R&D Experience Grant: Resource hub

This means that the business must have:

• an in-house R&D programme
• a recent history of R&D activities over the preceding year and an R&D plan for the upcoming year; and
• a minimum of one R&D full time equivalent (FTE) employed by the business.

See our guide to describing your R&D. 

Depending on the size and capability of its R&D team, a business may receive multiple R&D Experience Grants at one time (up to a maximum of 10 students).  

Read our guide on the number of students per business for more information. 

Two current R&D Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff are required for each student supported by a Callaghan Innovation grant and this 2:1 ratio applies regardless of the type of grant (Fellowship Grant, Career Grant or Experience Grant). The exception is when the business has only one R&D FTE - in this case one student can be applied for.  

If a business currently has the maximum number of students but has a Callaghan Innovation student grant that will be completed before 1 December, they may apply for an R&D Experience Grant to begin after the other grant ends.  For example, if a business has 1 or 2 R&D FTE and already has an R&D Career Grant that will end on 31 October, the business can apply for one R&D Experience Grant with a contract start date on 1 November.

Yes. There is no rule that prevents several businesses within a group from applying for an Experience Grant. However, each business entity within the group must apply separately for the student they are employing and will sign separate funding agreements.

The business who applies, must be the business who employs the student, provides payslips and invoices for reimbursement.

Yes. This will give you more time to advertise your role and find a student that’s a good fit for your business.

We ask that you only apply for a grant if you’re reasonably confident that you’ll fill the associated role. Unclaimed grants mean that other businesses and students have missed out on opportunities for funding.

No. All students must be PAYE employees for the duration of the grant. You will be required to provide payslips from your payroll system at the time of claiming. 

Yes, in some circumstances. The student must not have been previously employed at the business unless part-time or temporary. A company may employ the same student twice under Experience Grants Internships but not a third time.

Yes. Experience Grant students must work full-time at the business as an employee on the PAYE payroll for the duration of the 10-week placement. For clarity, we consider full-time employment to be a minimum of 32 hours per week.

Students must be located primarily at the business's premises, not at a university or at home, as the key to these grants is giving students exposure to a working R&D environment.

There is some flexibility here for digital businesses where core staff are generally working from home. Requests for a student to be working remotely are assessed on a case-by-case basis and the business will need to demonstrate how the student will receive adequate oversight, mentorship and exposure to a real-world R&D environment if not working on site.

The student must directly contribute to the company’s R&D project but does not need to be doing R&D activities. Engineering, technology and science students are often directly involved in a company’s R&D project whereas design and business students may not be. An example is a design student using focus groups to identify customers’ unmet needs, and another example is a business student analysing the market to determine the value of product attributes to a range of market sectors. In these examples the students are not doing core R&D activities, but they are directly contributing to the company’s R&D project.

For all proposed projects, the student must participate in a defined R&D project within your business that exposes them to technical work that is relevant to their degree or diploma.

For the 2025/2026 funding round, the start date for the student's employment should usually not be after 1 December 2025 to allow sufficient time for the student to complete the 10-week internship before 31 March 2026, after allowing for a possible Christmas shutdown.

If there is an exceptional circumstance that means you would prefer a later start date for your student, contact us using the form found here and we will assess your request.

Yes. International students studying in New Zealand may be eligible provided they have a valid visa allowing the student to work in New Zealand for the duration of the internship and meet all other eligibility criteria.

The business is responsible for ensuring that the student can legally work in New Zealand before they start work.

No. You may request support for multiple students within a single application - rather than submitting multiple applications - and this is preferred for ease of administration.

Businesses often propose one project per student; however, it is acceptable to propose multiple students working on a single project, or multiple projects per student provided there is adequate oversight and mentoring for all students on the same project. For all proposed projects, the student must participate in a defined R&D project within your business that exposes them to technical work that is relevant to their degree or diploma.

There are several sites and job boards dedicated to university talent and internships. Please see Job Boards on the website.

If circumstances change it is very important that you advise us. We’ll consider the impact of the changes on the grant criteria and discuss these with you.

For the 2025/2026 funding round, the standard term of the contract is from either 1 July 2025 or the date of approval (if approved after 1 July 2025) until 31 March 2026.

For 2025/2026, the funding amount (excl GST) per student is $11,580 which is based on 40 hours per week for 10 weeks at $28.95 per hour (gross/before any deductions). One claim is made at the end of the contract period.

One final report and claim per contract is to be submitted at the end of the employment period. Payslips from your payroll system are to be provided with the claim.

From time to time, we may require the business and student to complete a survey after the completion of the grant. This survey helps to inform the design of future R&D grants.

The business is the primary contact; however, the student may also contact us at any time to discuss issues related to the grant and/or the project.

If you have previously received funding from Callaghan Innovation and have access to Forge, the online portal, you will be able to start your application in the portal while the grant is open. If you’re new to Callaghan Innovation or don’t have access to Forge, please contact our Customer Support team.   

No. Only one user has the ability to complete an application in the online portal. This means that the user who starts an application in Forge is the only person who can edit and complete it. If other people in your organisation are contributing to the application, they will need to provide this information to the initiating user to include in the application. The word version of the application form found in the Resource Hub on the website may be helpful in these circumstances as a reference for other users.

No. There is no waitlist in place for Experience grants.

Callaghan Innovation has a robust set of policies and procedures on confidentiality and privacy to protect information provided by grant applicants from being shared with unauthorised third parties. We are a New Zealand Government agency and the guidelines published in Maintaining Confidentiality of Government Information on the Public Service Commission website also apply.

We are however subject to the Official Information Act 1982 and we are obliged to disclose information under that Act if requested to do so and provided there are no grounds under that Act to withhold the information. When sharing your information under an OIA request we will take reasonable steps to endeavour to protect your personal, confidential and/or commercially sensitive information, including where necessary, de-identifying and/or redacting information that is not necessary to share to meet our obligations. 

Callaghan Innovation will advise you if we receive a request under the Official Information Act 1982 or the Privacy Act 2020 for any information relating to your Funding Agreement and will consult with you before responding to the request.

You can submit questions to us using the form found here.

If you have received or been approved for student grant funding in the last three years, you are not eligible to apply for the New to R&D grant. However, if you are approved for a New to R&D grant, you may apply for a student grant in the future.