19 June 2019 at 9:00 am
ENZ announces Tripartite Fund awardees
Researchers at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Lincoln University and Massey University are among the awardees of the New Zealand-China Tripartite Fund’s 2019-20 round.
The fund awards each university $30,000 to progress research with university partners in China in areas such as cancer research, national parks and conservation, and media and information.
The New Zealand-China Tripartite Fund is an ENZ-sponsored initiative that has been seeding research collaborations between New Zealand and Chinese universities over the last 15 years.
ENZ’s Regional Director – Asia, John Laxon, said ENZ was committed to showcasing and supporting the reputation of New Zealand universities in China, particularly their high-calibre researchers and postgraduate programmes.
“We look forward to further partnering with New Zealand universities, and to welcoming more Chinese students to study in New Zealand – ranked as the best English-speaking education system in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Educating for the Future Index 2018”.
2019-20 fund awardee Dr Mingsheng Li, Massey University, said he was excited about using tripartite funding to advance his work on developing media and information literacy (MIL) for students and teachers in China in collaboration with his university colleague, Professor Stephen Croucher and research partners at Shenzhen University and Yunnan Normal University.
The Tripartite Fund has helped cover travel and logistics costs for Associate Professor Mick Abbott of Lincoln University to collaborate with Tsinghua University and Kunming University of Science and Technology in conducing comparative research of Chinese and New Zealand national parks, and conservation and heritage areas.
Dr Abbott said the fund’s ongoing support had been invaluable in its outcomes for numerous staff exchanges and shared research outputs.
“It also enabled Lincoln [University] to work with partners to present an exhibition in Beijing in 2017 on the development of the National Parks in Aotearoa New Zealand, which over 50,000 people attended.”
Associate Professor Jun Lu said AUT was grateful for the Tripartite Fund which enabled them to start a great relationship with two Chinese universities.
“We established collaborative research projects in various health and medicine areas and expanded our research to three Chinese universities.
“The latest round of funding will enable us to consolidate existing ties and expand our collaboration to more Chinese universities and academics in all universities involved.”
New Zealand’s former Ambassador to China, John McKinnon, opening the exhibition on the development of New Zealand's national parks at the Museum of Chinese Gardens and Landscape Architecture in 2017. The project was made possible by the New Zealand-China Tripartite Fund.
