Baker Vevers OIA response letter ADHD FINAL.pdf

14January 2026

Elspeth Baker-Vevers
ADHD Inquiry NZ

Email: [FYI request #33071 email]

Dear Elspeth,
Official Information Act (OIA) request
The Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) received an email from you on Monday
1 December 2025 requesting the following information under the Official Information Act,
1982 (OIA):
•  Question 1: ADHD related Research Funding (2015–present)
a.  Any funded projects, grants, or proposals that explicitly reference ADHD.
b.  Any declined proposals involving ADHD (with personal identifiers redacted under
s 9(2)(a)).
c.  Any analysis or records describing the demographic focus of ADHD-related
research (e.g., tamariki Māori, Pacific children, women/girls, Rainbow+/Takatāpui
populations).
•  Question 2: Prioritisation & Assessment Criteria
a.  Any correspondence, internal advice, or assessment criteria describing how
ADHD-related research is prioritised within HRC funding streams (e.g., Project
Grants, Emerging Researcher Grants, Programme Grants).
b.  Any documents describing how equity considerations, particularly for Māori,
Pacific peoples, women and girls, and Rainbow+/Takatāpui communities, are
applied when assessing ADHD-related proposals.
c.  Any advice or criteria relating to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Māori health advancement,
or Pacific health equity in relation to ADHD research proposals.
•  Question 3: Analysis of Research Gaps:
a.  Any reports, briefings, or internal analysis noting gaps in ADHD research
compared with other neurodevelopmental or mental-health conditions.
b.  Any analysis describing known or potential inequities in ADHD outcomes or
research representation for Māori, Pacific peoples, women and girls, and
Rainbow+/Takatāpui populations.
•  Question 4: Category Placement: If ADHD is not treated as a distinct research area
a.  Please confirm this, and state under which categories ADHD-related research
would usually be classified (e.g., mental health, child development,
neurodevelopmental disorders, psychopharmacology).
b.  Please identify any implications for visibility, prioritisation, or reporting of ADHD
research.
•  Question 5: Additional Documentation

a.  Any analysis, advice, or data your agency holds relating to ADHD research
populations, including where ADHD is included as a subgroup or secondary
analysis within larger studies.
b.  Any ethical-committee guidance, briefing notes, or consultation documents
relevant to ADHD-related health research, including any that relate to Māori,
Pacific, women/girls, or Rainbow+/Takatāpui communities.

The request covers the period 1 January 2015 to the date the request was received
being 1 December 2025.
On 3 December 2025, we sought clarification in relation to your request. A list of proposed
search terms was provided for conducting a search of our database in the title, lay summary
or keyword fields. We received confirmation from you on 3 December 2025 of the search
terms to be used, as follows:
•  ADHD
•  Attention deficient hyperactivity disorder
•  Neurodiversity
•  Neurodevelopmental condition(s)
•  Inattention
•  Hyperactivity
•  Impulsivity
•  Externalising disorders
•  Executive function
•  Executive dysfunction
•  Stimulant medication (e.g., methylphenidate, dexamfetamine)
•  Neurodevelopmental disorders (broader categorisation)
•  Behavioural disorders (where used for ADHD-adjacent classifications).
In responding to your request, we have used the question numbers indicated above to order
our responses. Please find our response below.
•  Question 1a: Table 1 contains a list of contracts funded by the HRC between 1 January
2015 and 1 December 2025, that reference the term ‘ADHD’ in the title, lay summary or
keywords. Also included are contracts that do not explicitly mention ADHD but include
one or more of the above agreed search terms and upon review have been determined
to be relevant to ADHD. Included is the researcher-assigned primary and secondary
health issue of greatest relevance to the research (relevant to question 4a). Please
note, not all contract types require the researcher to assign a primary or secondary
health issue. Also included where applicable is information on the proposals' relevance to
health equity for different demographic groups (i.e. Māori, Pacific) and to priority
populations (children and youth, older adults and disabled individuals).

