Of the 15 awards presented, the premier award was the 2008 Research Development Investment Award, which was won by Dr Michael Schultz and Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences head Prof Andre van Rij.
Each received $50,000 for up to two years, to be used for the strategic advancement of research at the Dunedin School of Medicine.
Prof van Rij was delighted with the award, which would be used to establish the New Zealand Vascular Disease Research Consortium.
The money would allow the consortium to employ a project co-ordinator and pay for the transport of tissue and blood samples from around the country for research, he said.
Dr Schultz said his awarded funding would be used to support the ongoing development of the Gut Permeability Research Group.
"It will be used to foster projects with rheumatology, diabetes and gastroenterology.
"We are looking at the underlying causes of these diseases and hopefully that could lead to their prevention.
"We're absolutely thrilled. It helps an awful lot to continue what we are doing."
Health Research Council (HRC) chief executive Dr Robin Olds presented the awards at the University of Otago Staff Club on Tuesday night.
The HRC contributes about a third of all research funding at the Dunedin School of Medicine (more than $6 million per year) and the nature of the awards highlighted the importance of staying abreast of the changing requirements of the health research system in New Zealand.
The Dunedin School of Medicine and the Otago District Health Board also presented awards to acknowledge the "irreplaceable work" of the support staff of a number of researchers and research units.
Other award recipients were. -2008 Research Support Person Award: Jan Cowan (Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences); 2008 Research Publication Awards: Dr Julia Horsfield (Department of Pathology), Dr Gregory Jones (Department of Medical and Surgical Science), Prof Richie Poulton (Department of Preventive and Social Medicine); 2008 PhD Publication Award: Mr Tim Sutherland (Department of Preventive and Social Medicine); 2008 Research Poster Awards: Mr Gregory Tarr (Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences), Assoc Prof Patrick Manning (Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences); 2008 ODHB Award for Excellence in Research: Dr Michael Williams, Vanessa Hammond (Department of Preventive and Social Medicine), Grace Yu (Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences); Frances Cotter Scholarship: Dr Dougie Cowan (Otago Respiratory Research Unit); DSM Clinical Training Scholarship: Dr Tina Chen (Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences); 2008 Gil Barbezat Summer Studentship Prize: Lucy Knight (Department of Psychological Medicine); 2008 Dunbar Research Scholarship: Gerida Birkukila (Department of Psychological Medicine).
