Kaimahi: Wintec Research kete o te wānanga: PBRF

The next PBRF Quality Evaluation will be held in 2026

New guidelines will be out in 2026

Wintec participates in the New Zealand Government’s Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) mechanism. Wintec performance has improved markedly between the 2012 and 2018 Quality Evaluations (QEs), with highlights being a 61 percent increase in the number of researcher portfolios submitted and 127 percent increase in the number of portfolios receiving a rating. Our attainment in the External Research Income (ERI) component increased eight-fold, while Research Degree Completions (RDC) rose by 43 percent over the same period.

The purpose of the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) is to increase the quality of research by ensuring that excellent research in the tertiary education sector is encouraged and rewarded.  This means assessing the research performance of tertiary education organisations (TEOs) and then funding them on the basis of their performance.

• Quality Evaluation 2025 FAQs (updated 2 August 2021) (PDF 675 KB)

There are nine changes that have been agreed to by Cabinet for implementation:

• Adding a new objective to the PBRF, to support a robust and inclusive system for developing and sustaining research excellence in Aotearoa New Zealand
• Refreshing the PBRF guiding principles to better reflect the partnership between the Crown and Māori, and to promote equity, diversity and inclusiveness
• Supporting Māori researchers and research in the PBRF by increasing the subject area weighting for Evidence Portfolios assessed by the Māori Knowledge and Development panel from 1 to 3 and applying a funding weighting of 2.5 for Evidence Portfolios submitted by Māori staff
• Supporting Pacific researchers and research in the PBRF by increasing the subject area weighting for Evidence Portfolios assessed by the Pacific Research panel from 1 to 2.5 and applying a funding weighting of 2 for Evidence Portfolios submitted by Pacific staff
• Fixing a minimum allocation for Te Pūkenga in the next Quality Evaluation round at 90% of the proportion allocated to Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics in the 2018 Quality Evaluation
• Amending the External Research Income component by increasing the weighting for external research income in the Overseas Research Income category from 1.5 to 3.5 and increasing the weighting for external research income in the New Zealand Non-Government Income category from 2 to 4
• Broadening the PBRF definition of research and making changes to Evidence Portfolios, including to better recognise and reward a broader range and diversity of research, and to better recognise collaboration and engagement
• Revising the Extraordinary Circumstances qualifying criteria
• Simplifying the New and Emerging qualifying criteria.

Start creating your PBRF portfolio now with ROMS (staff only). ROMS is a web-based system that you can access here: https://unitec-roms.intuto.com/ Contact the Research Office (research@wintec.ac.nz) to set up a new account.

Don't forget to upload it to the Wintec Research Archive to showcase it to the world.

Wintec/Te Pūkenga has a variety of systems and services that we use to manage and communicate Wintec/Te Pūkenga's Research outputs. Some have restricted access via a login e.g. ROMS, but most are available publicly online e.g. Wintec Research Archive.

https://support.intuto.com/