New Zealand’s Earthquake Commission (EQC) has awarded 13 researchers a total of $NZ1 million ($960,570) to identify ways to reduce the impact of natural hazards and better inform policy makers, local councils, designers, engineers and builders.

The Biennial Grants program has been running since 1989, funding more than 250 projects. A record 120 researchers applied this year.

Previous grant-funded research led to new building techniques, identification of at-risk land, and detailed information for planners and emergency managers.

“Investing in science and research and translating that into tangible outcomes is critical,” EQC Research Manager Natalie Balfour said.

Projects fall into five categories: Empowering people, resilient buildings, smarter land use, governance and economics and quantifying hazard risks. Two special grant allocations were introduced this year to ensure opportunity for Māori and early-career researchers.

Following are the 13 Biennial Grant recipients:

Victoria University of Wellington

• Climate risk and the insurance sector: The law, policy, and economics of climate-related financial disclosures (Prof Ilan Noy)
• Seismic hazards from earthquakes in the locked zone offshore Wellington (Prof Martha Savage)
• Detailed mapping of seismicity in Auckland (Dr Calum Chamberlain)

Massey University

• Improving school-based hazards education outreach programmes (Dr Marion Tan)
• Long-term communication of volcanic risk for effective decision-making (Dr Julia Becker)
• Exploring influences on building earthquake resilience in lower seismic hazard zones (Dr Lauren Vinnell)

University of Auckland

• Application of an endangered indigenous construction practice onto a prototype timber portal frame to assess seismic resilience for use on wharenui (Prof Anthony Hoete)
• Embodied Carbon: A driver for change towards seismically resilient high-density housing (Dr Charlotte Toma)
• Risk-targeted design for functionality (Dr Anne Hulsey)

University of Canterbury

• More resilient wall building structures (Prof Santiago Pujol)
• Testing of reinforcing steels to guide repair strategies (Prof Geoffrey Rodgers)
• Māori participatory co-design of educational tools (Kristie-Lee Thomas, Brandy Alger)

Resilient Organisations

• Dynamic community engagement on disaster risk reduction (Dr Charlotte Brown)