Marsden Fund Research Articles

Multi-modal Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Assess Cerebrovascular Function in Atrial Fibrillation Patients

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline, dementia, and stroke. Low cerebral blood flow (CBF) and low cerebrovascular carbon dioxide reactivity (CVRCO2) are associated with poor brain health outcomes. In the current study we employed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to quantify resting CBF and CVRCO2 in patients with AF and age-matched normal sinus rhythm (NSR) controls. We hypothesised that both resting CBF and CVRCO2 would be lower in patients with AF. Patients with AF (n=11, 65±14 years, 2 women) and NSR (n=12, 63±9 years, 7 women) underwent arterial spin labelling (ASL) at rest, and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) MRI during a single-step increase in partial pressure of carbon dioxide (measured by end-tidal carbon dioxide (PETCO2)) induced by changing the fraction of inspired CO2 to 5% (21% O2, balance N2). Region of interest time courses were extracted with grey matter, middle cerebral artery, and posterior cerebral artery territory masks. CVRCO2 was defined as the percentage change (%Δ) in BOLD signal vs %Δ in PETCO2. Baseline CBF was not different between NSR and AF in grey matter (62±17 vs. 58±10 ml/min/100g, respectively; p=0.226), middle cerebral artery (59±16 vs. 56±14 ml/min/100g; p=0.361) and posterior cerebral artery (61±17 vs 53±15 ml/min/100g; p=0.138) territories. BOLD-derived CVRC02 was not different between NSR and AF groups in grey matter (0.11±0.04 vs. 0.12±0.03 %ΔBOLD/%ΔmmHg, respectively; p=0.372), middle cerebral artery (0.09±0.04 vs. 0.10±0.03 %ΔBOLD/%ΔmmHg; p=0.405) and posterior cerebral artery (0.13±0.04 vs. 0.14±0.05 %ΔBOLD/%ΔmmHg; p=0.367) territories. Collectively, these pilot data suggest that MRI-derived cerebrovascular CO2 responsiveness is not different in patients with AF and age-matched NSR controls that have similar resting CBF. Further investigations are required to extend these preliminary findings to a larger cohort to fully elucidate the effects of AF on cerebrovascular function. Support provided by the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi Marsden Fund (19-UOA-170). This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

How the Marsden Fund has failed to achieve its full potential in the ESA panel: evidence of limitations in scope, biased outcomes, and futile applications

We have analysed the scope of proposals funded by the ‘Earth Sciences and Astronomy’ (ESA) panel of the Marsden Fund for the period 2004 to 2013. The scope of proposals funded is very limited and does not reflect the full remit of the panel: the successful projects fail to encompass the quality and quantity of research being undertaken within the Earth sciences community in New Zealand, and a number of sub-disciplines that seek to address fundamental and important problems within the Earth sciences are largely excluded. Moreover, nearly 50% of the funded proposals for the past decade have been made to just two institutions. To address these limitations, we suggest that: (1) a review is undertaken to examine and widen the scope of the panel to encompass sub-disciplines that demonstrably are never or rarely funded; (2) the composition of panel members be examined and modified to reflect a much wider scope of sub-disciplines within the Earth sciences; and (3) a review of the wide discrepancies in funding distributions on an institutional basis be undertaken. We want to ensure that a more representative range of sub-disciplines, in keeping with modern and realistic definitions of the Earth sciences, is funded through this panel, and so we also recommend the formation of a new panel for ‘Environmental and Earth-system Sciences’ that could encompass the research involving modern-day processes so that applications in these sub-disciplines are not pointless. In addition, it is clear that a very substantial increase in funding to the Marsden Fund must be sought.

A review of the new MBIE Report on the Marsden Fund

​The New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employ-ment (MBIE) has recently completed a report on the way that the Marsden Fund works (MBIE 2017). In many ways this is an excellent document. It describes the history and purpose of the fund and explains how it operates. It also compares Marsden to other granting agencies overseas (Section 3). The authors consulted widely with stakeholders, identified many issues in their findings (Section 4) and made a set of recommendations (Section 5). Although a lot of key points were revealed, the MBIE team seems to have been consistently just wide of the mark, in the estimation of this reviewer. In this short article I identify those key topics that have been a source of long-term concern for many applicants and commentators. It is hoped that these, together with the original MBIE report, may stimulate wider discussion in the scientific community.

