2024 Research Programmes successful proposals

Workplace diversity has significant implications for a firm’s productivity and, in turn, aggregate productivity and economic growth. Improving the allocation of talent across the workforce is estimated to equate to productivity gains of 10%, and account for 20-40% of aggregate output growth per person over the long-term. 

The allocation of labour across sectors in NZ is highly segregated with concentrations of women and ethnic minorities in lower-paid industries. One implication of this lacklustre workforce diversity are substantial gender and ethnic pay gaps, which have significant financial, health and wellbeing consequences for affected individuals, and their whanau. Just a 1% reduction in gender and ethnic pay gaps would equate to an $180million wage gain per annum.

Our programme adopts a mixed-methods approach utilising disparate administrative, survey and qualitative data to create an evidence-base for policy and practice to improve workforce diversity. It will estimate the productivity benefits to NZ of improved diversity. The role of workplace policies and practices, diversity in organisations’ leadership, indigenised workplace, structural levers within and between occupations and industries will also be analysed. It will also evaluate public policies aimed at improving diversity and equity.

A key focus is on both Māori and Pacific businesses, and associated workplace practices and learnings regarding recruitment, pay transparency and organisational culture. Māori and Pacific-led qualitative research with change leaders will provide in-depth contextual understanding of enablers, barriers, and value systems attached to work.

The research team is led by Professor Pacheco and includes academics from NZ, Australia, Denmark and Germany. The team is supported by industry, government and non-government partners in an advisory group, who actively participated in the co-design of research priorities and will drive implementation of the findings.

Tens of thousands of people in Aotearoa New Zealand become sick from microbial contamination of drinking-water every year. Recent examples of drinking-water outbreaks in Queenstown and Havelock North underscore the vulnerability of our water supplies and highlight the high costs and consequences of unsafe drinking-water. The challenge of managing national drinking-water quality will only increase in the face of accelerating climate change, resource constraints and land-use changes. 

Microbial metagenomics and quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) are promising genetic tools that can help Aotearoa-NZ manage and deliver safe drinking-water on a national scale. Moving beyond non-specific bacterial indicators, metagenomics offers a powerful DNA sequencing approach that can identify all the microbes in a water sample, while qPCR focuses on targeted identification and quantification of specific microorganisms of concern. Metagenomics and qPCR can help prevent drinking-water outbreaks, assist with identifying the cause of outbreaks when they do occur, and guide better management of our water infrastructure. While powerful, this technology requires new science to unlock its full potential and avoid misinterpretations and misidentification of pathogens.

Our research team will undertake the science needed for the practical implementation of these tools by advancing their effectiveness in monitoring the microbial health risks of drinking-water. We will undertake case studies to validate better characterisation of pathogens and contamination in source waters, evaluate the efficacy of drinking-water treatment, and understand the microbial communities within drinking-water.

This research program will work alongside Taumata Arowai, local councils, and iwi to establish routine microbial protocols incorporating molecular biology tools that improve drinking-water safety while safeguarding the health and wellbeing of Aotearoa-NZ’s people.

For many New Zealanders their house is not only their home, but their largest investment. As Cyclone Gabrielle tragically demonstrated, our homes, livelihoods, wāhi tūpuna, and lives are increasingly vulnerable to the impact of landslides. If we were able to detect some of the slopes capable of damage, and even catastrophic collapse, and understand what drives their movement, we could inform building/infrastructure development, prepare our communities, and mitigate landslide impacts before they occur.

Most attention is paid to rapid, first-time slope failures that create obvious scars in the landscape and have immediate consequences. However, many landslides are pre-existing, large, deep, slow-moving and persist for generations; they damage homes, infrastructure and sometimes accelerate to fail catastrophically. Forecasting when a landslide might transition from slow to fast depends on our ability to identify the movement, constrain its mechanism, and model that movement under different driving conditions. Until now, methods used to find and predict the occurrence of damaging landslides faced considerable limitations, with traditional ground-based monitoring being too costly, time-consuming, and offering limited spatial coverage. We propose to use satellite data (InSAR) to detect slow-moving landslides, link their movement patterns to the climatic drivers and characterise their behaviour before they cause damaging and/or catastrophic impacts. Ultimately, our ambition is to move away from expensive local reactive (post-event), in-situ monitoring to nationwide, pro-active (pre-event), space-based observation across all Aotearoa.

Our multidisciplinary international team combines expertise in natural hazards, geodesy, geotechnics, climate, machine learning, and groundwater modelling from research institutions across Aotearoa, and from the UK, USA, and Japan.

Concrete is an essential material for building our infrastructure, providing strength, mass and resilience. As stated in the Te Waihanga vision “Infrastructure lays a foundation for the people, places, and businesses of Aotearoa New Zealand to thrive for generations.” However, the processes for making Portland cement, the active ingredient in concrete, release substantial quantities of greenhouse gases. This programme develops a new cementitious material that can replace some or all the Portland cement in concrete mixtures, while simultaneously absorbing large quantities of carbon dioxide. Implementing this research will transform concrete into a climate change solution, thereby transforming our infrastructure into a gigantic carbon sink.

Groundwater sustains lives and livelihoods. It flows in New Zealand’s rivers and streams, makes up much of our drinking water supply, and accounts for over 80% of water used for irrigation in our horticulture and agriculture industries. Yet we currently have few tools to effectively manage it. 

New Zealand’s groundwater is declining in quantity and quality at the same time as demand for this vital resource increases—a problem that is projected to worsen due to climate change. To protect our groundwater resources and adapt to changes in climate and land use, we urgently need to better understand groundwater systems and develop new strategies to manage and protect them.

Our project brings together groundwater modellers, complex-system and policy scientists, researchers, and mātauranga Māori experts from multiple domestic and international organisations. In a world first, this team of multidisciplinary experts will develop an agile groundwater management framework based on up-to-date, context-specific understandings of:

• aquifer structure and storage parameters;
• groundwater age, recharge, and flow rates;
• nitrate assimilation capacity at catchment levels.

Our Northland, Hawke’s Bay, Waikato, Wairarapa and Canterbury case studies represent New Zealand’s most productive aquifer systems and are places where drought and nitrate concentrations are of greatest concern. We will extrapolate from these, using new models, to identify:

• The groundwater systems most vulnerable to climate change.
• How climate change will alter groundwater quality, supply, and demand.
• Feasible long- and short-term water and land-use management strategies.

Our vision is to:

• Offer management solutions which take change and uncertainty in groundwater systems into account and involve communities in groundwater decision making.
• Support meaningful, ongoing iwi input into groundwater policy.
• Help communities with competing objectives and aspirations adapt to climate change-induced water-resource challenges.

We will establish a new manufacturing sector creating smart keratin biopolymer materials and downstream products, derived from wool keratin, answering international demands for natural materials that perform as well or better than synthetics. We project annual returns of >$200M by 2040, based on exports of NZ-manufactured thermal control membranes and associated garments, products that control the release of microbes in soil, textile fibres superior to silk and associated garments, and ruminant boluses for controlling GHG emissions. A wealth of additional product opportunities will flow from the new manufacturing industries and capability developed from our new keratin regeneration processes. 

To do this, we will discover new knowledge about the behaviour and control of keratin as a material with our focus being to maintain the uniquely complex structure of keratin as it occurs in wool, which leads to remarkable properties, including warmth, strength and moisture management. We anticipate adding smart properties to keratin materials by maintaining keratin’s complex protein structure, such as reversible shape and volume change and controlled breakdown. 

Our team from Lincoln Agritech, Harvard University, University of Auckland and AgResearch, brings world leading expertise in keratin science, smart material response, wool fibre and product development and commercialisation to tackle the challenge of creating a new keratin-based industry solve the world’s sustainability crisis.

Protecting New Zealand from the consequences of future volcanic eruptions requires a National Volcanic Hazard Model (NVHM), future-proofed for environmental changes. Volcanic eruptions present a poorly understood danger to Aotearoa-NZ from loss of lives, threats to our tourist and recreational industries, to the potentially $10 billion consequences of an Auckland eruption. Central to this lack of understanding is the absence of a robust forecasting system.  Present forecasts are limited to an increased likelihood of an eruption onset, without the much-needed forecasts of hazards from the ensuing eruption. A future NVHM, underpinned by the critical gaps bridged in this Programme, can then assemble past data and current monitoring to provide guidance on everything from personnel exclusion zones to the siting of critical infrastructure.

Using advanced simulation facilities, engagement with stakeholders, and probabilistic modelling, this research will deliver a clearer understanding of how hazards are initiated and evolve in response to environmental changes. We will focus on developing techniques to forecast hazard and impact rather than simply the onset of an eruption. Our conceptual climate-driven volcanic hazard and impact framework aligns to existing mātauranga and Te Ao Māori concepts of the driving forces on change in our volcanic hazardscape. Building on iwi taiao monitoring strategies and frameworks with our existing iwi partners in exploring iwi-based volcano observatories, we will design a system for robust monitoring and decision-making around our co-governed volcanoes. Reducing uncertainty through revolutionary multi-hazard/multi-vulnerability and impact models will allow for better preparedness.

This research will confirm New Zealand as an international leader in conceptualising  and quantifying hazard and impact and continue to strengthen the knowledge and capacity of our volcano advisory groups and CDEM groups to protect New Zealand.

Corbicula fluminea, commonly known as the freshwater gold clam, is native to eastern and southeast Asia and an alien invasive species in North and South America and Europe. Its ability to multiply rapidly, forming dense populations of tens of thousands of individuals per square metre, can lead to severe biofouling (clogging) of infrastructure such as hydropower plants, irrigation systems, and water treatment plants. Corbicula can negatively affect aquatic ecosystems, e.g., by competing with native species for resources. Without intervention, large-scale invasion of corbicula across waterbodies will result in significant restrictions and irreversible economic, social, cultural and ecosystem losses. 

In May 2023, the invasive corbicula was found for the first time in Aotearoa-New Zealand, at several locations in the Waikato River catchment. The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) responded to the corbicula incursion by commissioning a delimitation survey and corbicula was declared an Unwanted Organism under the Biosecurity Act 1993 in August 2023. 

The best chance to stop further spread of corbicula is acting early; it is now or never. 

This research programme supports Aotearoa-New Zealand’s response to the invasion.  The research includes maatauranga and western science knowledge systems to develop ambitious and novel control methods, understand the impacts of corbicula on taonga species, and predict its further spread. The ultimate goal is to stop the spread of corbicula and safe-guard our taonga, by developing effective control or eradication methods that can be used by a workforce of practitioners, at large spatial scales and across the incursion timeline, from recent to more established populations.

Wai Ora, Kāinga Ora aims to regenerate local waters and ecosystems through intergenerational, kāinga based wai solutions. Kāinga, including marae and culturally significant sites, are traditionally located by waterways and, therefore, are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change.  The growing impacts of anthropogenic climate change on our communities intensify the urgency to address these water issues. 

