memory ready to use or do we assemble them on the fly?
This is just one of the research questions that make up the 13 Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha University of Canterbury researcher-led 2022 Marsden-funded projects.
Associate Professor Wolfgang Rack has been awarded $929,000 in Marsden funding for his research on Antarctic predictions of sea ice trends and what it means to a warming climate.
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 – Quality Education
A total of $8.652 million in funding was awarded to UC researchers for projects as diverse and important as Dr Pascale Hatcher’s research understanding the local and international impacts of deep-sea mining on the Pacific, to Associate Professor Matthew Stott‘s research into why a hot spring microorganism is found only in Aotearoa New Zealand and how working with mana whenua Ngāti Tahu – Ngāti Whaoa can help conservation efforts.
Eight ‘standard’ Te Pūtea Rangahau a Marsden grants worth $6.852 million were awarded to leading and emerging researchers to develop ‘blue-sky thinking’- innovative research that can address major societal challenges, and Marsden Fast-Start grants worth $1.8 million were awarded to help emerging researchers build on their research and connect internationally.
Professor Ian Wright Tumu Tuarua Rangahau | Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation is excited about the research that is being supported in a highly competitive process through the awarding of these Marsden grants.
“UC’s ambition is to develop and support innovative and emerging research to address local and global challenges, and the list of funded projects and the diversity of research exemplifies this. Marsden funding is critical to developing new fields of research at the international forefront of science, and these projects will deliver exciting outcomes that are topical and address key problems now.” Professor Wright says.
Associate Professor Wolfgang Rack was awarded $929,000 for research into the predictions of sea ice trends and what it means to rising sea levels and a warming climate.
Professor Renwick Dobson’s ‘TRAPed in an elevator’ project, awarded $937,000, will study membrane transport proteins used by pathogenic bacteria during infection as potential targets for new, much needed antimicrobial drugs.
Dr Dineke Schokkin’s Fast-Start grant will help fund her exploration into how words are stored in our memory and constructed for use. Dr Schokkin will explore a Papuan language in her research, in which most words are made up of many different parts in very complex ways.
While Dr Kirsty Dunn was awarded $360,000 for her research celebrating Māori knowledges, experiences and perspectives through the taniwha, using the narratives of the taniwha to explain complexities and challenges both here in Aotearoa New Zealand and globally.
Marsden grants are awarded to support excellent research in the humanities, science, social sciences, mātauranga, mathematics, and engineering – with a focus on helping us to better understand who we are and discover solutions to society’s most pressing challenges.
Te Pūtea Rangahau a Marsden is managed by Royal Society Te Apārangi on behalf of the New Zealand Government with funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
Marsden funded University of Canterbury researcher-led projects
Marsden Fast-Start grants
Dr Joe Chen – Deciphering molecular structures using diffuse X-ray scattering from disordered crystals ($360,000)
Dr Dineke Schokkin – Can word duration in a morphologically complex language tell us if words are stored whole or constructed from parts? ($360,000)
Dr Ryan Ridden – What physics powers the fastest explosions in the Universe? ($360,000)
Dr Matthew Scobie – Indigenous Reconstruction: Rebuilding Indigenous economies from the ground up ($360,000)
Dr Kirsty Dunn – Taniwha: A Cultural History ($360,000)
Te Pūtea Rangahau a Marsden
Dr Pascale Hatcher – Into the Deep: Analysing the Actors and Controversies Driving the Adoption of the World’s First Deep Sea Mining Governance ($870,000)
Dr Brendon Creutz with Principal Investigator Professor Felipe Voloch – Rational Points and Anabelian Geometry ($713,000)
Professor Jennifer Hay – Te reo Māori vowel sequences within and across morpheme boundaries ($647,000)
Associate Professor Matthew Stott – Stuck at home: the puzzle of a locally-abundant, thermophilic bacterial genus that has not dispersed beyond Aotearoa-New Zealand ($958,000)
Associate Professor Wolfgang Rack – How is Antarctic sea ice defying the odds of climate change? ($929,000)
Professor Randolph Grace with Principal Investigator Emeritus Professor Simon Kemp – Is Algebraic Structure Inherent in Perception? ($870,000)
Associate Professor Laura Revell – The longevity of airborne microplastic-climate forcing from legacy plastic pollution ($928,000)
Professor Renwick Dobson – TRAPped in an elevator ($937,000)