Urupā Tautaiao: Revitalising ancient customs and practices for the modern world

Supported by the Marsden Fund Council from Government funding, managed by Royal Society Te Apārangi, this urupā tautaiao (natural burials) research has an explicit decolonising agenda. It presents a pragmatic opportunity for Māori to re-evaluate, reconnect, and adapt ancient customs and practices for the modern world. The design practice output focus is the restoration of existing graves located in the urupā (burial ground) of the Ngāti Moko, a hapū (subtribe) of the Tapuika tribe that occupy ancestral land in central North Island of New Zealand. In preparation for the gravesite development, a series of hui a hapū (tribal meetings) were held to engage and encourage participation in the research. The tribe drew on the expertise of an ecologist landscape architect and tohunga whakairo (master carver/artist) to transform the graves into a work of art. Surrounded by conventional gravestones, and using only natural materials, the gravesite aspires to capture the beauty of nature embellished with distinctively Māori cultural motifs. Low maintenance native plants are intersected with three pou (traditional carvings) that carry pūrākau (Māori sacred narratives) of life and death.
 
 

The “forgotten circulation”: Sympathetic control of mesenteric venous capacity in conscious hypertensive rats

The venous circulation is often “forgotten,” as cardiovascular research and therapeutic intervention focusses predominantly on arteries. However, systemic veins store two-thirds of blood volume at rest, with reservoir beds such as the mesenteric circulation receiving dense sympathetic innervation, suggesting a critical neurogenic role for the mobilization of blood. The impact of hypertension on sympathetic regulation of venous circulation remains unclear. We hypothesized that capacity of mesenteric vasculature is impaired in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and that reducing sympathetic drive will increase mesenteric buffering of excess volume.SHR (n=6) and Wistar rats (n=7) were instrumented with telemeters recording arterial and venous pressures, and an atrial balloon for assessment of mean circulatory filling pressure (MCFP). Arterial (inflow) and venous (outflow) mesenteric flow probes were implanted to measure total mesenteric volume fluctuation. Mesenteric vascular capacity was challenged with 20% volume load of intravenous saline. In SHR sympathetic drive was reduced via hexamethonium (10mg/kg) or via carotid body denervation (CBD).MCFP was elevated in SHR (+2.7±0.5mmHg, p<0.01 vs Wistars). MCFP in SHR was reduced by hexamethonium (-2.6±0.6; p=0.01 vs Baseline, n=5) and CBD (‑2.0±0.7mmHg; p=0.04 vs Baseline, n=5). In normotensives volume load was accommodated by the mesenteric bed, with a net total influx of blood (+5.4±2.2ml; n=7). In contrast, SHR showed a counter-intuitive net efflux of blood from the mesenteric bed (-1.6±1.4ml; p=0.04 vs Wistars, n=6). Preliminary results indicate that hexamethonium and CBD tended to increase the ability of the mesenteric bed to accommodate volume (hexamethonium: +1.9±1.5, n=6; CBD: +0.8±0.6ml, n=3).We show that SHR have higher venous tone and reduced capacity to accommodate excess volume within the mesenteric vascular bed. Reductions in sympathetic drive reduced venous tone and improved the ability to accommodate volume load. Inhibiting sympathetic activity may provide a novel therapeutic opportunity to restore venous mesenteric capacity and potentially ameliorate hypertension. Marsden Fund, Royal Society of New Zealand; Health Research Council of New Zealand This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

Urupa Tautaiao: Young Maori explore ancient burial practices towards sustanable approaches