This Māori-led research programme, hosted by Pūrangakura, an independent Kaupapa Māori Research Centre, will co-create much needed collaborative initiatives with local Māori communities to address local climate impacts and provide place-based solutions to contribute towards a low emissions and climate resilient economy. The research programme brings together a large multi-disciplinary team with diverse expertise across mātauranga Māori, science, public policy, engineering, economics, architecture and more, to co-design kāinga based initiatives grounded in Te Ao Māori. The research will deploy a kaupapa Māori and community based participatory research approach, working with eight Māori communities to co-design community-led responses targeting climate impacts on waters and ecosystems essential to kāinga wellbeing through centering mātauranga Māori and place-based kōrero tuku iho. 

This timely research programme aligns with calls for Māori-led solutions alongside government commitments to address climate change impacts under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Through intergenerational knowledge sharing, transmission and kāinga-led climate action, Wai Ora, Kāinga Ora aims to deliver impactful change for at-risk communities and precious taonga tuku iho.

Contact: Dr Jenny Lee-Morgan, Pūrangakura, jenny@purangakura.co.nz

Invasive pests are a priority threat to Aotearoa New Zealand’s coastal environments. They can damage and irreversibly alter ecosystems we depend on for our identity, food, jobs, and recreation. These threats are escalating in a changing climate and, now more than ever, we need to front-foot effective defences to eliminate marine pests and roll back their impacts.

Aotearoa New Zealand has led the world in applied innovation for marine biosecurity – our systems to reduce the likelihood of pests arriving at our shores and rapidly detect any that do have set the standard. The essential next step is to develop effective strategies, tactics, technologies, and tools to eradicate or manage an extensive legacy of pests and inevitable ongoing incursions. Our programme will do just this, adding teeth to the overall biosecurity system.

We believe the key for effective marine pest control is to set clear goals at the earliest opportunity (as NZ did with COVID-19), followed by tactical application of fit-for-purpose control tools/technologies. To achieve this, we will develop and prove a spectrum of strategies that bridge the gap between invasion theory and practical biosecurity. These strategies will be backed by innovative decision-support and tactical planning tools plus a portfolio of cutting-edge pest control platform technologies designed to remove or kill pests at the rates and scales required to succeed.

This programme builds beyond the success of the Cawthron-led Marine Biosecurity Toolbox Endeavour Programme that delivered transformational science outcomes for marine surveillance and pathway management. In partnership with stakeholders across the biosecurity system, we are now positioned to transform marine pest control science and, in doing so, enhance coastal resources for long-term resilience and a thriving blue economy.

The oceans are warming, and our coastal environment is experiencing anthropogenic pressures that are reshaping microalgal communities. As the foundation of marine food webs and a substantial carbon sink, microalgal communities play a crucial role in marine ecosystem functioning and the blue economy, as well as influencing human recreational activities in and around the water. Microalgal community changes such as increased harmful algal blooms (HABs), decreases in beneficial species and the emergence of ‘ocean deserts’, threaten our marine ecosystems and have drastic ecosystem-level consequences. It is vital that we understand these evolving microalgal dynamics to enable effective management. 

We will develop a holistic and functional understanding of microalgal community dynamics using state-of-the-art approaches, including omic techniques, novel sensing approaches and artificial intelligence. From this, we will optimise novel monitoring approaches and refine the reporting, accessibility and communication of information on HABs. Assessing the impacts of HAB species on ecosystem and human health will underpin the development of guidelines for safe recreational use of coastal waters, create pathways for mitigation approaches and will aid iwi/hapū kaitiaki practitioners in the development of environmental management plans. Assessing how climate change impacts the physiology and nutritional quality of beneficial microalgae will inform industry planning and production practices. Microalgal forecasting by predictive models and incorporating spectral data from national- to local-scales will create new digital tools, enabling a real-time HAB alert system to reduce future impacts. 

Our programme will position Aotearoa to be proactive in prediction and management of these microalgal changes. The new tools will transform our ability to actively manage microalgal communities and develop effective mitigation strategies that protect marine ecosystems, safeguard public health and support sustainable development of the blue economy.

Fish cells cultured in the lab can be used in several ways. One of these is as fish cell production systems (FCPS) for making new products. This technology has the potential to change the way we produce seafood and generate marine products (e.g. collagen) through a technology known as cellular agriculture (CellAg). Cells and the media they are cultured in are the bricks and mortar of this technology; cells must be viable, healthy, multiply rapidly, and be able to grow in large numbers. Media must be defined, animal-free, and preferably sustainably produced. 

Existing fish cell lines and media do not meet these requirements, resulting in unstable foundations for seafood CellAg. Consequently, the technology is not commercially viable; there are no CellAg seafood products available globally. Our programme will expand knowledge of fish-cell culture, generating an in-depth understanding of cultured cells nutritional/environmental needs leading to enhanced isolation and proliferation which underpins CellAg technology. Once we understand fish cells’ optimal culture requirements, we can develop suitable natural nutrient sources.  We will apply this knowledge to explore two CellAg use scenarios: cell-derived collagen and cell-based fish meat. 

This programme also seeks to generate an understanding of the cultural/social aspects associated with acceptance of FCPS. This includes understanding Māori perspectives and concerns about products made for cells (e.g. sustainably produced media), by cells (e.g. collagen), and from cells (e.g. seafood), particularly in relation to taonga species. 

This programme will fundamentally change the way we utilise cultured fish cells, accelerating progress in cultured seafood, and unlocking new avenues for their use in novel products. In doing so we will place NZ at the technological forefront in cell line development and media formulation.

The spectre of collapsing ice shelves is raising concern about climate change impacts on Antarctica, the Ross Sea region and Aotearoa. Effective anticipation of impacts, however, requires a sophisticated assessment of their early warning signs. The recent, unexpected, and sharp decline in Antarctic sea-ice extent may be the most critical signpost indicating rapid change is now imminent. 

As sea ice around Antarctica recedes, heat absorption accelerates surface warming, destabilising ice shelves, leading to rapid and potentially unstoppable loss of up to one-third of Antarctica’s ice sheets, and resulting in multi-meter, global sea-level rise. Moreover, sea-ice loss weakens global ocean circulation, impacting heat distribution, decreasing ocean carbon storage, and reducing nutrient supplies that currently support 75% of global ocean primary production. As the Antarctic contracts, the tropics expand with increased heatwaves, atmospheric rivers, and ex-tropical cyclones - impacting Aotearoa.

The Antarctic Sea-Ice Switch (ASIS) Programme aims to understand recent abrupt changes in sea ice. We will improve models of future trends to forecast impacts on global climate, sea-level change, as well as the structure and function of ecosystems in the Ross Sea region Marine Protected Area.

ASIS will provide insights to facilitate adaptation to unavoidable change and identify additional impacts to expect if we cannot curb carbon emissions. Timely knowledge of the most harmful but avoidable impacts will incentivise the drive to net zero 2050, while helping to provide tangible solutions. Guided by the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, we build on established partnerships with Māori (i.e. Antarctic Science Platform, Our Changing Coast) to grow resilience for Aotearoa and Antarctica.

In the future, high-performance computing, including superconducting and quantum computing, will be undertaken at very cold [‘cryogenic’] temperatures.  Such computers will be very much faster than today’s supercomputers [like the difference between a Ferrari and an e-scooter] – but where the Ferrari computer will need only a tiny fraction of the energy to run as today’s supercomputers. High-performance computers are not yet a reality because cryogenic memory technology they require has not been developed. In this research programme, using our team’s expertise in a class of advanced materials known as rare-earth nitrides, we will build prototypes of the cryogenic memory arrays required for the high-performance computers of the future. Rare-earth nitrides have remarkable properties: unlike other materials, they have tuneable magnetic and electrical characteristics. As the effort to build high-performance computing systems gains momentum over the next decade, this technology will become more and more valuable. By the end of the research programme, we will establish a pilot manufacturing line for cryogenic memory, leading to prototype manufacture of memory arrays. We will integrate our arrays with cryogenic logic circuits supplied by our implementation partner in the US, giving us a way to enter the valuable US market. New Zealand technology companies, as well as Kiwi engineering and manufacturing firms, will be involved in our production line. They will be able to access international customers and take part in supplying export customers with the products we have jointly developed.  New, highly skilled, well-paid jobs will be created, and investment will flow into New Zealand companies in the global superconducting electronics business.

Diabetes is a leading cause of disability and death. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) reported that in 2021, ~540 million people were living with diabetes, >95% of whom have type-2 diabetes (T2D), with a further 50% undiagnosed. To date, all medicines for diabetes treat only symptoms: none can prevent/reverse the diabetic organ damage.

In New Zealand (NZ), Māori, Pasifika and Asian communities are disproportionately represented, with prevalence rates expected to almost double in these communities by 2040. The 2020 PwC The-Economic-and-Social-Cost-of-Type-2-Diabetes Edgar report estimated costs of diabetes to the NZ health system (~228,000 diagnosed patients) to have been $2.1 billion annually. This report also indicated that the prevalence of T2D in NZ is likely to reach epidemic proportions, increasing by 70-90% by 2040, with cost projections of ~$3.5 billion, significantly exceeding those for cancer/cardiovascular diseases over the next 20 years.

Our team has identified the probable molecular basis of pancreatic damage that causes insulin-deficiency and T2D. Over recent years, in our MBIE-funded programmes, we have learned how to target this mechanism therapeutically, using small molecules that markedly slow progression of diabetes in model systems. 

We are working towards the development of an innovative new medicine that can prevent the onset/progression of diabetes in patients, leading to a significant lengthening of life, and improvement in limiting organ damage. This therapy will have a positive transformative impact on NZ’s economic future by providing an effective therapy for T2D in NZ and worldwide, bringing future manufacturing and export potential to NZ, thereby contributing to economic growth through distinctive R&D, of relevance to Vision Mātauranga and its priorities. If we succeed, this will significantly benefit these communities in NZ, and those affected worldwide.

The cochlea of the inner ear is extremely small and completely encased in bone, making it one of the most difficult human organs to access for diagnosing and treating diseases that cause hearing loss. We aim to develop a medical device that can be inserted down the ear canal and through a small hole in the eardrum to assess the cochlea and quickly deliver drugs and other treatments. We have recently (i) invented a prototype device that uses ultrasound (very high frequency sound) to efficiently deliver drugs into the cochlea via the ear canal, (ii) produced pilot data using optical tools to investigate and assess the cochlea and its fluids; and (iii) established a world-leading programme using the sheep to study ear disease; and hearing loss. We will establish a New Zealand-based company to manufacture the device, creating a new industry for inner ear therapeutics, and added economic benefit to NZ through global investment and pharmaceutical company collaborations. We will build a local workforce to support new clinical research into inner ear therapeutics.  About 880,000 people in Aotearoa, and 1.5 billion worldwide, experience hearing loss; many cannot access or afford hearing aids or cochlear implants. Māori are disproportionately impacted by hearing loss and less likely to access treatment. We therefore are working very closely with Māori to ensure acceptability and access to our device within this community. Poorly managed hearing loss has considerable impact on children and adults and costs NZ around $4.6 billion annually. Our programme will address many of these costs by transforming the treatment of hearing loss to enable rapid assessment and precision treatment that will be more broadly accessible and cost-effective than current treatments.

