Not the UK’s Royal Society. This guide is about Royal Society Te Apārangi, New Zealand’s national academy of science and the humanities. It is a completely separate organisation from the United Kingdom’s Royal Society (founded 1660, based in London), which runs its own, unrelated grants and fellowships programme — see CASRAI’s Royal Society Research Grants and Fellowships guide for that UK body specifically. If you arrived here looking for the UK organisation, that is the page you want; the two share a name by historical coincidence (New Zealand’s Society was granted the “Royal” title by the British Crown in 1933, decades after the UK Society was founded) but have no administrative relationship to one another today.
For programme-specific detail on Royal Society Te Apārangi’s two best-known contestable research schemes, see CASRAI’s dedicated guides to the Marsden Fund and the Rutherford Discovery Fellowship (now discontinued and replaced — see that guide for what took its place). This page instead covers the organisation itself: what it is, its role in New Zealand’s research system, and its full portfolio of funds, fellowships, and awards.
What Royal Society Te Apārangi is
Royal Society Te Apārangi traces its origins to 1867, when it was established by Act of Parliament as the New Zealand Institute, an apex body bringing together regional scientific and philosophical societies around the country. It was renamed the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1933, which remains its legal name today, and in 2007 was gifted the Māori name Te Apārangi (broadly, “group of experts”) by Māori elders, since when it has been formally known as Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi, or Royal Society Te Apārangi for short. A 2012 update to its governing legislation (the Royal Society of New Zealand Act) broadened its statutory remit beyond the sciences to explicitly include the humanities, social sciences, and technology — a scope reflected throughout its current funding and honours programmes.
It operates as a not-for-profit, member-based organisation rather than a government department, but it is closely tied to the New Zealand government’s research funding system: much of the money it distributes through contestable funds and fellowships is provided by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) for the Society to administer on the Crown’s behalf, rather than raised independently. Election as a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi (FRSNZ) is a separate, honorific form of recognition for research and scholarly achievement, distinct from any of the funding programmes below.
Its role in New Zealand’s research ecosystem
For research administrators working with New Zealand-based researchers or institutions, Royal Society Te Apārangi typically shows up in one of three functions:
- Fund and fellowship administration. It runs the application, peer-review, and (for most schemes) funding-decision processes for a wide range of MBIE-funded and Society-funded research grants, career fellowships, scholarships, and travel awards — the portfolio covered in full below.
- Honours and recognition. It elects Fellows (FRSNZ) and awards a set of named medals and prizes for research and scholarly achievement across the sciences and humanities, separate from its funding role.
- Science advice and expert input. It convenes expert panels and provides independent scientific and scholarly advice to government and the public on matters of national interest, in the tradition of a national academy.
This combination — funder, honours body, and independent advisory academy in one organisation — is broadly comparable to national academies elsewhere (the US National Academies, the UK’s Royal Society, Germany’s Leopoldina), though the specific mix of funding responsibility Royal Society Te Apārangi carries is unusually large for a body of this kind, which is precisely why the changes described below matter to research administrators.
A major structural change is underway (2026)
In mid-2026 the New Zealand government announced it will establish a new Crown entity, Research Funding New Zealand, to take over most research-funding decisions currently made by Royal Society Te Apārangi — including decisions currently made for the Health Research Council — with the transition phased over roughly four years. Under the announced approach, MBIE is expected to take on administration of some funding rounds, funding-recommendation decisions increasingly shift from the Society’s own Council to the new Research Funding New Zealand board, and the Society is expected to retain responsibility for administering contracts already awarded under its name. The practical effect for administrators: treat “administered by Royal Society Te Apārangi” as accurate for the current and near-term rounds of most schemes below, but confirm on royalsociety.org.nz which body is making the actual funding decision for any round more than a year or two out, since that is exactly what is changing. CASRAI’s Marsden Fund guide covers this transition in more detail as it affects that specific fund.
The full funding, fellowship, and award portfolio
Royal Society Te Apārangi’s funds-and-opportunities listing (royalsociety.org.nz) is considerably broader than the two schemes most often searched for individually. Grouped by purpose, and current as verified directly against the Society’s own site:
Major contestable research funding
- Marsden Fund — New Zealand’s flagship investigator-led, “blue-skies” research fund, open to all disciplines including the humanities and social sciences, assessed on scientific/scholarly merit without a policy-relevance requirement. See CASRAI’s full Marsden Fund guide for grant categories, panels, and the 2026 restructuring detail.
- Catalyst Fund — supports international science partnerships and collaborative research linking New Zealand researchers with counterparts overseas.
Career-development research fellowships
- Aotearoa New Zealand Tāwhia te Mana Research Fellowships — the current MBIE-funded fellowship suite, administered by the Society, supporting researchers at different career stages to build independent research programmes and leadership capability. It has two components most relevant to career-stage planning: the Mana Tūāpapa Future Leader Fellowship for earlier-career researchers, and the Mana Tūānuku Research Leader Fellowship, a four-year award for researchers roughly six to twelve years into their career.
- Rutherford Discovery Fellowship (discontinued) — the Society’s earlier flagship early- to mid-career fellowship, discontinued from 2024 and consolidated, along with the separate Rutherford Foundation and James Cook Research Fellowship schemes, into the Tāwhia te Mana suite above. See CASRAI’s Rutherford Discovery Fellowship guide for what the scheme offered and exactly what replaced it — useful for administrators who still encounter the name in CVs, funding histories, or tenure files.
