The Sir Thomas Davis Te Patu Kite Rangi Ariki Health Research Fellowship recognises the contributions that Sir Davis LLD honoris causa, DTM and H, MBChB, MPH, MD honoris causa, has made to clinical practice and biomedical and public health research, in a distinguished career spanning 62 years in the Cook Islands, New Zealand and the United States of America. Sir Davis was born on the island of Rarotonga on June 11, 1917 and educated at King's College in Auckland.
He gained his medical degree at Otago in 1945 before returning to the Cook Islands where he was the chief medical officer from 1949. After working in the Cook Islands for several years he carried out further studies at Harvard University and completed a Masters of Public Health. He worked for various sections of the USA armed forces as a research physiologist before joining the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to work on the space programme. During an academic career, that covered a wide range of scientific subjects, including biomedical aspects of the space programme, he published two books and more than 60 scientific papers. Sir Davis was knighted in 1981. He was the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands from 1978 to 1987. In 2005 the University of Otago awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
The Davis Fellowship has been established to support high quality Pacific health research in priority areas that will contribute towards achieving better health outcomes for Pacific people, families and communities. The Fellowship will provide support for up to three years for a researcher whose field has the potential to contribute to both the health and economic goals for the Government’s investment in research, science and technology.
The fellowship is intended to support emerging researchers who have demonstrated outstanding potential to develop into highly skilled researchers able to initiate new avenues of investigation.
Successful candidates are likely to have published papers in their chosen area in journals and should be able to demonstrate their ability to carry out independent research. HRC assessors will look to place more emphasis on the candidate and their potential development during the period of an award than on the research project itself. However, applicants should note that HRC Pacific awards are highly competitive and that all criteria will be considered to assure assessors that the intended research project is worthy of support.
This year the total value of the Fellowship package is $0.30M over two years.
The HRC will pay $100,000 per annum to the Fellow’s host institution for salary and all other costs associated with the Fellowship (e.g. ACC levies, employer’s contribution to superannuation). It is expected that Fellows are appointed within an academic salary scale of
LG5-SLG1, or LM5-SLM1 for those who may hold an MBChB, BDS or equivalent degree. Please contact your proposed host institution for the appropriate salary scale. The HRC will also provide a total of $100,000 for research expenses over the two year period. Note that each recipient agrees to the stated FTE% contribution and that funding to any recipient from any source will not exceed 100 FTE%.
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Applicants should be New Zealand citizens or hold New Zealand residency at the time of application.
Applicants must have held a PhD or an equivalent degree for a minimum of four years but no more than eight years. The applicant’s track record is assessed relative to opportunity.
Applicants who have been awarded more than one HRC Project as First Named
Investigator, or equivalent support (value/term) are not eligible.
Usually successful applicants will be involved full-time in research. The HRC will however consider applicants wishing to undertake part-time research. In this case,

applicants must be involved in research for a minimum of 0.5 FTE and the maximum duration of the Research Fellowship will remain at three years.
 Fellowships are tenable within New Zealand universities, hospitals or other research institutions approved by Council. The institution and department must be approved by the HRC.
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Fellowships will be administered through the host institution. Fellows are employees of the host institution and the general conditions of the appointment are those of the institution.
Other forms of awards may not be held in conjunction with the Fellowship without the permission of the HRC.
Fellows may not enter examinations nor enrol for higher qualifications during tenure of their Fellowship without permission of the HRC.
Fellowships are subject to the terms and conditions of research contracts as set out in the document, “HRC Rules: Permissible use of research funding and operation of contracts”.
 Applications for Postdoctoral Fellowships will be assigned to the Pacific Health Research
Assessment Committee.
 As Scholarships and Fellowships are personal awards, HRC assessors will place equal emphasis on the applicant’s potential development during the period of an award and the research project itself. Applicants should note that HRC awards are highly competitive and that all criteria will be considered to assure assessors that the intended programme is worthy of support.
The following assessing criteria are used to guide committee members in the assessment of applications. Each application is scored on a 7-point scale for each of the scoring criteria:
The 7-point word ladder assists scoring according to the descriptors:

