July 20, 2021
PBRF funding needed to boost Maori research roll


A director of Māori research centre Ngā Pae o Te Māramatanga says changes to the funding of university research are long overdue.
The Performance Based Research Fund has been rejigged to give Māori and Pacific research a higher weighting in for what each university gets from the fund, which is resigned to encourage quality research.
Demographer Tahu Kukutai says it’s a way to recognise the unique contribution of Māori and Pacific researchers to the New Zealand system and it sends a clear signal to the sector.
"You really need to get your whare in order and use this funding to increase the shockingly low numbers of Māori and Pacific researchers and professors in tertiary institutions. It is a very clear signal to institutions and what we are saying at Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, which is Aotearoa's only Māori centre of research excellence, want to see evidence increased funding will change the status quo, because it needs to change," she says.
Professor Kukutai says the pūtea goes to universities’ baseline funding rather than to individual researchers or departments.
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