The turn to indigenous epistemologies is one of the most exciting and revolutionary shifts to happen in the university within the last three decades and is nowadays accelerating in influence in Aotearoa New Zealand. It is bringing with it dynamic new ways of thinking about research and new methodologies for conducting it, a raised awareness of the different kinds of knowledge that indigenous practice can convey and an illuminating body of information about the creative process. Indigenous practice provide access into other ways of knowing, and alternative approaches to conducting and presenting knowledge. This article discusses one Māori project in this context, that is intended to challenge indigenous people to (re) evaluate post-colonial environmentally harmful practices in the death space. The project explores the concept of rangatahi (Māori youth) attitudes to revitalising ancient Māori death practices to inform the development of design intervention aimed to challenge mortuary colonial practices. As such, it is part of a larger research that is supported by Marsden Fund from Royal Society of New Zealand. The project outcome includes the design of modern urupā tautaiao (natural burial) commemoration site, applying technology such as tribal social media platforms regarding death, and GPS mapping of wāhi tapu (sacred sites). Death is highly tapu (sacred) to Māori and requires strict observations of rituals to ensure spiritual safety. The revitalisation of tribal knowledge is not just the prerogative of the elders, the voices of indigenous youth must be heard as they are the future, of the planet and the people. This project contributes to the understanding of research that navigates across philosophical, inter-generational, territorial and community boundaries, evidencing theories and methodologies that inform to culture studies and creative practice.

A new look at the Bondi–Sachs energy–momentum* *Supported by the Marsden Fund Council from Government funding, managed by Royal Society Te Apārangi. JF is grateful to L Szabados for several discussions on this topic.

How does one compute the Bondi mass on an arbitrary cut of null infinity when it is not presented in a Bondi system? What then is the correct definition of the mass aspect? How does one normalise an asymptotic translation computed on a cut which is not equipped with the unit-sphere metric? These are questions which need to be answered if one wants to calculate the Bondi–Sachs energy–momentum for a space-time which has been determined numerically. Under such conditions there is not much control over the presentation of so that most of the available formulations of the Bondi energy–momentum simply do not apply. The purpose of this article is to provide the necessary background for a manifestly conformally invariant and gauge independent formulation of the Bondi energy–momentum. To this end we introduce a conformally invariant version of the GHP formalism to rephrase all the well-known formulae. This leads us to natural definitions for the space of asymptotic translations with its Lorentzian metric, for the Bondi news and the mass-aspect. A major role in these developments is played by the ‘co-curvature’, a naturally appearing quantity closely related to the Gauß curvature on a cut of .

Research funding and collaboration

We analyze whether research funding contests promote co-authorship. Our analysis combines Scopus publication records with data on the Marsden Fund, the premier source of funding for basic research in New Zealand. We use fixed-effect models to analyze within-researcher-pair variation in co-authorship. Among pairs who ever co-authored or co-proposed, co-authorship was 13.8 percentage points more likely in a given year if they had co-proposed during the previous ten years than if they had not. This co-authorship rate was not significantly higher among funded pairs. However, when we increase post-proposal publication lags towards the length of a typical award, we find that funding, rather than participation, promotes co-authorship.

Mast seeding: the devil (and the delight) is in the detail.

This article is a Commentary on Bogdziewicz et al. (2021), 229: 2357–2364.

Food Security in COVID‐19: Insights from Indigenous Fijian Communities

Food Security in <scp>COVID</scp>‐19: Insights from Indigenous Fijian Communities

Cross-generational effects of climate change on the microbiome of a photosynthetic sponge.

Coral reefs are facing increasing pressure from rising seawater temperatures and ocean acidification. Sponges have been proposed as possible winners in the face of climate change; however, little is known about the mechanisms underpinning their predicted tolerance. Here we assessed whether microbiome-mediated cross-generational acclimatization could enable the photosynthetic sponge Carteriospongia foliascens to survive under future climate scenarios. To achieve this, we first established the potential for vertical (cross-generational) transmission of symbionts. Sixty-four amplicon sequence variants accounting for >90% of the total C. foliascens microbial community were present across adult, larval and juvenile life stages, showing that a large proportion of the microbiome is vertically acquired and maintained. When C. foliascens were exposed to climate scenarios projected for 2050 and 2100, the host remained visibly unaffected (i.e. no necrosis/bleaching) and the overall microbiome was not significantly different amongst treatments in adult tissue, the respective larvae or recruits transplanted amongst climate treatments. However, indicator species analysis revealed that parental exposure to future climate scenarios altered the presence and abundance of a small suite of microbial taxa in the recruits, thereby revealing the potential for microbiome-mediated cross-generational acclimatization through both symbiont shuffling and symbiont switching within a vertically acquired microbiome.

