Deadline: 10-Oct-2025
The Ember Innovations warmly welcomes applications from visionary researchers eager to usher in a new era of mental health, substance harm, and wellbeing solutions.
This opportunity seeks to support projects that meaningfully contribute to addressing urgent needs in the field of mental health and wellbeing. It aims to empower researchers to explore innovative interventions and approaches that can create lasting impact.
While they are receptive to any innovative research, they are especially interested in studies focusing on Mātauranga Māori and approaches that advance hauora Māori, e-mental health and digital innovations, the intersection of disability and mental health (including FASD), early intervention and prevention in mental health, suicide prevention strategies, workplace mental health and wellbeing, a focus on lived experience co-design and co-creation of interventions to improve mental health, and research crafted in close collaboration with communities most in need.
The emphasis on collaboration with communities most in need highlights the importance of research that is grounded in lived experiences and co-designed solutions. By prioritising voices that are often underrepresented, the funding encourages research that is inclusive, relevant, and transformative.
Applicants at Masters level or above are encouraged to bring forward bold, innovative, and community-centred ideas. The scope allows for health, societal, or creative arts perspectives, provided the research addresses mental health, substance or non-substance harm, intervention, prevention, or promotion in a way that champions innovation.
This funding opportunity excludes strictly medical approaches, encouraging instead research that bridges cultural, digital, societal, and experiential dimensions of mental health. The goal is to advance understanding and practice in ways that are meaningful to individuals, whānau, and communities. The deadline for application is 10 October 2025.
For more information, visit Ember Innovations.