A note on the Society’s own listing page: royalsociety.org.nz’s funds-and-opportunities directory still lists some of these legacy scheme names (Rutherford Discovery Fellowship, Rutherford Foundation, James Cook Research Fellowship) alongside the current Tāwhia te Mana pages, which can read as though all are simultaneously open. For a scheme that materially affects a decision, always confirm accepting-applications status on that specific scheme’s own page rather than the directory listing alone.
International science partnerships and representation
- Human Frontier Science Program — Royal Society Te Apārangi supports New Zealand’s participation in this international programme funding novel, interdisciplinary basic research into the mechanisms of living organisms.
- NZUK Link Foundation Fellowships — supports Māori health researchers undertaking placements at UK universities.
- Frontiers Planet Prize — the Society acts as New Zealand’s National Representative Body for this international sustainability-science prize.
- Falling Walls Lab — the Society runs New Zealand’s heat of this international pitch competition for early-career researchers and students presenting breakthrough research ideas.
Discipline-specific and honorific research awards
Beyond its large contestable funds, the Society administers a long-standing set of smaller, often endowment-funded awards, scholarships, and travel grants for specific disciplines or purposes, including: the Charles Fleming Fund (senior-scientist, publishing, and environmental-recognition awards); the Hutton Fund (small research grants in New Zealand zoology, botany, and geology); the Skinner Fund (research into Māori and Polynesian history, art, and anthropology); the RHT Bates Postgraduate Scholarship (PhD study in physical sciences and engineering); the Sir Hugh Kawharu Masters Scholarship (Māori master’s-level study in the sciences); the James G. Hay Travel Award and New Zealand Ecohydraulics Trust Travel Award (conference travel in biomechanics and ecohydraulics respectively); and the World Data System Data Stewardship Award (recognising individuals who improve research data quality and accessibility). Two further MBIE-linked schemes, Ngā Puanga Pūtaiao Fellowships and the MBIE Science Whitinga Fellowships, also sit within the Society’s administered portfolio; confirm current scope and eligibility directly on royalsociety.org.nz, as the Society’s site provides only limited public detail on these two at present.
Public engagement and outreach
- Powering Potential — a programme supporting secondary-school students’ engagement with science and research.
For a research administrator, the practical takeaway is that Royal Society Te Apārangi is not a single-scheme funder to check once: it is a portfolio body spanning a flagship national research fund, a career-fellowship suite, international-partnership funding, honorific medals and prizes, and a long tail of smaller discipline-specific awards — all potentially relevant to a New Zealand-affiliated researcher’s funding history or forward pipeline, and all currently in some stage of the multi-year shift toward Research Funding New Zealand described above.
Frequently asked questions
Is Royal Society Te Apārangi the same organisation as the UK’s Royal Society?
No. They are entirely separate organisations that happen to share part of a name. Royal Society Te Apārangi is New Zealand’s national academy of science and the humanities, tracing to an 1867 Act of the New Zealand Parliament. The UK’s Royal Society was founded in London in 1660 and operates its own, unrelated grants and fellowships programme — see CASRAI’s separate Royal Society Research Grants and Fellowships guide if that UK body is what you are looking for.
Does Royal Society Te Apārangi fund research directly out of its own money?
Mostly no. For its largest programmes — the Marsden Fund and the Tāwhia te Mana Research Fellowships among them — the Society administers funding that is provided by the New Zealand government through MBIE, rather than distributing its own independent endowment. Some smaller, longer-standing awards (such as the Hutton Fund and Skinner Fund) are funded from the Society’s own endowments and bequests.
What is the difference between the Marsden Fund and the Tāwhia te Mana Research Fellowships?
The Marsden Fund funds a specific investigator-led research project, open to researchers at any career stage, assessed purely on scientific/scholarly merit. The Tāwhia te Mana Research Fellowships instead fund a researcher’s salary and programme of work over several years, specifically to build a researcher’s capacity and track record as a research leader, and are targeted by career stage (early-career through Mana Tūāpapa, or six-to-twelve years’ experience through Mana Tūānuku).
Why is Royal Society Te Apārangi’s role changing?
The New Zealand government announced in mid-2026 that it will establish a new Crown entity, Research Funding New Zealand, to take over most research-funding decisions currently made by the Society (and, separately, by the Health Research Council), with the change phased in over roughly four years. The Society is expected to continue administering already-awarded contracts, but funding-recommendation authority for future rounds is shifting toward the new board and MBIE. See the Marsden Fund guide linked above for the detail most relevant to that specific fund.
Where can I find current eligibility and deadline information for a specific Royal Society Te Apārangi scheme?
Always confirm directly on royalsociety.org.nz’s funds-and-opportunities pages for the specific scheme. This guide is an organisational overview and portfolio map, not a substitute for a scheme’s own current terms, which are reviewed and can change annually — and are, for several schemes, actively affected by the Research Funding New Zealand transition described above.
Related CASRAI pages
For programme-specific detail, see the Marsden Fund guide and the Rutherford Discovery Fellowship guide. For the unrelated UK organisation of a similar name, see Royal Society Research Grants and Fellowships (UK). For New Zealand’s dedicated health-research funder, see Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC): Funding Overview. For the broader landscape of national and multinational research funding bodies, see the Grants Management hub.