Discussion on "Assessing the goodness of fit of logistic regression models in large samples: A modification of the Hosmer-Lemeshow test" by Giovanni Nattino, Michael L. Pennell, and Stanley Lemeshow.

This work was supported by the Marsden Fund (Award Num-ber E2987-3648) administrated by the Royal Society of NewZealand and also supported by grant RTI2018-100927-J-I00 administrated by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (MCI,Spain), by the Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI, Spain),and by the European Regional Development Fund FEDER(FEDER, UE). We are grateful to Dr Louise McMillan for helpful comments.

Discussion on “Assessing the goodness of fit of logistic regression models in large samples: A modification of the Hosmer‐Lemeshow test” by Giovanni Nattino, Michael L. Pennell, and Stanley Lemeshow

This work was supported by the Marsden Fund (Award Num-ber E2987-3648) administrated by the Royal Society of NewZealand and also supported by grant RTI2018-100927-J-I00 administrated by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (MCI,Spain), by the Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI, Spain),and by the European Regional Development Fund FEDER(FEDER, UE). We are grateful to Dr Louise McMillan for helpful comments.

Pharmacological Characterisation of PACAP‐responsive Receptors Reveals Signalling Bias and Probe‐dependent Antagonism

Pituitary adenylate cyclase‐activating peptide (PACAP) is a neuropeptide which exists in two biologically active forms; PACAP‐27 and PACAP‐38. PACAP is widely expressed in the brain and periphery where it is involved in many physiological processes including pain, inflammation, stress and anxiety. PACAP potently activates three different G protein‐coupled receptors (GPCRs); the PAC1 receptor, the VPAC1 receptor and VPAC2 receptor. The VPAC receptors are co‐receptors for PACAP and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). The PAC1 receptor has several known splice variants in the N‐terminal domain, which include the PAC1n receptor (full N‐terminus) and the PAC1s receptor (21 amino acid N‐terminal deletion). To develop therapeutics targeting the PACAP system, it is essential to understand how these receptors signal and how this signalling is inhibited. Here we pharmacologically characterised the signalling capabilities of PACAP‐responsive receptors and how these responses were blocked by antagonists.The pharmacology of the human PAC1n, PAC1s, VPAC1, VPAC2 receptors were examined in transfected Cos7 cells. Using concentration‐response curves, the ability of PACAP and related peptides to stimulate cAMP, IP1, pAkt, pERK and pCREB responses were measured. Signalling bias was then quantified. The ability of multiple antagonists to block PACAP‐38, PACAP‐27 or VIP‐induced cAMP responses at PACAP‐responsive receptors was then determined.PACAP‐responsive receptors stimulated activation of all signalling molecules measured. However, only limited signalling bias was observed. For example, VIP was 4‐fold biased towards cAMP production over IP1 production at the PAC1n receptor. Interestingly, the PAC1n and PAC1s receptors displayed distinct pharmacology. At the PAC1s receptor, VIP was found to be 20‐fold more potent than at the PAC1n receptor. Probe‐ or agonist‐dependent antagonism was observed at the PAC1n and PAC1s receptors. Both VIP and PACAP‐27 were more potently antagonised than PACAP‐38 by the antagonists PACAP6–38 and M65.The distinct pharmacological profile displayed by the PAC1s receptor, suggests that it can act as a dual receptor for VIP and PACAP under specific conditions. Furthermore, differences in antagonist pharmacology at PACAP‐responsive receptors suggests the effectiveness of blocking a signalling pathway can be influenced by which endogenous agonist is present. These effects have potential implications for the development and effectiveness of drugs targeting the PAC1 receptor.Support or Funding InformationThis research is supported by grants from the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund (RSNZ) and the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC).

Research Funding and Collaboration

We analyse whether research funding contests promote co-authorship. Our analysis combines Scopus publication records with data on applications to the Marsden Fund, the premiere source of funding for basic research in New Zealand. On average, and after controlling for observable and unobservable heterogeneity, applicant pairs were 13.8 percentage points more likely to co-author in a given year if they co-proposed during the previous ten years than if they did not. This co-authorship rate was not significantly higher among funded pairs. However, when we increase post-proposal publication lags towards the length of a typical award, we find that funding, rather than participation, promotes co-authorship.