The deadly tsunamis and submarine cable damage produced by the Hunga Volcano (Tonga) in 2022 demonstrated a lack of preparedness and resilience to the hazards of underwater volcanoes. With >80 active submarine volcanoes in the Southwest Pacific, this is a critical hazard blind-spot for New Zealand. As part of a global effort, we seek to understand these hazards and leverage findings from a series of planned international oceanographic voyages. Our focus is to discover and quantify the specific volcanic processes leading to castastrophic tsunami as well the causes of submarine flows of rock particles that destroy cables that we primarily depend on for internet connectivity. Our research will use laboratory experiments and computational modelling, informed and tested against field volcanology, marine geology and anthropology studies of unique case studies in the Southwest Pacific. 

Combining satellite and ship-board geophysical investigations, with new knowledge on the generation of extreme submarine mass flows and tsunami, we will pin-point the top-ten most dangerous underwater volcanoes from a New Zealand perspective. For these we will develop model scenarios from source to quantification of impact. We will use our results to design and advocate for a new generation of warning systems and risk mitigation measures for our shores and infrastructure.  Our results will contribute to New Zealand’s all-of-hazards risk model via GNS Science and NIWA and the National Emergency Management Agency. Our work will also directly inform actions and strategies of the International Cable Protection Committee and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

Negative emissions from land-based Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) can help NZ meet its climate targets. Today, this mainly occurs by planting new exotic (pine) forests for carbon credits. However, land availability and declining social licence may limit future forestry removals.

Three other land-based removal technologies could replace carbon forestry, and NZ has some natural advantages:

1. Bioenergy carbon capture – combusting biomass instead of fossil fuels (e.g., at dairy factories), capturing the CO2, and dissolving it into underground water.
2. Enhanced rock weathering – crushing up volcanic rocks with special properties, spreading them on pasture as fertiliser, with CO2 absorption happening due to the natural metereological weathering cycle.
3. Direct air capture – exposing air directly to certain types of rocks or materials that absorb CO2.

To make a difference, we will need at least 1 million tonnes per year (a megatonne) of removals. This could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues and co-benefits (e.g., green CO2, increased renewable power). However, the chemistry, costs, and compatibility of these new technologies are yet to be explored in a NZ context.

Our team of researchers comes from geological and environmental science, energy engineering, Mātauranga, legal policy, and economics. Our research takes a holistic view to derisking removals, including experiments in CO2-rock chemistry, engineering of safe underground storage, identifying synergies in the green economy that reduce life-cycle cost and waste, and designing monitoring and verification policy that gives stakeholders confidence in removals.

To implement the research, we will work with Māori enterprises and primary sector stakeholders to develop place-based case studies that map the benefits and challenges of future removals projects.

Background

Synthetic crop protection products (CPPs) are used extensively in agriculture and horticulture to combat disease, reducing crop losses by ≥50%. However, increasing concern over environmental and health impacts, combined with lost efficacy due to resistant pathogen strains, is seeing growing demand for alternative, low-impact CPPs. CPPs that enhance the natural immune systems of plants are prime candidates. 

Plants and pathogens have co-evolved and continue to wage war, with plants having developed highly complex sensory, messaging, and defense systems. Detection of seaweed polysaccharides by plant sensory systems result in enhancements in plant immune responses to subsequent pathogenic attack. Importantly, the effect is long-lived and the associated protection is broad-spectrum, providing protection from a range of disease-causing pathogens and the potential for reduced synthetic CPP inputs and associated dangerous residues.

Our research

We will develop polysaccharides isolated from taonga green seaweeds into low-impact, high-performing CPPS for horticulture and agriculture. We will develop a pipeline to produce high-value seaweed polysaccharide products with predictable and consistent efficacy that are suitable for organic farming practices and BioGrow certification. We will assess the efficacy of seaweed polysaccharide products against pathogens of kiwifruit, apple and tomato, and later pathogens of other globally important crops like wheat.

Benefits and Key beneficiaries

A Kāhui Māori (advisory board) will guide the responsible development and commercialisation of taonga species within the programme to ensure equitable access and benefit sharing. The programme supports uptake of seaweed aquaculture more generally and diversifies Aotearoa NZ’s manufacturing capability, providing new products for sustainable farm management. Supporting domestic end-to-end production and manufacture, the programme outcomes will benefit seaweed producers, manufacturing industry, and agri/horticulture businesses. Using low-impact, organic, crop protection products benefits consumers and the environment.

A new electromagnetic imaging method for advanced food process optimization

Contracting Organisation: University of Canterbury
Science Leader(s): Bill Heffernan
Funding (GST excl): $5,225,040
Funding Year: 2021
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2021
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Food processing is one of New Zealand’s most important economic sectors. Food safety and quality control are at the core of all government and industry food strategies.
We will develop a new imaging technique, referred to as “electrical admittance tomography”. By detecting and digitally processing the variations in electric and magnetic fields within food mixtures flowing through our sensors, we will be able to “see” into the food as it is being processed and in motion. These variations arise due to the differences in electrical conductivity of different materials passing through – for instance metals are very conductive, plastic and rubber are non-conductive, while foods occupy a range in between.
The new technology will provide a multifunctional, economical, viable detection system to enhance product quality, safety and efficiency in the food processing industry. The core research team is based at the Universities of Canterbury and Auckland, and Lincoln Agritech. This team has expertise ranging from computer modelling, electronic sensing and digital signal processing, through to food process engineering. In addition we are working with overseas experts in electrical imaging and food processing.
Our programme will produce many benefits for a wide range of end users, including milk, cheese, ice-cream and sausage producers. In addition to improved food safety, reduced waste and increased efficiency, will be the creation of jobs in manufacturing to produce and sell the sensing and imaging systems based on our technology.
We are working with NZ-based manufacturing and process design partners, to produce and market the products, and with seven well-known major NZ food producers, in the dairy and meat processing sectors.

A window into the brain: smart wearable technologies to target neurological disorders

Contracting Organisation: University of Otago
Science Leader(s): John Reynolds
Funding (GST excl): $10,180,560
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 4 years

Public Statement

Professor John Reynolds at the University of Otago is leading an international team of world class scientists to develop a new wearable technology to change the way neurological disorders like Parkinson’s Disease and brain cancers are treated.
Their revolutionary approach is a “wearable hat” that generates beams of sound and light energy beyond the range of human perception, focused on specific regions deep in the brain. The focused beams cause specially developed drug carriers administered in the blood stream to release their medical payloads at precise locations when and where they are required. The hat will be operated on demand and can be used on the move and away from the hospital or clinic. This will be especially useful for remote communities and for in-home treatment with whānau and family.
The precise targeting and timing of drugs to specific parts of the brain means for Parkinson’s Disease better life-changing outcomes for patients, with reduced side-effects, vastly improving existing treatments which are imprecise, wear off over time, and can be surgically invasive. Targeting cancer therapies to the precise area of the tumour in the brain will vastly improve treatment for brain cancers and reduce treatment side effects. Other neurological conditions will also benefit from the knowledge gained and technology developed from this research.
This world-leading technology utilises existing New Zealand manufacturers and will enhance the medical technology industry. New technology jobs will be created here to make and sell high value medical products to the rest of the world.
Māori participation in all aspects of the project provides technical and cultural attributes unique to New Zealand leading to unanticipated utilities and advantages to maximise the benefits for all New Zealanders.

Adaptable phage solutions: an Aotearoa-NZ platform for precision biocontrol for primary industries

Contracting Organisation: University of Canterbury
Science Leader(s): Heather Hendrickson, Peter Fineran
Funding (GST excl): $8,946,240
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Our primary industries face numerous pathogens, with a dwindling supply of sustainable solutions for protecting food production. Our programme will create safe and environmentally friendly biocontrols to combat bacterial pathogens in Aotearoa New Zealand and abroad. We are building on our expertise to generate a robust pipeline for the discovery and development of non-GM phage-based biocontrols against any bacterial pathogen. Our program will exploit data-intensive analysis of phage-bacterial interactions, employ smart cocktail design and evolutionary methods to create phage biocontrols that target the appropriate pathogens and mitigate phage resistance.
Our interdisciplinary team includes a broad range of research experience and Māori leaders who will work together to establish a phage biocontrol pipeline for commercialisation and manufacture in Aotearoa New Zealand. We will target 4 important pathogens with different challenges and at different research and development stages to ensure the creation of robust and generalisable phage-based solutions. Our initial products will economically benefit the kiwifruit and apiculture sectors, which were significantly impacted by bacterial pathogens. Further pipeline optimisation involves research on phage biocontrols for cherry and salmon industries.
Our programme will create a new phage manufacturing bioindustry in Aotearoa New Zealand with highly-skilled jobs and will improve our food sectors’ productivity. Longer term, our platform will be ideally positioned to pivot towards emerging threats to food production, and even medically-relevant human pathogens.
We will work closely with stakeholder and advisory committees, while conducting outreach and market acceptance work to ensure impactful outcomes. This programme will generate a knowledge-intensive sector, provide environmental and sustainability benefits, reduce toxic agrichemicals, improve user safety and brand identity, and enhance market access in environmentally-conscious global markets.

Adapting to climate change through stronger geothermal enterprises

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Professor Shane Cronin
Funding (GST excl): $6,460,260
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Aotearoa hosts world-class geothermal environments suited to low-cost, sustainable energy generation. These could pave the way to an economically achievable (and just) transition to a hydrocarbon-free economy. In order to achieve this sustainable goal, this project will deliver underpinning knowledge that integrates new ecological economic, computational, Mātauranga Māori and geoscience to promote safety, sustainability, and growth of diverse geothermal enterprises in Aotearoa-NZ. We will also demonstrate global leadership to enhance geothermal use around the world.
Outputs will include new numerical simulations and geoscience models of geothermal-system stability and background hazards - based on scenarios of geological processes, climate-driven hydrological change, and anthropogenic interventions (including CO2 sequestration and intensification). Growth will be encouraged by the development of new economic models and decision-support tools that quantify the diversity of benefits and losses of different geothermal development options – particularly highlighting wellbeing and targeted needs that help provide better social financial/investment levers. New decision-making frameworks for geothermal investment will integrate new Kaupapa-created Mātauranga Māori values and target Māori-identified wellbeing and skills-development pathways.
Using our Aotearoa and international experience, we will work with energy companies, Māori businesses, land trusts, and Government to develop new economic tools that driving new geothermal investment. We will build more appropriate business cases that underpin growth of diverse, sustainable, and productive geothermal enterprises. This will rest on a foundation of new impact-based investment knowledge and tools that highlight the wider benefits from geothermal development, especially to improve regional and Māori economies. Our work will contribute a safe, thriving, expanding geothermal economy. This is critically important, because geothermal systems are the key to low- carbon sustainable energy generation, have diverse direct-use heat applications, and potential for sustainable smart-mineral extraction.

