- Marsden Fund "Tongues, trees and Bayesian inference – towards a global language phylogeny" (2013)

- Marie Curie IIRSES grant (2012)

- Marsden Fund “The genetics of complex cognition” (2012)

- Templeton Fund “Testing the functional roles of religion in human society” (2011)

- Marsden Fund “Cultural evolution of religion” (2011)

- Marsden Fund “Does complex tool manufacture require specific neural and cognitive adaptations?” (2009)

- National Science Fund “Dynamics of Hunter-Gatherer Language Change” (2008)

- Faculty Research Development Fund “The psychological and biological underpinnings of complex cognition” (2008)

- Marsden Fund “Pushing the time barrier in the quest for language roots" (2007)

- Marsden Fund “The evolution of complex cognition: specialists or generalists?” (2005)

- Marsden Fund “Tongues and trees: phylogenetic tests of agricultural dispersals in the Americas” (2004)

- Marsden Fund “Singing in the Trees: Genealogical models of culturally-inherited traits and the population memetics of bird song” (2003)

- Marsden Fund “Tool manufacture, social transmission and cognition: New Caledonian crows as a model system" (2003)

- AURC “The cognitive basis of tool manufacture and use in New Caledonian crows” (2002)

- University of Auckland Emerging Research Activities grant (2001)

- Marsden Fund “A phylogenetic approach to linguistic evolution in Europe and the Pacific" (2001)

- Marsden Fund “Rebuilding ancient genes to study the last universal common ancestor" (2001)