Sequence comparison in computational historical linguistics

This research was supported by the European Research Council Starting Grant ‘Computer-Assisted Language Comparison’ (Grant CALC 715618, J.M.L., T.T.) and the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language (Australian National University, Grant CE140100041, S.J.G.). As part of the GlottoBank project (http://glottobank.org), this work was further supported by the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (Jena) and the Royal Society of New Zealand (Marsden Fund, Grant 13-UOA-121).

Trophoblast plugs: impact on utero-placental haemodynamics and spiral artery remodelling.

How does trophoblast plugging impact utero-placental haemodynamics? Physiological trophoblast plug structures are dense enough to restrict flow of oxygenated blood to the intervillous space (IVS) in the first trimester, and result in a shear stress environment upstream of the plugs that promotes spiral artery remodelling. Trophoblast plugging of the uterine spiral arteries is thought to be the dominant factor restricting the flow of oxygenated maternal blood to the placenta in the first trimester of pregnancy. However, the extent of plugging, the timing of plug break up, and the impact of plug structure on pregnancy outcomes is debated. A computational model of the uterine radial and spiral arteries, incorporating arteriovenous anastomoses was developed. The model was parameterized with our own histological data and previous literature descriptions of the dimensions of the spiral arteries, and the structural properties (porosity) of trophoblast plugs. Structural data were acquired from the literature, and supplemented by images of the spiral arteries acquired by standard thin-section 2D immunohistochemistry, and whole mount immunohistochemistry imaged in 3D by micro-CT. Computational models were solved using Matlab software, via custom written scripts. We confirm that physiological lengths (>0.1 mm) and porosities (0.2-0.6) of trophoblast plugs are sufficient to restrict the flow of oxygenated maternal blood flow to the placental surface. Trophoblast plugs also have important haemodynamic consequences upstream in the spiral arteries by generating shear stress conditions of <2 dyne/cm2 that promote trophoblast-induced spiral artery remodelling. Structural changes in plugs as they dislodge are likely to result in rapid increases in blood flow to the IVS, and it is likely at this stage of gestation that the major source of resistance in the utero-placental circulation transitions from the spiral arteries to the radial arteries, which then act as a the 'rate-limiting' step to IVS flow. Structural descriptions of the spiral arteries, radial arteries and trophoblast plugs largely rely on 2D histological sections, or historical measurements. Increased focus on quantitatively assessing the 3D structure of the uterine arteries using more modern imaging technologies in the future will strengthen model predictions. Our work suggests that trophoblast plugs play a previously under-appreciated role in regulating spiral artery remodelling in the first trimester of human pregnancy. This creates the possibility that inadequate trophoblast plugging in the first trimester may contribute to the inadequate artery remodelling observed in pregnancy pathologies such as pre-eclampsia. The incorporation of arteriovenous anastomoses in our model highlights the important influence that shunted blood can play in utero-placental haemodynamics, and together with the emerging role of radial arteries in regulating blood flow to the placenta, the influence of arteriovenous anastomoses on radial artery haemodynamics in normal and pathological pregnancies warrants further investigation. This research was supported by a Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund award (13-UOA-032). A.R.C. is supported by a Royal Society of New Zealand Rutherford Discovery Fellowship (14-UOA-019). R.S. was supported by a Gravida (National Centre for Growth and Development) postgraduate scholarship. The authors have no conflicts of interest. N/A.

N‐Glycan and Heparan Sulphate Components of the Extracellular Matrix are Essential for Laminar Shear Stress Response of the Epithelial Sodium Channel (ENaC)

