The James Cook Research Fellowship is a New Zealand fellowship awarded annually to three recipients by the Royal Society Te Apārangi, in recognition of sustained excellence in research.
The scheme is government-funded and administered by the Royal Society Te Apārangi, and commemorates James Cook.
[3] The fellowships are "one of the premier awards for scientific, technological and social science research" and are awarded in recognition of sustained excellence in research.
This fellowship was established in 1968 to commemorate the bicentenary of Cook's landing in New Zealand, and was awarded to one person at a time for two or three years study.
It was available to both New Zealand and overseas applicants, and funded "research within New Zealand or the south-west Pacific region" in the fields of anthropology, geophysics, biology, history, geography, medicine, geology and oceanography.