Āmiomio Aotearoa – A circular economy for the wellbeing of New Zealand

Contracting Organisation: University of Waikato
Science Leader(s):
Funding (GST excl): $10,939,795
Funding Year: 2020
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2020
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Āmiomio Aotearoa is a circular economy concept created for the Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) context, shaped by the philosophies and values of both founding cultures, Māori and NZ European.
The circular economy is cyclical in nature, whilst being regenerative by design, seeking to maintain products, components and materials at their highest value as long as possible. A shift to a circular economy in NZ would play a significant role in meeting the aims of key NZ Government policies related to sustainable development and wellbeing. It presents a major opportunity to improve NZ’s long-term competitiveness, to create value across the economy, and to simultaneously provide regenerative environmental benefits and enable a sustainable, low-emission, climate-resilient future.
Despite the transformative potential of the circular economy concept, it has yet to achieve significant uptake by business and other key societal actors because, while the concept is intuitively appealing and widely supported, the underpinning research and knowledge required to realise it in practice are scattered across multiple disciplines, and are collectively inadequate. This research programme will address these gaps, delivering a transformative multidisciplinary platform that integrates the many essential bodies of knowledge, research communities, novel insights, and practical actions that can contribute to circular economy success in NZ.
The programme brings together a team formed of investigators with expertise in materials science, engineering, energy, economics, Kaupapa Māori, business, law and regulation, social science and public policy. Together, the team has a collection of impressive research outputs and a strong track record of transforming research into applied outcomes. The team will work in partnership with Māori and in close collaboration with Government, industry/business and society.

Assessing and managing the risk of carcinogenic erionite in New Zealand

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s):
Funding (GST excl): $7,682,404
Funding Year: 2020
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2020
Term: 4 years

Public Statement

Erionite is a natural mineral fibre that forms in volcanic regions, including being newly discovered in the Auckland region of New Zealand. It is similar to asbestos but even more likely to cause cancer when inhaled. When rock and soil containing erionite are disturbed during construction projects e.g. tunnelling, erionite can be released into the air, exposing workers and the general public. Erionite has caused significant health issues in Turkey and the western USA. However in NZ, little is known about where and how much exists. Due to the potential health and safety risks of erionite, it is of utmost importance to determine its distribution, test how easily it is disturbed and, together with the construction industry, develop methods to keep workers and the public safe.
This programme combines a team of geologists, environmental scientists, medical specialists and engineers with industry experts, policy makers, social scientists and community members. The team’s goal is to replace uncertainty with knowledge about the risk posed by erionite, and deliver sound risk assessment and safe management practices, and foster the development of a new high-tech erionite measurement industry with potential for export of services, knowledge and technologies to other countries struggling with erionite contamination.

Beneath the Waves: Preparedness and resilience to New Zealand’s nearshore volcano hazards

Contracting Organisation: GNS Science
Science Leader(s): Craig Miller
Funding (GST excl): $13,300,000
Funding Year: 2021
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2021
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

The hazards from New Zealand’s near-shore volcanoes - Tuhua and Whakaari – will be explored in depth under a new research programme led by GNS.
The programme was under development before the tragic eruption of Whakaari on December 9 2019, which GNS scientist Dr Craig Miller says gives the research a new urgency and is a stark reminder of the volcanoes’ potential to do serious harm.
Dr Miller, who will lead the research, says relatively little is known about the underwater extent and internal anatomy of the volcanoes and the threats they present to life and property.
“The risks come not only from eruptions which have previously impacted as far as Auckland, but from under-sea flank collapse, which has the potential to send destructive tsunami onto nearby shores containing major ports, settlements and popular beaches.”
Dr Miller says given the scale of risk there is an urgent need to better characterise and forecast island volcanic hazards.
The programme will undertake detailed underwater geophysical exploration and conduct large scale experimental work and computer simulations to understand the potential for ashfall and tsunami. The programme integrates a range of stakeholders, including iwi and national agencies who will guide the research to deliver outcomes relevant for Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Waikato and East Cape communities.
The research will deliver improved understanding of island volcano hazards and their impact as well as improve forecasts of their occurrence.
“Given the population density of the Bay of Plenty/Waikato region, the presence of New Zealand’s biggest port, and the horticultural and tourism industries in this region, the knowledge we gain will be of considerable value in safeguarding future development and nationally-important assets “, Dr Miller says.
Contact:media@gns.cri.nz

Creating Capacity and Capability for the New Zealand Construction Sector

Contracting Organisation: Massey University
Science Leader(s):
Funding (GST excl): $8,660,854
Funding Year: 2020
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2020
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

The NZ Government is embarking on a substantial spending programme in the built environment to deliver societal improvements. It has formed the NZ Infrastructure Commission to lead this programme, developing a strong project pipeline of work planned across New Zealand, including road upgrades, land development, and housing, with investment coming from departments, agencies, local authorities, and the private sector. In parallel with these plans, the construction sector has joined with government to address well-recognised shortcomings and needs for improvement in the delivery of construction projects, through the NZ Construction Sector Accord.
A collaborative team of university academics and industry professionals, headed by Professor Monty Sutrisna, School of Built Environment, Massey University, will help improve the delivery of these new national projects by creating a world-first smart system, called CanConstructNZ, that will model and report the dynamic inter-relationships of New Zealand’s infrastructure work pipeline (the proposed building, construction, and infrastructure projects) against the construction sector's capacity and capability to deliver (including: procurement & processes, supply chain & organisations, people, and technology & tools).
By providing focus to this supply and demand situation, CanConstructNZ will enable tailoring of projects to the delivery constraints, while enabling enhancement our construction sector’s performance, allowing optimised solutions, so that New Zealand’s future construction projects will be delivered efficiently, effectively, sustainably, and safely.
It is envisaged this collaborative endeavour CanConstructNZ, led by Massey University, will bring about a fundamental change in the construction sector by creating a new level of visibility for all stakeholders, enabling investor confidence in delivery, stability of construction companies and resource planning, confidence to people seeking training and education to work in the sector, and a brighter future for all.

Cyber-physical seafood systems: Intelligent and optimised green manufacturing for marine co-products

Contracting Organisation: The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited
Science Leader(s):
Funding (GST excl): $16,280,000
Funding Year: 2020
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2020
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

We typically think of seafood as delicious shellfish and fillets, but the enormous range of harvested animals from Aotearoa’s aquaculture and fisheries also represents a complex mixture of molecules with uses far beyond food. Many of these molecules have special properties making them valuable commercially, including as products for human/animal health. They range from big structural proteins for biomedical scaffolds, through to anti-inflammatory omega-3s, and blood pressure-lowering or anti-aging peptides. The good news is that these molecules are often found in by-products and by-catch, so we can grow our seafood industry without affecting seafood availability, or needing more fish to be caught - a genuine vision of kaitiakitanga. The challenge is how to extract them all out of really diverse marine organisms, containing different types and combinations of the molecules. Current technology can’t do this. We need new technology that is economical, uses environmentally friendly processes with low emissions and the biggest challenge, doesn’t destroy one component while recovering another.
We need factories that can change how they operate to match raw materials with the products we want. Right now, we can assess composition using chemical testing, but this takes a long time. For our responsive factories to work, we need analysis in real time as material arrives or changes. The Cyber-Marine research programme will develop AI-integrated sensor systems able to immediately tell us what’s in the raw material, then use the information to direct optimised processing. This will require development of new low-energy extraction technologies that use the differences in properties of molecules to sequentially separate the components.
While this programme centres on seafood, the technology will have application across the primary-production sectors and beyond.

Developing a Construction 4.0 transformation of Aotearoa New Zealand's construction sector

Contracting Organisation: NZ Heavy Engineering Research Association
Science Leader(s): Robert Amor
Funding (GST excl): $10,270,359
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 4 years

Public Statement

Aotearoa New Zealand’s construction industry reached over $20.5 billion in 2019, making it a major contributor to GDP and employment, as well as developer of critical national infrastructure. However, it is an industry that requires radical transformation and has long been criticised for its low productivity, inefficiencies, and significant contribution in New Zealand’s carbon emissions. This project will deliver the high quality and technically challenging research required to create transformation in terms of productivity, quality, affordability and sustainability in this critical industry through adoption of Industry 4.0 approaches to provide better decision support throughout the supply and value chain. This will be achieved by developing a standardised data management protocol for the sector sitting above three research programs focused on Circular design, (e.g. design lead construction process, Smart construction and Monitoring 4.0. Four research themes (Mātauranga Māori, Healthy sustainability, Computing Technology and Technology Transfer) will underpin these research programs to ensure that they are linked in delivering outcomes of universal relevance to the Sector.

Developing platforms for biological research in microgravity

Contracting Organisation: University of Canterbury
Science Leader(s): Dr Sarah Kessans
Funding (GST excl): $9,870,048
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

As 1 of only 12 space-faring nations, NZ is uniquely placed to leverage its domestic launch services to develop a world-leading space ecosystem. Hundreds of biological experiments are conducted on the International Space Station (ISS) each year, with studies ranging from human physiology and molecular biology, to microbiology and plant biology. These discoveries have translated directly into clinical biomedical applications, new drug development, and sustainable solutions for primary industries. Microgravity protein crystallisation is an increasingly valuable tool for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, with the majority of crystals grown in microgravity exhibiting superior quality over control experiments conducted on Earth. Despite the significant value microgravity experimentation can provide to the global USD 1.1B protein crystallisation industry, executing microgravity crystallisation is currently orders of magnitude more challenging than analogous experiments on Earth, with costs and extended experimentation timelines cited as leading reasons for preventing most potential clients from utilising microgravity.
To address these challenges, we will build upon our successful protein crystallisation prototype development develop fully-automated, high-throughput crystallisation facilities. Our partnership with leading commercial microgravity platform developer Axiom Space will ensure regular, frequent, and cost-effective missions to both the ISS in the near term and the first commercial space station from 2025 to enable efficient, streamlined services to pharmaceutical and academic/government research customers. Our programme will validate the designs of our hardware and software systems, provide critical flight heritage for our commercial modules, and lay the groundwork for implementation of long-term commercial platforms on Axiom Station. We will use the technology, partnerships, and processes developed in this programme to establish a competitive commercial microgravity research industry in New Zealand at the interface between the trillion-dollar global pharmaceutical and aerospace sectors.

