Capacity development
A key priority for the NZAGRC is to ensure there is appropriate pathway support throughout the agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation research system. We invest in people, resources and events that will help to extend, accelerate and future-proof our research efforts.
Student and postdoctoral support
Increasing the pool of researchers with skills in agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation is an important objective for the NZAGRC. To achieve this, we target funding— from within our core science programme funding, via dedicated programmes, and on a discretionary basis—to support high-quality students and early-career researchers.
That funding takes the form of:
- Short-term scholarships to promising undergraduate students with the aim of encouraging them to undertake postgraduate studies
- A new dedicated Early Career Researchers fund
- Māori-centred student support programmes
- Negotiated Masters and PhD projects coupled to our science projects
- Employment of high-quality postdoctoral fellows and early-career scientists on 2 to 3-year contracts within our science projects.
Since our inception in 2010, the NZAGRC has supported over 80 students and early-career scientists.
The NZAGRC continues to be a funder of PhD students in agricultural sciences related to nutrition, animal and plant performance and greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand. This funding is managed through the student ‘pipeline’ initiatives run by Massey, Lincoln and Waikato universities.
Funding for students within international research projects funded and managed via the NZAGRC in support of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases provide an international dimension to our capacity development efforts.
Sponsorships and donations
We provide discretionary financial support in the form of sponsorships and donations to a range of initiatives, events and individuals that meet our capacity development criteria. Some examples include:
- Funding the development and national rollout of a climate change resource kit for schools, facilitated by the House of Science.
- Supporting a wide range of relevant science conferences and meetings, and the attendance of such forums by individual scientists.
