The Society administers memorial trust funds providing for awards for scientific research, including the Hector and Hutton medals and various grants.

The Hector Memorial Research Fund, in memory of the late Sir James Hector, is in the form of a bronze medal awarded annually, in rotation, for the following subjects: (a) botany, (b) chemistry, (c) ethnology, (d) geology, (e) physics (including mathematics and astronomy), (f) zoology. The first award in 1912 was to L. Cockayne followed by Sir Thomas Easterfield, Elsdon Best, P. Marshall, Lord Rutherford, and C. Chilton for outstanding work in subjects in the order named. These were followed by T. F. Cheeseman, P. W. Robertson, S. Percy Smith,. R. Speight, C. Coleridge Farr, and G. V. Hudson. This is a prized award which has been given to most of New Zealand's eminent scientists.

The Hutton Memorial Medal is an award of a bronze medal, usually at intervals of three years, for scientific work of great merit bearing on New Zealand zoology, botany, or geology. In addition, the Council may make grants from the accrued interest of the fund to any person, society, or committee. This award is in honour of Captain Wollaston Hutton. It was awarded first, in 1911, to Sir William Benham, then to L. Cockayne, P. Marshall, J. E. Holloway, J. A. Thomson, C. Chilton, and G. V. Hudson, all outstanding for work in one of these three subjects.

Other awards include the Hamilton Memorial Prize which is provided from money subscribed in memory of the late Augustus Hamilton, and is for the encouragement of beginners in pure scientific research in New Zealand. It is awarded at three-yearly intervals for original work and papers published within five years of first investigations. The Sidey Memorial was established by the collection of shilling contributions to commemorate the work of Sir T. K. Sidey, which led to the passing of the Summer Time Act of 1927. This award is for the promotion of scientific research into the study of light and other solar radiations in connection with human welfare. The sum of £100 may be awarded to a person making a valuable contribution into such study. In 1933 the first award was to Lord Rutherford with a special award to G. V. Hudson. Government research grants may be made from funds available to the Society to defray cost of apparatus, material, and expenses for research workers, such apparatus to remain the property of the Society. Other grants are those from the Mappin Trust (gift of Sir Frank Crossley Mappin) for research on problems in connection with New Zealand plants, especially diseases of plants; the Leonard Cockayne Memorial Fund provides an award to encourage botanical research, from funds subscribed in memory of this great botanist; and the E. R. Cooper Memorial is a recent award for research in the fields of physics and engineering.