Emerging aquatic diseases: a novel diagnostic pipeline and management framework

Contracting Organisation: Cawthron Institute
Science Leader(s): Kate Hutson
Funding (GST excl): $9,969,137
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Harmful aquatic diseases have destructive impacts on NZ’s marine and freshwater animals and plants and represent a significant ongoing risk. Diseases can devastate wild and farmed seafood sectors, damage aquatic ecosystems, and the wellbeing of our communities. The number of aquatic disease investigations in Aotearoa/New Zealand doubled in the past five years, and most of these diseases take years to diagnose or a cause is never identified, undermining all management efforts. Disease emergence in our waterways is escalating under climate change and we need new and improved ways to prevent and respond to this threat effectively.
Our Emerging Aquatic Diseases Research Programme will overcome some long-standing challenges to resolving aquatic disease causation. We will draw upon medical frameworks to develop and implement a new forensic approach for investigating aquatic disease that will enable reliable and timely diagnosis. This will provide the knowledge needed for effective collective action by scientists, government, and communities.
We will focus on key steps in the diagnostic process to predict emerging disease trends, improve incident reporting, advance our ability to identify a short-list of suspects early in the diagnostic process, and better understand the factors that might be causing aquatic disease outbreaks. The programme will unite leading scientific expertise in aquatic animal health, biosecurity, microbiology (bacteriology, parasitology, and virology), genomics, cell culture, aquatic animal husbandry, and social science alongside mana whenua and government stakeholders.
This new approach to aquatic disease investigation will build national resilience against aquatic disease by improving reliability and speed of our efforts to diagnose diseases and respond to them. These outcomes will ultimately protect our precious aquatic ecosystems, preserve aquatic cultural and social value, and safeguard our >$3B seafood industries.

Enabling unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) to use tools in complex dynamic environments

Contracting Organisation: University of Canterbury
Science Leader(s): Richard Green
Funding (GST excl): $9,837,002
Funding Year: 2021
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2021
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Robotics has revolutionised a wide range of industries over the past decades. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs/drones) are revolutionising surveying and inspection tasks that once required manned aircraft, and becoming a standard tool for a wide range of applications. However, one glaring omission our project will solve is UAVs as flying robots, which are able to accurately use tools to perform precision tasks at high and hard-to-reach locations.
Our novel solution is to design, build and demonstrate a compact UAV with precise 6 degrees-of-freedom positioning capability enabled by new control methods, airframe designs, aerodynamic models, and position estimation (visual odometry) in dynamically changing (windy) environments.
We have assembled a leading drone research team, including a wide network of international collaborators to tackle these challenging tasks. We designed our implementation for fast uptake and maximum impact in a wide range of industry sectors. For NZ UAV manufacturers, a new product class of UAVs able to use precision tools will open new national and huge international markets increasing export earnings. For users in arboriculture, silviculture, electricity industry, agriculture and construction sector our
technology will help to increase productivity, decrease costs and substantially improve worker’s health & safety.
In summary, our programme will help to redefine how and where we are able to use UAVs as aerial robots to perform tasks. This will move humans out of harm’s way and increase productivity for a wide range of different industry sectors and end users, ultimately benefiting every New Zealander.

Enhancing the impact of major urban regeneration on community wellbeing

Contracting Organisation: Auckland University of Technology
Science Leader(s):
Funding (GST excl): $7,995,410
Funding Year: 2020
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2020
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

The purpose of this programme is to improve the revitalisation of New Zealand communities, leading to better wellbeing outcomes nationally, within communities, and among individuals. The research is aligned with the multi-billion-dollar urban regeneration and building projects currently taking place across New Zealand. The focus on wellbeing has arisen from the substantial international evidence indicating that countries that enhance wellbeing not only raise the standard of living for their citizens but also create a foundation for stronger and more resilient economic growth. This programme will firstly unravel the long-term impact of urban regeneration on high-level indicators of community wellbeing and deprivation using routinely collected government data. The next aspect of the project is centred on Kāinga Ora tenants – a population that experiences significant economic, social, health, and education hardship. The personal wellbeing of public housing tenants at various stages of housing development will be examined. The final stage of the project will explore in how urban regeneration impacts ‘experienced’ wellbeing (e.g., momentary affective states like stress, anxiety, mood), physical activity, social contact, sense of community, neighbourhood interaction/mobility, and cultural identity. The outcomes of this work will provide developers and policy-makers with new and essential information on the multifaceted impact of major urban regeneration on the people of New Zealand, giving direction to future improvements. By protecting and adding value to the government’s major social investment, this will have significant and long-lasting benefits for New Zealand society.

Extreme wildfire: Our new reality - are we ready?

Contracting Organisation: Scion
Science Leader(s): Not provided
Funding (GST excl): $11,250,000
Funding Year: 2021
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2021
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Extreme wildfire is accelerating much faster than predicted—research and operations worldwide are struggling to keep ahead of the fire-front. Even in NZ, what was once rare is now the norm. The changing climate is increasing the frequency and severity of wildfires, and escalating the risks, especially for those living within the Rural-Urban Interface (RUI, Lake Ōhau is a tragic example). We have no wildfire code—decisions made today will constrain homeowners’ options for decades. Our indigenous forests, once
considered “safe” from fire, are under threat. Today, the annual average direct impact of rural fire on NZ’s economy is ~$140M, with indirect ‘costs’ estimated to be at least 2-3 times the direct cost, plus indirect impacts as much as 30-60 times direct costs. The direct costs alone are predicted to rise to ~$550M/annum by 2050 under a likely climate- change scenario. A world-class international team from Scion, US Forest Service Missoula Fire Science Laboratory, San Jose State University, US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, RMIT, USFS-Colorado, Canterbury and Lincoln University, will challenge existing understanding of the transitions between linear (predictable) and extreme (unpredictable) fire, especially in relation to fuels. Predicting the physical processes driving fire-spread is central to all fire readiness; without that knowledge, it is not possible to develop effective tools and strategies to keep firefighters and communities safe. We address the Government’s investment priorities for the environment by enabling NZ to better manage the impacts of fire. All rural fire stakeholders will benefit from this programme, including Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) Department of Conservation (DoC), rural landowners, RUI residents, and in particular Māori with their role as kaitiaki of our indigenous forests.

Fast-tracking Finfish Climate Change Adaptation

Contracting Organisation: The Cawthron Institute Trust Board T/A The Cawthron Institute
Science Leader(s): Jane Symonds
Funding (GST excl): $10,995,156
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Climate change is increasingly impacting food production systems and industry needs to better prepare for future climate challenges. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ocean ecosystems and farmed finfish are already impacted by warming sea temperatures, as demonstrated by the recent salmon mortalities in the Marlborough Sounds. To enable the finfish aquaculture sector to thrive and adapt to this uncertainty, we will create future adaptive breeding strategies that shift from a short-term productivity focus to incorporate resilience breeding in a new dynamic future context. With that knowledge we will develop new adaptation plans that incorporate climate-change forecasting and identify strategies to respond to emerging threats.
This new approach will enable breeding programmes co-designed with industry and iwi to adjust as future environmental conditions emerge. This will help established (salmon) and emerging taonga species (tāmure/snapper and haku/kingfish) thrive and provide industry and iwi with options through species diversification. Using multiple molecular tools (e.g., DNA sequencing and gene expression analysis) we will identify genes of importance for resilience and will deliver accelerated and increased genetic gain. With our Māori partners we will develop best-practice to ensure these technologies are applied appropriately within a Te Ao Māori context.
Our research meets an urgent need by accurately identifying resilient finfish that will be bred to improve survival, welfare and performance in multiple environments, protecting and adding value to a growing industry into the future. Our research will make sure the right species and genotypes are farmed in the right locations as climate futures emerge. Our adaptation and resilience breeding tools will be applicable beyond aquaculture, locally and globally, including other primary producers, stock managers and conservationists, enabling development and proactive tuning of climate change adaptation responses.

Fish futures: preparing for novel freshwater ecosystems

Contracting Organisation: Cawthron Institute
Science Leader(s): Jane Kitson, Joanne Clapcott
Funding (GST excl): $12,071,874
Funding Year: 2021
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2021
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Freshwater fish are a cornerstone of freshwater values in Aotearoa including biodiversity and ecosystem health. They help New Zealanders sustain their cultural identities and to care and connect with the natural world. However, we are failing to protect fish and the values they support, and so we are failing to protect and nurture healthy freshwater ecosystems and healthy people. There is an urgent need to address the increasing pressure on our native fish from pressures like human activity, climate change, and threats from other species. This research aims to transform the way we think about and manage freshwater fish through the co-development of new knowledge. One of the key challenges in doing something about the pressures on native fish are the differences in values and interests of the various groups of people who care for New Zealand’s freshwater environment. This is why three place-based studies and a national policy working group will work toward fostering a shared understanding, respect and reconciliation of different values for fishes. Co-designed studies that investigate both social and environmental issues will help us understand how freshwater fish and fisheries can be enhanced and effectively managed in response to future climate change pressures. Studies will draw on expertise in fundamental and applied fish ecology, biophysical modelling, mātauranga Māori, environmental values, qualitative and quantitative social science methods, science-policy relations, and applied and critical policy analysis. A policy working group, made up of New Zealand’s leading fish management agencies, will be tasked to develop new planning tools and responsive policies grounded by Treaty principles to better integrate the management of native and introduced fishes in Aotearoa.

Fungal volatile organic compounds for sustainable agriculture in a changing environment

Contracting Organisation: Lincoln University
Science Leader(s): Prof. John Hampton
Funding (GST excl): $10,689,853
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Environmental changes pose significant threats to New Zealand’s primary production, generating a critical need for innovative, effective solutions to maintain production in the face of increasing drought, temperature and pathogen/pest attack. Our research programme will pioneer a new class of environmentally friendly plant
protectant, naturally occurring fungal volatile organic compounds (FVOC). We will demonstrate that application of our FVOC products will reduce the negative impacts of climate change induced stress on plant production as well as increasing the plant’s ability to tolerate attack from disease-causing microbes. The costs of recent drought events and reductions in pasture persistence to New Zealand’s primary industry were ~$2 billion for the dairy, sheep and beef sectors.
We will use the latest scientific research tools to help us understand FVOC-plant interactions, particularly molecular level changes which may be heritable, and thus transferable through generations via seed. This research will be conducted by a team at Lincoln University in conjunction with domestic (AgResearch, Scion, Otago, Massey and Canterbury Universities) and international (Singapore, Mexico, Austria, USA) research partners.
We aim to deliver non-toxic, environmentally-safe alternatives to existing and phased-out agricultural chemicals. This will help future-proof Aotearoa's agricultural, horticultural and forestry production in the face of emerging climate change stressors.

