TE PUIAKI PŪTAIAO MATUA A TE PIRIMIA THE SCIENCE PRIZE

Key Dates:

20 May 2025  Applications open

19 August 2025  Applications close

 

Once the applicant has read the following information they can apply to the portal.

 

Forms

2025 Science Prize Application Form 

2025 Science Prize Referee Form

2025 Science Prize Budget Form

 

About this Prize

This Prize is for an individual or team.

This Prize is for a transformative scientific1 advance, which has had a significant economic, health, social, political, cultural and/or environmental impact on New Zealand, or internationally. It will be awarded to a team or an individual instrumental in creating the impact. The transformative scientific1 advance may have occurred over any time-period and there must be a clear indication that the impact on New Zealand or internationally has taken place.

1 Scientific should be interpreted broadly to include natural, physical, mathematical and information sciences, applied science, technology, engineering, social science and multi-disciplinary science

 

Eligibility

  • Individuals or teams are invited to enter. If it is a team entry, one person must be designated as the ‘Team Representative’. This representative will need to be prepared to be the public face of the scientific advance. This will include receiving the Prize on behalf of the team, speaking with the media, and carrying out tasks appropriate for a recipient of the Prime Minister’s Science Prize.
  • The individual or team representative must be a New Zealand citizen or a New Zealand permanent resident, currently domiciled in New Zealand, and be active in their field of science.
  • The research behind the discovery or achievement must have met current standards of ethical practice and have been carried out largely in New Zealand. The applicant will be prompted to answer if the research has met ethical practice in the portal.
  • Re-application by individuals or teams from previous years is encouraged as long as the eligibility criteria continue to be met. However, past winners of the Prize will not be eligible to enter a second time.

   Value

  • The total value of the Prize is $500,000.
  • $100,000 of this will go directly to the team or individual and can be used at their discretion.
  • $400,000 will be used to support the ongoing research.

Criteria

Judging of the Prize will be based on the extent to which a transformative scientifc1 advance has led to significant economic, health, social, political, cultural and/or environmental impact on or for New Zealand, or internationally. The transformative scientific1 advance may have occurred over any time-period and there must be a clear indication that the impact on New Zealand or internationally has taken place.

This can be evidenced in a variety of ways:

  • Successful development and deployment of new or improved products, processes, or services (including public services) based on the research.
  • Advancement of Mātauranga Māori.
  • Major changes to practice in an important professional community or an industrial, business, infrastructural or service sector, at least at a national level.
  • Major changes in relevant public policy and/or government investment or operational strategy, for example in health, social policy, environmental protection, conservation, education, justice or emergency management.
  • Significantly increased investment in the research programme over an extended period of time by potential or actual technology transfer partners or end users.
  • Significant changes in the way a body of knowledge is organised and used (as a result of challenging previous conventional wisdom).
  • Development of new methods that have advanced research practice in the relevant discipline.
  • A high level of recognition through peer review processes, for example through publication in leading journals and the award or prizes.

 

This list of examples is non-exclusive, and not all evidence forms will be appropriate for any particular application. Each applicant should set out in the application a statement of the nature of the transformative scientifc1 advance, and of the impact. The statement should cross-reference with an Evidence Portfolio (maximum 10 pages).

  • Information must include qualitative and quantitative evidence explaining how the research meets the selection criteria.
  • Evidence might include, for example, patents (pending or granted) and/or seminal papers published (including impact factor and citations)  and/or clinical trials (and what stage they are at) and/or outcomes from the industry or sector the entry is working in.

 Referees

  • The entry must be endorsed by two international referees and one New Zealand referee who will give their expert opinion about the impact of the scientific1 advance. This may be evidenced in a variety of ways (see selection criteria).
  • Please note that comments from referees must be evidence based.

Conflicts of Interest – Referees

  • Referees must not be collaborators. i.e.
    • “A referee cannot have worked in the team, department, or small company in the last five years as the applicant/team applying for this Prize”.
    • “A referee cannot be a Panellist who serves on this particular Prize panel”.
    • “A referee cannot be a family member”.
    • “A referee cannot have co-authored an academic paper, with less than 15 authors, in the last five years with either the Principal Investigator, or any team member of the application, if either the referee, the Principal Investigator, or any team member of the application is lead, corresponding, or last author on the academic paper”.
    • “A referee cannot have co-authored three or more academic papers, with less than 15 authors, in the last five years with either the Principal Investigator, or any team member of the application.”
    • Working in the same faculty or a larger organisation is treated on a case by case basis by the selection panel.

If you are unsure then please make contact with the Prime Minister’s Science Prizes Secretariat.

  • The Selection Panel at its sole discretion, may request further referees or make contact with outside parties.  The panel also reserves the right to hold interviews to help inform their decision.
  • Assessment may include, at the judges’ discretion, consideration of referees’ statements.

