Researchers at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington have been awarded a total of $27.7 million in this year’s Endeavour Fund round.

Funding will support work on seven projects, including the “Antarctic sea-ice switch” programme that is investigating recent abrupt changes in the ice and what they may mean for the climate and sea-level rise.

The programme, which receives $13.6 m, aims to improve models used to forecast climate and sea-level changes.

“Since 2016, we’ve seen a sharp decline in Antarctic sea ice. This drop may be a critical signpost indicating that rapid change is now imminent,” says principal investigator Nancy Bertler, a professor of Earth Sciences at the University’s Antarctic Research Centre.

“In 2022, we saw a record-breaking reduction in sea ice. In 2023, the ice shrunk again—down a staggering 10 percent year-on-year. While 2024 looks like it will be slightly less extreme, we still see an extraordinary reduction in the extent of winter sea ice.

"The formation of sea ice is a critical engine that drives global ocean circulation, which in turn determines where heat is transported to, where we see floods, droughts, and heatwaves. It also influences how much carbon dioxide the oceans absorb from the atmosphere and contributes to the stability of ice shelves and hence influences sea-level changes.

“We need to understand what the abrupt drop in sea ice may mean for the climate, and for how and where we live. Crucially, we need to identify changes that will be unavoidable if we don’t curb carbon emissions. The sea-ice switch programme will help ensure we have the best scientific knowledge to do this,” Professor Bertler says.

The programme brings together researchers from several universities and other organisations both in Aotearoa New Zealand and overseas. Work will begin in October 2024 and run for five years.

Other research funded this year includes a $9 m project investigating the use of rare earth nitrides in memory devices for future high-performance computers. This work is led by Dr Simon Granville, a senior scientist at the Robinson Research Institute, and Associate Professor Ben Ruck, head of the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences.

Five other research projects each receive $1 m grants. These projects, which run for three years, will:

• investigate a new drug for treating congestive heart failure (principal investigator Dr Andreas Luxenburger)
• develop an AI-based tool to identify individual kākā, avoiding the need to use leg bands on the birds (principal investigators Dr Andrew Lensen and Dr Rachael Shaw)
• develop an AI-based model that can predict sea-level rise (principal investigator Dr Bach Nguyen)
• investigate a new therapeutic agent for treating drug-resistant breast and ovarian cancer (principal researcher Professor Peter Tyler)
• investigate ways to identify individual kiwi by their calls, providing information that can be used to estimate population size (principal investigator Professor Stephen Marsland).

The Endeavour Fund is administered by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.