The Pacific Health Research Assessment Committee will use the 7-point scale, but the Applicant score will be given a 60% weighting, Research Environment, 20%, Research Characteristics, 20%.
As Scholarships and Fellowships are personal awards, the weighting places more emphasis on the candidates. However, applicants should note that HRC awards are highly competitive and that all criteria will be considered.
Applications are pre-scored by members of the Assessment Committee before the meeting. The
Pacific HRC Project Manager calculates mean pre-scores and ranks candidates. The ranking is used to select candidates for a short-list (4-5), who will be asked to take part in a teleconference interview with the Assessment committee.
Fellow’s salary is on an existing contract (all funders).
The Fellow is permitted to continue to be involved with the existing project(s) but should use released funds to buy out their time, i.e. to fund others to assist with the project(s) (e.g. PhD student stipend). The Fellow (through their research office) will need to arrange contract variations to record the staff changes. Details of the variations are to be advised to the HRC in all cases.
Fellow’s salary is on a new proposal or a proposal under review at the time of the award Fellows can submit research proposals to HRC and to other funding agencies. Where these involve a significant time commitment by the Fellow (>0.10 FTE) the HRC must be notified. Where an HRC proposal, including a proportion of a Fellow’s salary, is funded after the Fellowship has been awarded, the new funding will be reduced by the salary and overhead costs attributable to the
Fellow for the period of duplicate funding. The HRC will expect the Fellow’s host institution to negotiate with any other funding agencies to ensure funds allocated to the Fellow’s salary are retained for the research contract. Overall the HRC would anticipate that no more than 0.40 FTE is to be committed to non-HRC research contracts.
Fellows may wish to devote time to external consultancies. The HRC expects that any consultancy commitments remain within the rules of the Fellow’s host institution. If the time commitment is to be significant (>0.10 FTE) the HRC must be advised.
Fellows may undertake limited clinical and/or teaching duties relevant to their research to a maximum of 400 hours in a calendar year. They may accept remuneration for such duties. Except in relation to approved limited clinical and teaching duties, Research Fellows may not receive remuneration for other work without the permission of the Council.
All HRC award recipients are required to submit annual reports to the Council via the HRC online reporting system (“HEARD”). The Fellow is also required to submit a final report within three months of completion of the award. Reports are to be submitted to the HRC via the host institution’s research office. Annual reporting includes disclosure of all of the Fellow’s time

commitments (HRC, other funders, consultancies, teaching, clinical duties). The HRC reserves the right to require special reports at any time during the term of the Fellowship.
Publications and any other publicity that result from research undertaken during the tenure of the fellowship should acknowledge the assistance of the HRC by stating that, “The research was conducted during tenure of The Sir Thomas Davis Health Research Fellowship of the Health
Research Council of New Zealand”.
The Council may, at its discretion for what is considered grave cause, suspend the tenure of an
HRC Career Development Award for such time as is thought fit, or deprive a Fellow of his/her
Fellowship, and from that date payments due shall cease or be suspended.
The HRC has published guidelines on implementing research, including an intellectual property policy, on the HRC web site at: http://www.hrc.govt.nz/sites/default/files/Implementing%20Research%20-
%20A%20guideline%20for%20health%20researchers.pdf
The HRC has deeds of agreement with a number of institutions. Researchers should check the provisions of these agreements with the relevant research office. Researchers at other institutions should contact the Chief Executive of the HRC with respect to any matter related to intellectual property.
 Closing dates for all HRC Career Awards are published annually in the HRC calendar, on the
HRC website and in publicity notices.
 Applications must be made to the Council through the head of department and through the normal administrative channels of the applicant's intended institution.
 The application should be made on the appropriate form HRC-CDA which is available from the
HRC website www.hrc.govt.nz.
 Applicants should not send applications via e-mail or fax.
No applications will be accepted after 5pm on the closing date unless written authorisation has been received from the HRC at least one week prior to the closing date.
Applications must be written in a clear, concise manner with sufficient detail to enable the reviewers to fully appraise the scope and implications of the proposal.
Applications must be typed or word processed in English. They should be typed in single space, using
Times New Roman 11 point type
.
The text must also be printed double-sided on white A4 paper.
Applications must be fully self-supporting. Any additional documentation (including letters of support) that arrives after the closing date will not be made available to the assessing committee.
Applications must be correctly collated. The HRC will not collate inserts or extra copies after receipt of the application. All copies should be double sided. Please DO NOT staple the original
application or copies.
Applications must be in hard copy format. The HRC will not accept disks, faxes or e-mailed applications.
Page limits must be strictly adhered to. The HRC reserves the right to not process any application that does not comply with stated page limits or font size restrictions, as it is an unfair burden on those reviewing your application.

Applications submitted to the HRC should include the signed original and 8 copies. No part or parts of a proposal can be returned to the applicant. Please send copies to:
Mailing Address:
Health Research Council of New Zealand
P O Box 5541
Wellesley Street
AUCKLAND
Physical/ Courier Address:
Health Research Council of New Zealand
3 rd Floor
110 Stanley Street
AUCKLAND
Please do not contact the HRC to check whether your application has arrived. If required, applicants should use a courier that can confirm receipt of the application at the HRC
For further information please contact please contact the Project Manager, Pacific Health
Research, ph 09 303 5225.
Applicants should also read the Health Research Council Policies and Rules for Research Contracts,
Guidelines on Ethics in Health Research, Guidelines for Researchers on Health Research involving
Pacific, the HRC’s Investment Strategy and, the Research Investment Streams and Signals available on the HRC website http:// www.hrc.govt.nz.