Generation Kāinga: Rangatahi building a regenerative and resilient Aotearoa

Contracting Organisation: Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi
Science Leader(s): Jenny Lee- Morgan
Funding (GST excl): $9,778,272
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 4 years

Public Statement

Generation Kāinga addresses one of the most pressing Māori priorities and greatest aspirations: Māori housing tenure and our ability to exercise authority over our kāinga for the well-being of whānau, hapū, iwi and communities. This kaupapa Māori research programme seeks to unlock the capacity of rangatahi Māori to become key agents in promoting and developing whanau housing and kāinga solutions.
A Kaupapa Māori approach aligns with a Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) that centralises the participation and agency of the community, or in this case rangatahi. A strength of this project is the participation of outstanding rangatahi who are emerging researchers and change-making leaders, as well as innovative and successful rangatahi groups and initiatives.
Given the holistic nature of kāinga and the complex challenge of transformative change in the Māori housing sector, the multiple dimensions that facilitate a Generation (of rangatahi committed to) Kāinga is expressed in four ORA (wellbeing) themes: Kāinga ora; whenua ora; rangatahi ora; and ōhanga ora.
This project is organised to systematically undertake innovative research that will deeply connect with our rangatahi and whānau; reveal innovative rangatahi solutions and pathways to repatriate, restore and create kainga; and mobilise whānau, iwi and hapu, as well as government agencies and service to take action and enact strategic change.
This kaupapa Māori project is not only made up exclusively of Māori researchers, but features some of the most eminent Māori research leaders in their respective fields, including Prof Linda Smith, Prof Jenny Lee-Morgan and Rau Hoskins. Our team brings together the wisdom of mātauranga Māori, intersections with western science, expertise in the Māori housing sector, as well as wide professional and community networks through our extensive whanaungatanga relationships.

Greater Electricity Generation and Industrial Heat Opportunities from Existing and Greenfields Geothermal Resources

Contracting Organisation: Victoria University of Wellington
Science Leader(s): Professor James (Jim) Johnston
Funding (GST excl):

$6,346,490
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Geothermal energy is an important natural, sustainable, low carbon resource for generating electricity in NZ. We have discovered a transformational chemical and engineering technology (CaSil technology), to recover 60-100% more heat energy for electricity generation and industry/consumer direct heating applications, from hot separated water flows in existing and new geothermal plants.
We achieve this by solving the major worldwide problem of silica deposition as an intractable sinter from the hot water in geothermal resource utilisation, which blocks pipework, heat exchangers and reinjection wells, severely limiting the amount of heat energy that can be extracted and electricity generated by the binary cycle technology.
Our innovative technology captures and rapidly transforms silica in geothermal water into a unique nanostructured calcium silicate (CaSil) material before silica deposition takes place. The CaSil does not adhere to metal surfaces and is separated as a useful product for environmentally beneficial and water restoration applications.
We will use the CaSil product to manufacture CaSil-based controlled-release fertilisers, providing more effective fertiliser use and reducing excess nutrient run-off and pollution of waterways.
Our research will deliver a transformational technology that successfully addresses Climate Change mitigation and Clean Water restoration.
New revenue streams will be generated from the additional electricity generated, reduced eothermal field and equipment maintenance, and from CaSil fertilisers.
The technology is applicable to New Zealand and international geothermal resource utilisation for electricity generation.

Hazard, risk and impact modelling for fast moving landslides

Contracting Organisation: Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences Limited – Trading as GNS Science
Science Leader(s): Saskia de Vilder, Emma Hudson-Doyle
Funding (GST excl): $10,482,505
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Landslides of all types and sizes occur across Aotearoa. As we’ve seen in Cyclone Gabrielle, they can have a devasting impact, resulting in loss of life, damaged and destroyed homes, and disrupting and isolating communities long after the rain has stopped. To plan for, invest smartly, and reduce our risk from landslides we need to know where and when they will occur, how big they might be, what or who they will impact and what the consequence of that impact is likely to be. In short, we need national maps of landslide hazard and risk that can be used for short-term emergency management and long-term planning. We currently do not have this evidence base. This project aims to create, for the first-time, national scale models that characterise and quantify the risk from earthquake- and rainfall-induced landslides.

He karapitipitinga mariko – Immersive regenerative tourism experiences in Aotearoa

Contracting Organisation: University of Otago
Science Leader(s): Tobias Langlotz
Funding (GST excl): $8,208,513
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Tourism is in the midst of a global crisis. While tourists, tourism operators, and destination managers are negotiating the immediate effects of a global pandemic, it is also timely to address the serious systemic issues that were confronting the industry before the current crisis arose and create a new model with a focus on low carbon travel, ecosystem restoration, and community participation, with mana whenua exercising their role as kaitiaki at the forefront.
This 5-year research program will create a technology-supported ‘new tourism’ model and radically transform the sector to address Aotearoa’s need for a more sustainable tourism industry. He karapitipitinga mariko - Immersive regenerative tourism experiences in Aotearoa, uses Virtual and Mixed Reality technologies to enable tourism without travel, enhancing local-based tourism, reducing carbon emissions from international travel, open up environmentally sensitive areas in a safe manner, and allowing tangata whenua to be in control of how their knowledge is shared. We will allow tourism businesses to offer both virtual (that do not require tourists to travel physically at all) and augmented physical (on site) visitor experiences independently or simultaneously, enabling tourists to explore Aotearoa in ways currently not possible. It will also generate unique insights into virtual tourism, supporting tourism providers to better understand the implications of this approach.
In an interdisciplinary project bringing together academic leaders from tourism, indigenous knowledge, and technologists and in partnership with the tourism industry and local communities, we will innovate the sector and build a tourism future that is economically more productive and resilient to crises, while enhancing tourism’s social, cultural and environmental sustainability, and creating memories that last long after the physical experience of the destination has ended.

High magnetic field electric propulsion for space

Contracting Organisation: The Research Trust of Victoria University of Wellington
Science Leader(s):
Funding (GST excl): $11,613,720
Funding Year: 2020
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2020
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Satellites need on-board propulsion for orbital adjustments, orbital transfers, station keeping, attitude control systems, and decommissioning. Most satellites use chemical propellants to power thrusters for these manoeuvres. Electric propulsion, deriving energy from solar cells, is the most propellant-efficient technology but uses high power to achieve low thrust. Power requirements can be reduced by applying an external magnetic field to the system which increases the Lorentz force applied to the propellant ions. One type of such an augmented thruster is an Applied-Field (AF)-Magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thruster. We will develop applied field -MPD thrusters which make use of the low weight and high magnetic fields possible using superconductor coils. Our hypothesis is that using superconductor to access higher fields, we can produce higher thrust, higher specific impulse, and more efficient AF-MPD thrusters for a given mass. We will also investigate whether by using superconductors AF-MPD thrusters can effective at different scales, for application from nanosatellites to large satellites. We will build a prototype thruster and launch it to space on a test mission.
Benefits from the programme will be through the commercialisation of the thruster technology and related technology developed. High efficiency thrusters enable higher value satellite and spacecraft missions and enable more economical availability of data from space services giving benefits to end users of the data. The uses of satellite data are many: from environmental and hazard monitoring to national security, telecommunications, and asset management.

Housing children and youth: Ensuring Aotearoa’s future get the best start possible

Contracting Organisation: University of Otago
Science Leader(s): Associate Professor Nevil Pierse
Funding (GST excl): $5,837,561
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

No place is more important to children and youth than their home. Yet, each night in Aotearoa, more than 7,000 young people experience homelessness. A similar number of children are separated from their parents because of severe housing deprivation and over 400,000 are in housing supported by the government. However, Aotearoa's housing support systems are focused on adults. The effect of inadequate housing on tamariki and rangatahi and their experiences within the housing support system are poorly understood.
Family disconnection due to housing instability is detrimental to belonging and whanaungatanga. Supportive relationships with parents, whānau, and the wider community are important protective factors for children and young people. The voices of children and young people must be heard and their stories understood to address their housing needs effectively.
Currently, there is a gap in the research for how the housing support system can best ensure the wellbeing of young people so that they are set on pathways to future prosperity and success as adults. This programme will create evidence to support the development and realisation of housing support systems that improve outcomes for tamariki and rangatahi.
This programme brings together world-leading experts on housing, communities, big data and children, and young people. We will explore the multi-faceted topic of the housing support system, which will be the first time such comprehensive research has been conducted on the topic in Aotearoa. This evidence will be used to innovate and implement a new, equitable housing support system grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi that provides holistic, long-term outcomes for children and youth.

Integrating trees to target zero carbon and add value to rural landscapes

Contracting Organisation: Landcare Research
Science Leader(s): Dr David Whitehead
Funding (GST excl): $12,497,355
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Action to help New Zealand meet its net zero carbon emissions target by 2050 has a current focus on the establishment of new forests. We propose that the targeted integration of isolated or small clusters of trees into low to mid-sloping grasslands will provide an alternative to large-scale conversion to exotic forests, with substantial economic increases in carbon credits and additional co-benefits for animal fodder and shelter, reduced erosion, increasing farm resilience to climate extremes, increased visual amenity, and the enabling of kaitiakitanga. We aim to test that this approach will lead to increases in biomass and soil carbon stocks that exceed those for the same ground area of continuous forestry, contributing significantly to low-emissions and climate-resilient agricultural practices.
For the first time we will quantify the enhanced biomass and soil carbon stocks associated with edge effects at tree/grassland boundaries in hill country widespread in rural New Zealand. Across these boundaries we will determine the soil microbial mechanisms regulating decomposition and stabilisation of soil carbon using key soil properties and next-generation DNA metagenomics. We will then develop and validate microbially explicit ecosystem models to predict changes in carbon stocks at site scale. From this we will undertake quantitative scenario modelling, incorporating decision constraints by land managers, to predict the economic, environmental and cultural value of increased carbon stocks at landscape scale and recommend the optimal spatial establishment of tree clusters for benefits and their value across nature’s contribution to people.
Our research will strengthen the country’s international reputation for action to mitigate and adapt to climate change, support landowners including Māori to deliver sustainable land management, enabling kaitiakitanga, well-being, and the prosperity of the rural sector.

Kai anamata mō Aotearoa – exploring future food system scenarios and impacts

Contracting Organisation: Massey University
Science Leader(s): Warren McNabb, Nick Smith
Funding (GST excl): $10,108,846
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Our food production and consumption must achieve sustainability for our environment and people. It is imperative that equitable and resilient food systems are developed to reduce Aotearoa-NZ’s vulnerability to changing environmental, economic, and social pressures, while enhancing the wellbeing of people (tangata ora) and the environment (taiao ora). To ensure that the Aotearoa-NZ food system delivers nourishment to all our communities, enhances the wellbeing of Te Taiao, and supports economic prosperity, a computational model of our food system will be developed by the Sustainable Nutrition Initiative^® of the Riddet Institute, hosted at Massey University, in co-leadership with Wakatū Incorporation who represent the hapū land owners in Whakatū, Motueka and Mōhua rohe. The model will help transition our food sector to a carbon-neutral economy, underpinned by field trials and data collection in Te Tauihu.
The ability to simulate national and regional outcomes from changes in agricultural practises will enable climate and trade resilience to be built into decision-making alongside economic consequences. This system-unified approach is not currently possible. Understanding the current characteristics of our food system, including new data generation applied to advanced modelling, will enable prediction and assessment of the impacts of future change and aid food sector enterprises in planning and implementing production transitions.
The programme will support hapū-led research including assessment of the food system in Te Tauihu; developing a pathway towards a knowledge-intensive regenerative and resilient food system; and testing the scalability of current, new, and indigenous crops and species through a tikanga-led, customary approach which supports the momentum towards climate positive food production systems. The programme will inform evidence-based decisions leading to sustainable change to the Aotearoa-NZ food system that supports a resilient food sector and enhances tangata ora and taiao ora nationally and regionally.