Navigating the portal

  • Everyone must register in the portal (this includes applicants, team members, referees, mentors etc). The only exception is if they  have registered in the portal previously and therefore they will just need to log in.
  • The application and referee forms can only be downloaded from the portal also.
  • Everyone must first set up a profile where some compulsory questions need to be answered but other questions are optional. Again if this has previously been completed in previous years then it will not be required to this but the applicant can update the information.
  • The applicant will be prompted by the portal to name their referees and their email addresses. NB The referees will receive an email which has a unique link to the portal that they click on to give them access to the portal and download the referee form.  Please note that they will not receive the verification email until the application has been uploaded (this can remain in ‘draft form’ and edited at any time)
  • An application cannot be submitted until referees have submitted their referee reports.

Confidentiality

The secretariat gives no undertaking to keep confidential any information provided in the on-line entry form unless this is identified as information that should be treated as such. Information may, for example, be used to prepare promotional material for the Prize in future years.

Please note that information submitted on the entry form may be subject to the Official Information Act.

Selection Panel Members 2025

Panel Members for 2025 are:

Dr John Roche, Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor (Chair)

Dr Beth Fulton, CSIRO, Australia

Dr Willy-John Martin, MBIE

Professor Tim Naish, Antarctic Research Centre, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington

Professor Richard Newcomb, Plant & Food Research

Professor Julian Paton, Pūtahi Manawa Centre for Heart Research,  University of Auckland

Dame Anne Salmond, University of Auckland

Dr Janet Wilmshurst, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research

 

Expert Panel members are appointed by the Pou Whakahaere Chief Executive of Royal Society Te Apārangi based on the recommendation of the panel Chairs and secretariat. Appointments are made on a year-by-year basis for each calendar year. Panellists can be appointed for more than one year.  Panellists must be experienced in an appropriate field or community and may be drawn from outside New Zealand if necessary.

Panels will consist of established leaders and researchers in their field, their research and in their communities.  We will also aim to bring emerging people to panels to ensure diverse views and allow for the development of people and new talent.

In considering the suitability of potential panellists, the following requirements for panel composition is considered as appropriate:

  • Mix of discipline/expertise
  • Sector and institutional balance
  • Geographic representation
  • Ethnicity
  • Gender balance.

Royal Society Te Apārangi is committed to following best practice in being inclusive of diversity within our activities.

Conflicts of Interest – Panel Members

It is recognised that occasionally members of the selection panel will know applicants or have other conflicts of interest. They will be expected to declare all such knowledge and conflicts of interest. In cases where an applicant is the colleague of a panelist, the Chair of the selection panel will rule if this conflict is significant enough for the panelist to be stood down from the panel for that entry. (In the case of the Chair having a conflict of interest the decision will be made by another member of the panel who has been identified in this role at the beginning of the process).

The selection panel will not enter into any correspondence concerning its deliberations. All inquiries should be directed to the Secretariat. Note that information on matters such as ranking, or names of unsuccessful entrants, will not be disclosed.

 

Contents of Application

  • Completed application form and evidence portfolio.
  • Applicant’s CV.
  • Three referee reports. Two must be international and one from within New Zealand.

 

 Expectations

  • $400,000 of the Prize is to be used to support the on-going work of the individual or team. A plan for the use of this funding must be included (though this is not judged).
  • The Individual or Team Representative receiving the Prize may be expected to be involved in promotional opportunities appropriate for a recipient and this may involve providing public talks in various destinations in New Zealand.

 Announcement

  • The winner or team is expected to make themselves available for half a day in February 2026 to meet with the Prime Minister’s Science Prize media liaison personnel in preparation of media material and photos.
  • The winner will be announced in March/April 2026  (date to be confirmed)
  • The winner or team will be expected to make themselves available for that announcement in Wellington.

Timeline

20 May 2025  –  Applications open

19 August 2025  –  Applications close

August/Sept  –   Online judging

October/November  –  Selection panel meetings take place

January 2026  – All applicants notified

CLOSING

Applications close at midday 19 August 2025.  Late applications will not be eligible..

 

NEED HELP?  HAVE OTHER PĀTAI QUESTIONS?

Ko te Kaiwhakahaere the Secretariat for The Prime Minister’s Science Prizes is Royal Society Te Apārangi.  Contact details are:

Te Kaiwhakahaere the Secretariat
The Prime Minister’s Science Prizes
Royal Society Te Apārangi
PO Box 598
Wellington

Waea telephone: (04) 470 5762

Īmēra email:  pmscienceprizes@royalsociety.org.nz.

 

 

Supported by the New Zealand Government with funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.  Nā Te Hīkina Whakatutuki te mana hāpai.