The Trust Board met on the 15th November to consider and approve project, equipment, travel, and conference support grants. Grants-in-aid totalling $302,220 were approved, a small increase compared to the same funding round of a year ago. The percentage of approved to requested funds, however, was significantly lower at 21% compared to 24% in November 2017, reflecting increases in both the number of applicants and funds requested.

The Trust Board also considered applicants for the Maurice Paykel Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Trust’s most prestigious award. The Trust is pleased to announce that the two year Fellowship was awarded to Dr Kathryn Burns in the Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology at the University of Auckland.

Applicants are reminded that there is now a one year stand-down period for projects and travel. A further change introduced by the Trust Board a year ago is that applications for travel to conferences will only be considered for approval if the date of travel occurs after the relevant Board meeting. This means that there will be no retrospective funding for travel. In practice this will not affect the majority of applicants as there are three travel rounds each year (with closing dates of 1st March, 1st June and 1st October and with associated Board meetings in mid to late April, July and November). In some instances applicants may need to apply slightly earlier than previously. These changes, and other changes on eligibility, are covered under the grant categories.

Scholarships and Fellowships funded by the Trust can be found under the Scholarships and Fellowships page. Further information, including stipends payable, is available from the institutional graduate student offices that administer the Trust’s programmes.

The office of the Trust is at 89 Grafton Rd, the phone number is 09 379 5316, the postal address is PO Box 110008 Auckland Hospital 1148, and the email address for all Trust correspondence is zn.tppm@tppm.