The epithelial sodium channel (ENaC), a mechanosensitive ion channel, is known to be activated by laminar shear stress (LSS) [1]. We hypothesise that the large extracellular loops of ENaC interact with the complex extracellular matrix (ECM) and that the application of LSS deforms both the extracellular matrix (ECM) and the interacting ENaC components resulting in a change in ENaC activity. This study investigated whether or not the N‐glycan and heparan sulphate components of the ECM are specifically involved in the LSS activation of ENaC.Human α, β and γ ENaC subunits were co‐expressed in oocytes surgically harvested from female Xenopus laevis. Two‐electrode voltage‐clamp was used to determine ENaC activity in response to LSS when different components of the ECM were degraded by neuraminidase and heparinase III enzymes. A significant LSS response was observed in ENaC expressing oocytes, compared to native (no ENaC) oocytes; normalized LSS current of 5.5 ± 1.1 compared to 0.06 ± 0.03 (p = 0.003, n =8–14). In ENaC expressing oocytes cleavage of N‐glycan from the ECM with neuraminidase (0.2U/mL for 2h at 21°C) significantly reduced the normalised LSS response from 4.5 ± 0.4 to 1.7 ± 0.4 (p=0.003, n=8). Destruction of heparan sulphate components of the ECM with heparinase III (0.5 U/mL for 30min at 21°C) significantly reduced the LSS response from 5.1 ± 1.2 to 1.2 ± 0.5 (p=0.009, n=12). Data indicates that both removal of N‐glycan and cleavage of heparan sulphate from the ECM reduce the activation of ENaC by LSS, indicating that they are crucial components of the ECM for mechanosensation by ENaC.Support or Funding InformationThis study was supported by the Royal Society Marsden fund.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

The effect of public funding on research output: the New Zealand Marsden Fund

ABSTRACTWe estimate the impact of the NZ Marsden Fund on research success, by comparing the subsequent performance of funded and unfunded researchers. We control for selection bias using the Marsden panel rankings. We find that funding is associated with a 6%–15% increase in publications and an 11%–22% increase in citation-weighted papers for research teams. We attempt to pin down the dynamic structure of this effect by looking at the research trajectories of individual researchers, but this model yields inconsistent results. We find no systematic evidence that Marsden panel rankings are predictive of subsequent success.

An examination of suicide research and funding in New Zealand 2006-16: implications for new research and policies.

Objective Suicide is a significant public health problem in New Zealand, with the youth suicide rate being one of the highest among developed countries. Increased suicide rates in recent years suggest that the evidence base and research priorities for New Zealand suicide prevention need to be reassessed. To inform policy development, the aim of the present study was to evaluate all peer-reviewed New Zealand published suicide research and major grant allocations from 2006 to 2016. Methods The methodology duplicated a recent Australian review of suicide prevention research and funding. Publications and grant funding allocations were assessed independently. Key research databases were searched in April 2016 for all suicide-related publications. Identified papers were then classified by research type, population focus and type of self-injurious behaviour. Citation indices were obtained for each publication. Annual reports, newsletters and summary data from four major New Zealand funding bodies (the Health Research Council of New Zealand, Marsden Fund, Lottery Health Research and the Ministry of Health) were reviewed for funding allocations. Identified grants were coded for type of project, type of self-injurious behaviour and target population. Descriptive analyses were performed. Results In all, 104 published articles and 27 grants met review criteria. Total funding was NZ$12677261.62. Most published articles were epidemiological in nature and the most common type of grant was for an intervention. Conclusions In the past decade, a substantial number of articles has been published and significant funding was invested in New Zealand's suicide research. The present review suggests that future research investments should focus on effective translation of research findings into suicide prevention programs. Several pragmatic recommendations are proposed to help improve the evidence base and reduce New Zealand's suicide rates. What is known about the topic? Suicide prevention continues to be a national public health priority for New Zealand. Although much is known about the prevalence of suicidal behaviours in New Zealand, less is known about how well suicide research has addressed prevention priorities and specific target populations. Australian research found that research funding and publications were dominated by epidemiological studies rather than evaluation or intervention studies. It is yet to be determined whether these research and funding trends also apply for New Zealand. What does this paper add? This study examined all peer-reviewed and published suicide research and all major suicide prevention projects that have been funded in New Zealand between 2006 and 2016. The purpose of the review was to summarise the evidence base, evaluate funding and determine the ability of the evidence base to inform policy development. The findings demonstrate that the New Zealand research trends are similar to those found in Australia, with most studies being epidemiological and few representative of interventions. What are the implications for practitioners? This review highlights that there were few intervention and evaluation studies. Partnerships between practitioners and/or community organisations implementing interventions and researchers to systematically evaluate existing interventions and develop new evidence-based interventions would help improve the evidence base for New Zealand suicide prevention.