The website of the Health Research Council contains many useful links to, funding opportunities and criteria, New Zealand research groups and information on ethical controls. Of particular interest are:

• The HRC's Research Portfolio Strategies page which provides links to the full strategy within each of its nine research portfolios.
• The Publications page which contains free access to a Directory of Health Researchers, the HRC funding calendar, and a variety of reports on HRC activities and issues.
• The links page provides details of HRC funded research groups in Auckland, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

 A comprehensive directory of New Zealand Health Research purchase agencies, including government and private funders, can be found on the health Research Council website at http://www.hrc.govt.nz/root/Links/Health_research_purchase_agencies.html

The Royal Society of New Zealand administers the Marsden Fund, which is allocated to more basic scientific research in a range of disciplines. The site contains details of all the funding granted from this fund since 1997, though research in health and human biology is included in the same list as a variety of other categories. Basic details of the project, the investigator and the institution are included. 

The Centres of Research Excellence Fund is administered by the Tertiary Education Commission. This fund supports seven centres and two of them work in the area of health and medicine.
 
ERMA, the Environmental Risk Management Agency is one of the guardians of research safety in New Zealand. They assess applications for importing or developing all hazardous substances and new organisms.

Other guardians of research safety in New Zealand are the institutional biological safety committees, and institutional animal ethics committees. Information on them is available from each Institution. Ethics guidelines and information on Regional Health and Disability Ethics committees, are available from the Health Research Council website. 

An alternative approach to finding out about health research in New Zealand is to search through the sites of the Universities, Medical Schools and other research Institutions. A search under the general heading of research may just give you the general themes the university as a whole is pursuing. To get more detailed information go to the home pages of departments such as the Biochemistry, Physiology, Pathology or Genetics. Here they will give more detailed and up to date information on what specific individuals are working on and how to contact them.

The Support Groups in the NZORD network will often have information on key people and institutions here and overseas, involved in researching their disorder.