Kaupapa Māori : Creating An Indigenous Model for System Change in Aotearoa

Contracting Organisation: Māori and Indigenous Analysis Limited
Science Leader(s): Leonie Pihama
Funding (GST excl): $3,200,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Kaupapa Māori : Creating An Indigenous Model for System Change in Aotearoa will examine the development and impact of Kaupapa Māori initiatives over the past forty years to provide an evidential base that informs the creation of systems, pathways and Kaupapa Māori arrangements that will be critical to transforming both private and public services, businesses and agencies in Aotearoa. Over the past few years members of the project team have been engaged with organisations and businesses within the public and private sphere to provide input and advice regarding Kaupapa Māori approaches. As such we are acutely aware of the need for the development of clear models and systems approaches that can be utilised to inform how this is undertaken. We are concerned that there is yet to be any significant research undertaken to identify the ways by which fundamental elements and components of Kaupapa Māori approaches can be applied to restructuring institutional arrangements and systems change models. A Kaupapa Māori approach to developing models for systems change will enable the realisation of the aspirations of whanau, hapū , iwi, Māori towards intergenerational wellbeing and supports the broader intentions of the current government as expressed within the governments Wellbeing approach. The overarching research question informing this project is: What are the success factors within Kaupapa Māori that can inform innovative models for systems change that will transform inequities experienced by Māori in both public and private spheres and across sectors?

Modifiable Pathways to Sustainable Ageing in Aotearoa

Contracting Organisation: Massey University
Science Leader(s): Fiona Alpass, Brendan Stevenson
Funding (GST excl): $11,388,834
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Led by Professor Fiona Alpass (Massey University) and Dr Brendan Stevenson (Allen & Clarke Ltd), the team also includes pre-eminent national (Universities of Waikato and Auckland, Victoria University, Te Pūkenga and Te Whare Wānanga O Awanuiārangi) and international researchers (Australia, Japan, Wales, Canada, England, Scotland, USA, and The Netherlands). Building on over 2 decades of ageing research, including information about lifecourse events predicting frailty or thriving in older age, and public health data, the team will pioneer the use of innovative ‘big data’ and modelling techniques in ageing research. The results will highlight preventable factors leading to frailty in older age, including the Māori, Pasifika, and Chinese populations that make up much of NZ’s multicultural society. Findings will provide specific targets for changes in social policy and practice to prevent experiences such as loneliness, dementia, and falls in the community, and highlight the different lifecourse pathways to frailty or thriving. In addition to informing NZ policy through the extensive involvement of end-users, findings will have a global impact by contributing to international policy that supports older people to thrive.

Moving the middle: empowering land managers to act in complex rural landscapes

Contracting Organisation: Landcare Research
Science Leader(s): Suzie Greenhalgh
Funding (GST excl): $13,190,000
Funding Year: 2021
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2021
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Aotearoa-New Zealand (A-NZ) has ambitious environmental goals, and the commitment to these has been reaffirmed in A-NZ’s COVID-19 economic recovery priorities. The primary sector underpins A-NZs economy and land managers are integral to achieving these environmental goals and leading A-NZ through its economic recovery.
However, many land managers are not achieving the scale of action necessary to improve environmental performance. Conversely, they are ‘overwhelmed’ by the complex issues they face. Our research will address this issue and provide the systemic changes needed to enable land managers to act, which will improve farm environmental performance, ecosystem function and biodiversity, farm financial viability, national economic performance, rural mental health, and environmental, economic, and social resilience in the face of disruptors such as COVID-19 and climate change.
Past research has often assumed the problem is an ‘information deficit’ and focused on understanding and influencing ‘leading’ or ‘trailing’ land managers. In contrast, our research focuses on the middle cohort of land managers who are willing to make necessary changes but are constrained by the multiple systems (finance, policy, social, market, etc.) that affect how they shape their decisions and actions.
Our social science research examines, innovates, and tests system leverage points that will enable the middle cohort of ‘overwhelmed’ land managers to respond proactively to the environmental, market, and societal challenges they face. We partner with Crown Research Institutes, universities, government, and industry to research the agency of land managers, the systems affecting them, and the influence of (a) public and private narratives; (b) debt loading and investment practices; (c) policy signals and perceptions; and
(d) traditional and new agents of change in empowering rural land managers to respond proactively.

Natural carbon sequestration in our southern fjords – a pathway towards carbon neutrality

Contracting Organisation: University of Otago
Science Leader(s): Christopher Moy, Gary Wilson
Funding (GST excl): $8,605,643
Funding Year: 2021
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2021
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Fjords play a critical role in the global carbon cycle by storing large quantities of terrestrial organic carbon. Across all aquatic systems, fjords represent carbon cycle ‘hotspots’ that bury the largest amount of organic carbon per unit area in the world, thus representing a crucial ecosystem that regulates climate. Fiordland is likely one of New Zealand’s largest carbon sinks, but its storage capacity is threatened by climate change and catchment management practices, potentially resulting in significant economic and environmental consequences.
We presently don’t know the sensitivity of the carbon sink to environmental forcing. Nor do we know the crucial tipping points that, once crossed, will dramatically reduce the efficiency of carbon sequestration, leaving more emissions in the environment. These unknown aspects limit our ability to undertake effective environmental management strategies, determine how the system will respond to future climate change, and as more pressure is placed on the Manapouri Power Station (MPS), to meet our 100% renewable electricity ambitions, determine how variability in introduced freshwater threatens carbon loss in Doubtful Sound.
Our multi-disciplinary team of scientists, iwi and environmental conservation partners will address how key environmental parameters, future climate change and human activities will impact the sensitivity, efficiency and capacity of the Fiordland carbon sink. Through a unique observation and modelling program, our work will provide the scientific basis to determine how future changes in fjord circulation, driven by changing climate and changes in MPS generation capacity, will impact the fjord carbon sink.

Ngā Ngaru Wakapuke – Building resilience to future earthquake sequences

Contracting Organisation: The Research Trust of Victoria University of Wellington
Science Leader(s): Jamie Howarth, Caroline Orchiston, Dan Bassett, Garry McDonald, Kate Clark, Kelvin Tapuke
Funding (GST excl): $12,670,370
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Ngā Ngaru Wakapuke, gifted by Te Ātiawa, represents the waves created by movement of the landscape beneath Raukawakawa Moana (Cook Strait), that creates impact on people (tāngata) and land (whenua). The Transition Zone (TZ) spans the lower North and upper South Island, and is home to our largest sources of earthquake risk, including the Alpine Fault and Hikurangi Subduction Zone. Currently, we know very little about how these major fault systems interact. There is a 75% probability of a major (>M8) earthquake on the plate boundary in the next 50 years. This could potentially trigger a cluster of major earthquakes over years or decades, causing on-going disruption to communities.
Working in collaboration with communities and iwi, we co-design scenario narratives that create a shared vision of transition through on-going seismicity. We develop a risk-informed evidence base, starting with an advanced understanding of the 3-D sub-surface architecture of the Transition Zone, to understand how faults interact. We couple this with evidence of past earthquakes, revealed through analysing lake sediment records that paint a picture of earthquake activity thousands of years in the past. Together, these data validate computer simulations of earthquake processes that will dramatically improve our ability to forecast future earthquake sequences.
These hazard forecasts will inform assessments of how risk and socio-economic consequences evolve through time. Our research supports national-and regional resilience preparations, including stress-testing potential infrastructure investments, to help infrastructure providers develop business cases that will lead communities towards a more resilient future. Our research also contributes to national and regional level emergency management planning, enhancing our capacity to respond and recover, and enabling communities to improve their awareness and preparedness. Building resilience to future earthquake sequences.

Ngā Punga o Te Moana: Anchoring our Open Ocean Aquaculture Future

Contracting Organisation: Cawthron Institute
Science Leader(s): Kevin Heasman
Funding (GST excl): $10,980,925
Funding Year: 2021
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2021
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Open Ocean Aquaculture (OOA) is a globally recognised opportunity for sustainable food production. It is a NZ government priority, industry is poised to grow, but NZ’s advancement of multi-species aquaculture into the open ocean is handicapped by extensive knowledge gaps and lack of proven technology.
Cawthron’s programme of OOA research will address these impediments enabling acceleration and transformation of primary production in this new frontier. The Cawthron led team of scientists, industry, iwi and international collaborators have previously revolutionised NZ’s approach to the design and testing of OOA structures. This programme will build on established knowledge, relationships and capability to enable reliable and cost-effective shellfish and seaweed OOA.
We will use computer simulation tools to test thousands of structural designs, without the high costs and risks of a trial-and-error approach. We will take the best designs and create physical small-scale models that will be ‘challenged’ in specialised wave tanks to see if they are able to cope with high energy conditions. Those that perform will be built at scale as prototypes, deployed on open ocean farms and test sites, and monitored for real-world performance. Sensors will gather information to refine our simulation models and design process. Customized sensors and technology will be built to improve automation and monitoring, reducing on-farm visits and vessel/fuel requirements. Husbandry methods to farm our species on new structures in this new environment will be developed, adapted and improved.
We will enable the capability and capacity for the massive scale-up that is needed from pilot research to commercial production, and address social, environmental and te ao Māori perspectives, to ensure the widest social and environmental benefits to NZ from OOA.

Novel cellulose fibres regenerated from New Zealand plant resources for textile use

Contracting Organisation: Lincoln Agritech Limited
Science Leader(s): Rob Kelly
Funding (GST excl): $8,292,825
Funding Year: 2021
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2021
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

We propose to revolutionise the global fibre industry through development of a completely new, and environmentally low impact, approach to extracting cellulose from plants grown in New Zealand, such as harakeke, totara and Pinus radiata to produce regenerated cellulose fibres for textile use. Understanding the novel science of cellulose dissolution and regeneration will underpin the development of this manufacturing solution and will provide an environmentally superior alternative to current synthetic and cellulose fibres, well established as being of high environmental cost. Our goal is to develop the basis for a new industry exporting a substantial volume of regenerated cellulose fibres derived from dedicated plantations and diverting current streams of lower value or waste cellulose material, and to foster the development of high-end textiles made by New Zealand designers with embedded mātauranga Māori. The new industry will support regional economies which will produce and process the bioresource and manufacture the fibres.
Mentored by Dr G A Carnaby (CNZM) and using well established connections to the global textile sector, our team of scientists from Lincoln Agritech Ltd, The Ferrier Institute, SCION and AgResearch will work in partnership with Ngāti Whare and Ngā For more information, contact Dr Rob Kelly at Lincoln Agritech Limited (rob.kelly@lincolnagritech.co.nz).

