New Funding Opportunities
Student research grants
Funding available
The Rivers Group has three $1,000 grants available to student researchers working on issues related to Aotearoa’s rivers and catchments. This includes projects relating to flood risk management, Te Mana o te Wai, river geomorphology, water quality or water quantity. Funding will be provided to support costs related to research such as fieldwork or laboratory related costs, equipment or software. The fund is not intended to cover tuition.
Eligibility
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Applicants must be enrolled at a New Zealand university.
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Honours, Masters and PhD level projects are all eligible for funding.
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Applicants must be members of the NZ Rivers Group (student membership is free).
Application process
Applications require:
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A short application form.
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A note of support from an academic supervisor.
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An itemised budget for the proposed research.
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Applications close 31 July 2025
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Applications will be assessed on the strength of the proposed research and its alignment with the objectives of the Rivers Group. ​
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Co-funding for industry led research
Funding available
The Rivers Group has $15,000 co-funding available to support a scholarship for an industry-led masters research project on a river related topic. This includes research relating to flood risk management, Te Mana o te Wai, river geomorphology, water quality or water quantity. This funding represents 50% of the costs of providing a full scholarship for a one-year masters research project.
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We are looking for proposals from organisations who have a suitable project which would benefit from research and can provide the other 50% of funding for a scholarship.
What is required?
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An appropriate research idea: This could be anything river related.
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$15,000 co-funding toward the research scholarship. In return you will have a student full time for approximately one year to research the questions you have identified. This is a substantial amount of research, with expert supervision from university academic staff, which can help deliver knowledge of value to your organisation.
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Optionally you may also want to provide some co-supervision of the student project, or potentially host them in your organisation for part of their project – we would encourage both.
Next steps
Before 31 July 2025:
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Contact us with your idea for a research project (rivers.group@engineeringnz.org or any of the committee members).
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Identify potential academic supervisors and work with them to flesh out the project scope. If required, we can help identify an appropriate supervisor (you may already have a supervisor in mind – that’s fine).
The Rivers Group committee will then select a project to support based on the strength of the proposed project and its fit with the aims of the Rivers Group. Priority will be given to projects which provide knowledge with wide applicability to the industry as a whole. Local case-study type projects will be considered provided their findings can be generalised to other similar issues elsewhere.
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Once a project is selected for funding the Rivers Group will work with the organisation and university to set up the scholarship and identify a suitable student.
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We are in the process of updating the NZ Rivers Group website and the application form will be available on the website shortly – please email us at rivers.group@engineeringnz.org if you would like to receive the application form in the meantime.
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All questions and applications for funding can be sent to: rivers.group@engineeringnz.org
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