Centres of Research Excellence questions and answers

What are CoREs?

The Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs) are inter-institutional research networks where researchers work together on a commonly agreed work programme.
The CoRE Fund was set up in 2001 to encourage development of excellent and strategically focused research. It encourages the tertiary education sector to develop and strengthen research with other research organisations, enterprises and the communities that they serve.

How are CoREs contributing to economic transformation?

The strategic focus of the research that takes place in CoREs provides New Zealand with an opportunity to become an innovation-led country.
CoREs bring together some of the best scientific minds in New Zealand from across the research sector. They develop and share their findings with other researchers, firms and industries so that all New Zealanders can benefit from them.
The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, and the National Research Centre for Growth and Development are particularly good examples of the contribution CoREs can make.  For example, the Centre for Growth and Development's research has huge potential for our understanding of public health problems like diabetes and obesity. The MacDiarmid Institute provides an outstanding environment for researcher training so that the physical scientist of the future will have excellent research, entrepreneurial and communications skills.

How many CoREs are there?

In the current (third) selection round six of the existing CoREs have been awarded further funding (two of them under certain conditions), and funding for a new CoRE has also been approved.
One existing CoRE, The New Zealand Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (NZIMA), has not been selected for future CoRE funding. However, its current CoREs contract and funding will continue until that contract expires next year. It will then receive three-year phase out funding.

Who made the CoRE funding decisions?

The decisions on CoREs operating funding were made by the TEC Board of Commissioners on the recommendations by the CoRE Fund Committee, chaired by Sir Paul Reeves.
Members of the committee are people of standing and respect in the New Zealand community and many of them are experienced and recognised researchers. 
Decisions on capital funding will be made by the Minister for Tertiary Education and the Associate Minister of Finance following recommendations from the TEC.

What criteria were used when selecting CoREs?

All applications were assessed against the degree to which they met government objectives for CoREs, which are excellence, relevance, human capital development, and the strength of their proposed governance and management structure.  Assessment of the relevance criterion took into account the relevance of the research to New Zealand’s future development.

How much money will the selected CoREs get?

The selected CoREs will together receive about $31.4 million of operating funds a year for six years. This is on top of one-off funding of $20m for strategic capital purchases.
While decisions have already been made on the amount of operational funding (PDF, 43Kb) the selected CoREs will receive, the TEC will have further discussions with CoREs on the capital funding and it will then make capital funding recommendations to the Minister for Tertiary Education and the Associate Minister of Finance.