Table 1: HRC-funded applications relevant to ADHD 2015-2025
Year
Proposal Title
Primary Health Issue
Secondary Health Issue
Health Equity  Priority Populations
Predictive modelling of executive function
Other (generic health or
2020
Neurological (CNS)
Māori
Children and youth
patterns in child psychopathology
health services)
Multimodal neuroimaging biomarker for
Mental health (and
2021
Neurological (CNS)
N/a
N/a
cognitive deficits in ADHD
sleep disorders)
The Role of Motor Fidgeting on Executive
2022
N/a
N/a
Māori
N/a
Functioning in ADHD
Human genetics and
Bringing precision to the diagnosis of complex
2022
inherited/congenital
Neurological (CNS)
N/a
Children and youth
neurodevelopmental disorders
conditions

•  Question 1b: We are withholding the details of individual unsuccessful applications to
protect the intellectual property of the applicants, who may wish to resubmit their
application to the HRC or other funding agencies in the future. This is in line with Section
9 of the Official Information Act 1982, Other reasons for withholding official information:

Section 9 (2)(b) Protect information where the making available of the information
would disclose a trade secret or would be likely unreasonably to prejudice the
commercial position of the person who supplied or is the subject of the
information.
There were 46 unsuccessful applications relevant to ADHD received by the HRC between 1
January 2015 and 1 December 2025. Our funding is highly competitive, with a high degree
of oversubscription for the available funds. From 2015 to 2025 our Project grant applications
had a success rate ranging from 6.5% to 17.2% (average 12.7% over ten years), while the
larger Programme grants had a success rate ranging from 10.5% to 50.0% (average 34.9%)
over ten years.
•  Question 1c: See Table 1 for the demographic focus of the ADHD-related research,
where this information is available. Please note that only the HRC’s larger grant types
(Projects, Programmes and Health Delivery Projects) undergo a full analysis to
determine relevance to priority populations, once they are approved for funding.
•  Question 2a. The HRC has identified we have no information to provide.
•  Question 2b. The HRC has identified we have no information to provide as we do not
have specific assessment criteria for assessing ADHD-related proposals. Information
relating to assessment criteria for current funding opportunities is publicly available on
the HRC’s contract management system Gateway available at:
https://gateway.hrc.govt.nz/ or the HRC website at https://www.hrc.govt.nz/grants-
funding/funding-opportunities. Further information about our Māori Health Advancement
assessment criterion is available on the HRC website: https://www.hrc.govt.nz/maori-
health/maori-health-advancement.
•  Question 2c. Please see response to Question 2b, above.
•  Questions 3a and 3b. The HRC has no relevant information to provide.
•  Question 4a: The HRC confirms that ADHD is not treated as a distinct research area.
The majority of applications received and assessed by the HRC are researcher-led. As
part of the application process, researchers are asked to select the primary health issue
that best describes their research and, if required, can select one secondary health
issue. As noted above, not all contract types require the researcher to assign a primary
or secondary health issue. The most common primary health issue identified by
researchers in proposals relevant to ADHD was mental health (1 funded application, 13
unfunded applications). See Table 1 for researcher-assigned primary and secondary
health issue of successful applications.
•  Question 4b. Given the breadth of health issues HRC funding supports, most
information and analyses are undertaken at a higher aggregate health issue level (e.g.
mental health). Where primary and secondary health issue information is available,
ADHD specific and related research can be identified. Annual analysis of HRC funded
research is available in our Annual Report available on the HRC website at:
https://www.hrc.govt.nz/resources/hrc-annual-report.

•  Question 5a. The HRC has no information to provide. The HRC is the government
agency dedicated to funding health research, the HRC does not conduct the research
itself. Any research related data or analysis is held by the researcher and / or the
research provider.
•  Question 5b. The HRC has no information to provide. The role of the HRC Ethics
Committee (HRCEC) is to ensure that independent ethical assessment of any proposed
research submitted for an HRC grant has been carried out by an ethics committee
approved by the HRCEC. More information about the HRC’s ethics committee can be
found on the HRC website at: https://www.hrc.govt.nz/resources/hrc-ethics-committee
and the role of ethics available at: https://www.hrc.govt.nz/grants-funding/role-ethics.

You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision.
Information about how to make a complaint is available at  www.ombudsman.parliament.nz
or freephone 0800 802 602.

Kind regards

Lynne Bjarnesen
Acting Chief Executive