'Blue skies' research gets $40m from science fund

Nearly $40 million has been allocated to science through the Marsden Fund, which is administered by national science academy the Royal Society.

The Government funds will go towards "blue skies" or "pure" research, which may not have an immediate commercial application, but is aimed at gains in scientific knowledge.

When the fund was effectively frozen in 1999 at about $22 million, then Marsden Fund chairwoman Diana Hill called for the Government to double the pool, which was turning away about 92 of every 100 applications for money.

The $39.4 million allocated yesterday included part of $38.1 million the Government budgeted for cutting-edge research in 2005-2006, funded on the basis of excellence.

"The diversity of ideas submitted to the fund is astounding," new chairman of the Marsden Fund Council, Garth Carnaby, said.

Projects which received funding included research into an important molecule in cancer prevention, an investigation into the health and wealth of migrants, modelling of how spiders see their prey, monitoring of the predicted Mt Ruapehu lahar, and a mathematical approach to understanding a common breathing disorder.

Dr Carnaby said applications to the fund were still very competitive: of the 897 preliminary proposals, 206 were asked to submit a full proposal, of which 79 were funded. Recipients included 25 early-career researchers exploring innovative ideas.

- NZPA