General

The University of Auckland aims to be recognised internationally as a high quality research-led university, making a significant contribution to generating new knowledge that will benefit both New Zealand and the international community.

As with any large international university, research is a fundamental part of academic life at The University of Auckland. Research informs and enriches our teaching, and - much more than that - our research results make a large and fundamentally important contribution to the cultural, social, and economic development of New Zealand and the world.

The University receives about $70M per annum from the Performance Based Research Fund (2006 Quality Evaluation). Roughly $49M of this sum was extracted from the teaching funding provided by government for the University when the so-called ‘research top-ups’ were phased out with the introduction of the PBRF. The net amount available from the PBRF to support research in the institution is therefore around $21M per annum. Of this, roughly $14M is used to support research via the Faculty Research Development Funds, PReSS postgraduate student accounts, Research Committee initiatives, and Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Development Fund with the rest going towards infrastructural support.

However, it costs far more to undertake research at the scale necessary to become an internationally recognised University. The $21M per annum net revenue gain from the PBRF corresponds to about $11,000 per annum for each PBRF eligible staff member. By way of comparison, the research funding available in a selection of institutions overseas - calculated on the basis of purchasing power parity - is shown below:

(Figures are annual funding available per research active FTE from all sources, calculated in equivalent NZ$ on a purchasing-power-parity basis. They include revenues from externally funded research contracts.)

It is clear that the monies available internally to sponsor research at The University of Auckland are entirely insufficient to fund the research effort required of the institution, and that funding from external sources (research contracts, endowments, donations etc) is necessary to provide for the majority of our research effort.