The Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) was recently advised that some of our funding is being repurposed to support the establishment of a new public research organisation, the New Zealand Institute for Advanced Technology.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has released a statement to media about this funding change, which is part of a wider reprioritisation of $150.4 million from within the Science, Innovation and Technology portfolio. A related briefing has been published on MBIE's website.
In summary, from July 2026 there will be a reduction of $590,000 (approximately 10 percent) in the HRC's annual operating budget, and from July 2028 there will be a reduction of $11,487,000 (approximately 10 percent) in our annual investment budget (i.e. the Health Research Fund). These changes are in addition to the reductions announced in Budget 2025.
While it is too early to provide information on how these funding reductions will impact our work, we have started to assess the implications and will provide an update to the health research sector in due course.
Please note that the 2026 Projects and Programme Grants funding round is going ahead as previously signalled, and we will be announcing an opening date for these grants shortly.