Judith Collins is facing fresh criticism over how her office directed changes to the prestigious Marsden Fund in her former role as Science, Innovation and Technology Minister. Photo / Alex Burton
Judith Collins is facing fresh criticism over how her office directed changes to the prestigious Marsden Fund in her former role as Science, Innovation and Technology Minister. Photo / Alex Burton
In December, the Government announced an effective end to Marsden Fund grants for humanities and social sciences, along with a requirement that 50% of grants show an economic benefit to the country.
A trail of emails and briefings released under the Official Information Act shows how the changes were made - and how officials were chasing answers from the minister’s office up to the eve of the announcement.
The Government says the changes reflect a shift to ‘core’ research that will benefit the economy, while the Green Party has accused it having a ‘total disregard and disrespect for science’.
Those changes, made public on December 4, effectively end long-standing grants for humanities andsocial sciences research under the $77 million Marsden Fund.
Then Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins also announced that 50% of Marsden grants would need to demonstrate an economic benefit to the country, despite the fund’s 30-year record of supporting fundamental “blue skies” research.
“The focus of the fund will shift to core science ... real impact on our economy will come from areas such as physics, chemistry, maths, engineering and biomedical sciences,” she said at the time.
The move was met with outrage and surprise among many in the academic community: the president of the fund’s administrator, Royal Society Te Apārangi, told members they came “as a huge shock to us all”.
Now, a trail of documents released under the Official Information Act, shows how tweaks to the fund’s terms of reference were gradually added over the last half of 2024 – and how officials were anxiously chasing answers from Collins’ office up to the eve of the announcement.
On June 17, an MBIE briefing to Collins recommended she reappoint the convenors of the Marsden Fund Council’s three panels, including social sciences and humanities.
A month later, another MBIE briefing indicated Collins wished to make changes to the 2025 round, with a recommendation that the fund’s terms be updated to provide “greater alignment” in terms of socioeconomic benefits of research.
By September, discussions had advanced much further.
A briefing proposed the 50% requirement, along with cutting a statement in the terms of reference that effectively separated Marsden-funded research from government socioeconomic priorities.
In October, officials asked for sign-off on changes that locked in the new 50% requirement, while removing a focus on “cultural benefit”.
The same month, an MBIE policy adviser wrote to Collins’ office seeking the new terms, pointing out that the Marsden Fund Council needed it to inform their new investment plan.
Royal Society Te Apārangi president Distinguished Professor Dame Jane Harding told members that the changes to the Marsden Fund, announced in December, had come “as a huge shock to us all”.
“We’d really appreciate anything you can do to help get this process moving as quickly as possible,” they wrote.
Later in November, further moves were made to axe the social sciences and humanities panels, with tracked changes in the revised terms deleting the word “social” among the fund’s stated impacts.
By early December, the council was still waiting to hear the nature of the changes, having been already forced to delay opening the fund’s new round.
An MBIE official wrote to one of Collin’s staffers urging that the council’s chairwoman Professor Gill Dobbie be alerted to the revised terms before any press release was sent out.
The OIA documents showed another MBIE staffer reached out to Collins’ office days before the announcement, advising that research offices around the country closed “very soon”, and that the fund typically closed for applications around the third week of February.
“This leaves very little time for the sector to develop their proposals,” the MBIE official said, adding there was also a risk the Royal Society wouldn’t be able to deliver its virtual roadshows in time for the fund opening.
They asked for some “holding comms” to be published on the society’s website, confirming that a new investment plan and updated terms of reference were soon to be published.
Collins eventually signed off on the final revisions and agreed to a draft letter being sent to the council on December 2.
In a media release sent out two days later, she justified the shift away from social sciences and humanities by arguing “real impact” on the economy would come from areas like physics, chemistry, maths, engineering and biomedical sciences.
But some leading figures in the research sector were appalled: MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology’s Professor Nicola Gaston was left “horrified” and “absolutely disgusted” at the move.
Back behind the scenes, a Collins staffer sent out talking points in an email to the Prime Minister’s Office soon after the announcement, saying “we are already hearing a bit of noise” from the research sector.
They added “we are very comfortable with the focus to align spending with Government priorities”.
It remains unclear from the documents whether the idea to cut the social sciences and humanities panels was Collins’ alone.
The Herald asked Collins’ office whether it had been solely her directive – and whether more opportunity could have been given to consult on the changes.
A spokesperson directed the Herald to media responses sent to RNZ at the time of the announcement, in which Collins said she made the decision to update the terms.
“Consultation with the sector is not a requirement on these documents, nor would it be usual process to consult with the sector.”
She also told RNZ the Marsden Fund would continue its main purpose of supporting blue-skies research.
“The direction in the investment plan is clear to fund blue-skies research that will have the potential to benefit the economy, health or environment.”
In that letter, Harding explained the importance of social sciences and humanities research and urged that the Government continue to support it. No response has yet been received.
The New Zealand Association of Scientists was meanwhile scathing of the way the process was managed.
New Zealand Association of Scientists co-president Professor Troy Baisden.
“What I see in that OIA trail is simply that the minister was asleep at the wheel running the process, and her office was running the process in an extraordinarily non-engaged way,” co-president Professor Troy Baisden said.
“It’s essentially like, she was driving the car that represents our research, science, innovation and technology system, and just simply crashed it and destroyed a really important support for a large chunk of it.”
The Green Party’s science spokesman Scott Willis said: “All of this outlines this Government’s total disregard and disrespect for science that challenges their approach to some of our most pressing issues.
“Social science research forms a critical part of the ongoing critique and improvement of our society.”
Collins’ successor in the ministerial portfolio Shane Reti said funding for the research would still be available from sources like the Tertiary Education Commission’s Performance-Based Research Fund, Centres of Research Excellence and course subsidies.
Asked for his personal stance on the fields, Reti said: “I see their importance when I speak with universities, and we talk about how we lift university rankings, and a number of them say, well, our ranking position is supported by the social sciences and humanities contributions. So yes, I do see them as important.”
Jamie Morton is a specialist in science and environmental reporting. He joined the Herald in 2011 and writes about everything from conservation and climate change to natural hazards and new technology.
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