I had actually been planning a proposal for this fund for next year (social science). I’d sat through seminars on how to write a good proposal, and no one mentioned funding getting cut was even a possibility. The universities were completely blindsided.
It’s a decision that seems to be driven purely by ideology, and mostly comes from one of the junior coalition partners (Act). I know for a fact that their leader has been expressing discontent about some of the research being done that has been criticising him (I.e. showing how his party spreads misinformation).
KiaOra, mind pointing me in the direction of that research if anything is available?
The New Zealand Social Media Study did some analysis of fake news during the '20 and '23 election campaigns. They did a bit more in 2020, here are some of their results: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/hppi/psir/psir-research/election/facebook-campaign-communication