Our changing coast – Sea-level rise on Aotearoa’s dynamic margin

Contracting Organisation: Victoria University of Wellington
Science Leader(s): Professor Tim Naish
Funding (GST excl): $12,994,020
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

We know the sea around Aotearoa is rising and that our coastal communities must adapt, but we do not yet know enough about how our coastal regions will be affected by sea-level rise (SLR) to ensure our adaptation measures are effective and appropriate. We do not yet know how hazards will evolve and shift risk along our >15,000 km of highly variable coastline. Addressing these critical knowledge gaps, requires coordinated effort between Iwi, Māori, researchers, government agencies, private sector, and community groups.
Te Ao Hurihuri: Te Ao Hou, Our Changing Coast (OCC) programme offers novel insight into our evolving coastal system and prepares planners, decision makers, and communities to address our coastal adaptation challenge. OCC directly supports New Zealand’s Climate Change Amendment Act and Climate Change Commission’s advice regarding pathways for a just transition to a low carbon economy by 2050. Our research interweaves threads of mātauranga-a-Māori, mātauranga-a-pūtaiao, and other science knowledge. Ka mua, ka muri: although we walk into the future our eyes remain on the past. We utilise knowledge from our past and the latest datasets and models to develop (1) a new suite of “state of the art” SLR projections, (2) tools to identify evolving coastal hazards, and (3) tools and decision-making procedures that manage risk, limit social disruption, and enhance equitable, sustainable, and healthier communities.
By the end of our programme we aim to ensure that New Zealanders are using the best scientific knowledge and evidence to effectively anticipate sea-level rise and its impacts, in order to develop and implement sustainable adaptation and management approaches guided by mātauranga Māori.

Our lakes, Our future: holistic approaches to transform lake management and restoration in a changing world

Contracting Organisation: The Cawthron Institute Trust Board T/A The Cawthron Institute
Science Leader(s): Susie Wood, Marcus Vandergoes
Funding (GST excl): $11,495,805
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Healthy freshwater is vital to New Zealanders. It is critical that we care for and manage it to maximise cultural, environmental, social, and economic outcomes.
Our lakes are in crisis due to climate change and anthropogenic pressures, including nutrient and sediment run off, invasive species, and water level fluctuations; approximately 45% have a water quality index of ‘poor’ or worse. These stressors are degrading lakes so that many no longer meet ecological, cultural, or societal needs and values, e.g., a source of food/mahinga kai, a taonga species habitat, or a recreational asset to enjoy.
Currently, communities, iwi and managers cannot effectively measure holistic lake ecosystem health, prioritise stressors to target for mitigation, or design future management plans accounting for climate change. Additionally, most lake restoration activities are not meeting expectations.
Our research combines biophysical science with te ao Māori and social science to develop a globally unique suite of tools to measure impacts, identify effective restoration methods, and assess long-term sustainability. This is achieved by developing and implementing a holistic lake health assessment tool and delivering a new approach for assessing lake health degradation risk. This will allow managers to prioritise their actions to meet future needs. We also design, test, and implement a new integrated decision-making framework to guide restoration at lake, regional and national scales, providing a transparent, rigorous, and defensible approach to guide effective use of resources.
The programme has been co-developed with Māori, primary industry, and freshwater management agencies, enabling rapid implementation of our tools and policy uptake of our new approaches. This research will dramatically impact lake ecosystem health and the cultural and economic wellbeing of people and communities around these waterbodies.

Plant-Based Food Ingredients: a Systems Approach to Sustainable Design

Contracting Organisation: AgResearch Limited
Science Leader(s): Alistair Carr
Funding (GST excl): $11,985,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Crops grown on arable land are an abundant resource and already provide most of the calories in people’s diets. Consumers are increasingly looking to these plants to do much more – to meet a wider range of culinary and nutritional needs, and to help address global concerns around sustainable ecosystems and animal welfare.
Food manufacturers have been quick to respond with many novel products. However, these are often highly refined and stripped of their whole-food benefits, have poor taste and texture, carry high sodium content, and can have hidden damage to essential amino acids. The next generation of plant-based foods will need to be prepared more sensibly with gentler handling of the inherently healthy raw materials and better guardianship of environmental impact.
New Zealand can participate in this opportunity by developing the science and technologies to produce unique highly functional plant foods. Our research programme will design models of crop fractionation processes that incorporate eco-sensitivity, value chain dynamics and circular bioeconomy, while maximising ingredient techno-functionality and health benefits. We will test at pilot scale how a new industry could operate by using exemplar crops known to grow well locally, like green peas, oats and hemp.
We have gathered some of the brightest minds in process engineering, food science, sustainability evaluation, economic analysis and human nutrition. The team also includes many industry partners, from plant breeders, growers and processors to ingredient-users and food manufacturers.
Our aim is to support the arable crop processors of Aotearoa. We want to inspire entrepreneurs in the emerging proteins sector to become successful international suppliers of high-value plant-based food ingredients. In this way our land-based industries can continue to transition towards a profitable low-emissions future.

Pou rāhui, pou tikanga, pou oranga: reigniting the mauri of Tīkapa Moana and Te Moananui-ā-Toi

Contracting Organisation: University of Waikato
Science Leader(s): Kura Paul- Burke
Funding (GST excl): $13,950,715
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

This project is a true representation of iwi-led direction, visioning and action for Tikapa Moana/ Te-Moananui-ō-Toi. It is constructed and written by iwi members with advice and guidance provided by a korowai (sheltering cloak) of Māori academics actively supporting the project to fruition. This is mātauranga Māori in practice. Iwi-led not academic led, representing a normalised Māori approach to action. This project is an exemplar of new ways of approaching, actioning and normalising mātauranga-led research for the benefits of iwi, their wider communities and Aotearoa New Zealand.
The collaborative project brings together five iwi (Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāti Tamaterā, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Ngāti Hei and Ngāti Rehua Ngāti Wai) that have implemented rahui (temporary legislative closures for identified species and spaces) in the degraded waters of Tikapa Moana/ Te Moananui-ā-Toi. This intergenerational project will be a co-production across iwi experiencing similar catastrophic impacts in the moana to embark on innovative, replicable, pragmatic, in-water, mātauranga Māori solutions and actions to assist the regeneration and restoration of rohe moana.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, there is an increasing demand to investigate alternative ways of accessing, engaging and implementing mātauranga Māori to better understand degradation (e.g., declining populations, sedimentation, climate change, predation) and assist restoration initiatives (e.g., marine cultural monitoring, restorative aquaculture, bio-waste alternatives to plastic, technological tools) for culturally and ecologically important marine taonga species and spaces into the future. This project will deliver new solutions for restoring and managing rohe moana and kaimoana for present and future generations.

Powering NZ’s Green- Hydrogen economy: Next-generation electrocatalytic systems for energy production and storage

Contracting Organisation: GNS Science
Science Leader(s):
Funding (GST excl): $8,450,000
Funding Year: 2020
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2020
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

This Transformational research programme responds to the ambitious challenge of decarbonising New Zealand’s energy sector through the implementation of green hydrogen production and storage technologies.
If technologies can be developed to economically produce hydrogen from water, rather than fossil-fuels, the world will meet its energy needs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This programme focuses on utilising renewable electricity as an energy source to generate hydrogen by water splitting (electrolysis) – producing a clean, emission-free variant of this key industrial feedstock for stationary power and transport. While electrolysis is not new, it relies on high-cost, inefficient materials to make it work, making hydrogen production in this manner uncompetitive with the conventional fossil-fuel reforming. Our research aims to stimulate the creation of next-generation technologies with an order-of-magnitude improvement in performance relative to existing water electrolysis-based hydrogen production systems, along with new capabilities in hydrogen storage and distribution. We have several promising options currently under development capable of delivering a step-change in green energy production. Not only is our approach more effective, we believe it will result in significant cost savings that will flow through to the New Zealand consumer.
By focusing on hydrogen production for stationary power and transport, our programme aligns with NZ’s Renewable Energy, Hydrogen & Carbon-Zero
Strategies/Targets. It supports New Zealand’s international commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and assists with our challenging 2030 emissions target.
Our programme will drive the development of new, knowledge-intensive industries, accelerating regional innovation, and incorporating the Māori economy as part of the transition to a low-emissions future. Our technology has a strong potential to strengthen NZ’s pathway to becoming a net energy exporter.

Precision Pest Eradication – pest-selective control tools

Contracting Organisation: Landcare Research
Science Leader(s): Dr Brian Hopkins
Funding (GST excl): $12,500,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Worldwide, current widely used vertebrate pest control toxins are harmful to humans and non-target animals. Therefore, their use is being increasingly restricted or banned. There is a consequent growing global demand for safer, more selective toxins.
We will develop selective toxins for high-precision, environmentally sound vertebrate pest control using cutting-edge science to invent new types of toxins that exploit physiological and metabolic differences between species.
Our new products will help protect our environment by enhancing pest management, improve sustainability and productivity of our primary industries, and support Predator Free 2050 to achieve its aspirational goals. Within this programme, hapū/iwi will explore how Māori values inform their own policy positions about toxin use in te taiao.
Our research will provide a new toxin manufacturing industry for Aotearoa New Zealand with potential to target global markets. This represents a significant economic opportunity for Aotearoa New Zealand, as we have the knowledge and reputation that give us a head start. We are the only team in the world seeking to develop toxin discovery technologies that target individual pest species. Our discovery research will develop new candidate toxins for mice, possums and stoats, which are significant threats to our native flora and fauna.
Our ambitious research programme brings together New Zealand’s best researchers in the field from the University of Auckland, Victoria University Wellington, and Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, supported by an international group of leading academics, and commercial, industrial and regulatory experts.

Predicting the unseen: a new method for accurate yield estimation in viticulture/horticulture

Contracting Organisation: University of Canterbury
Science Leader(s): Richard Green
Funding (GST excl): $6,106,615
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

New Zealand’s wine industry/viticulture sector is 1 of our most important and valuable horticulture industries, adding nearly NZ$2.4B, NZ$2B being exports, per year to our GDP.
Correct forecasting grape yield is a key issue for the sector and inaccurate techniques used today can be costly and destroy grower/winery profits.
To solve this problem, we will develop a novel approach combining a cutting-edge imaging-based detection system with a physiological growth prediction model. This is a highly complex interlinked and challenging measurement and data problem and has not been approached in the way we propose.
Encouraged by our recent results and progress we will combine:
a system for 3D image capture
a novel 3-dimensional imaging reconstruction technique
a world first integrated “digital grapevine twin” mode based on a functional-structural whole-plant models.
We assembled a strong multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research team, including Vision Mātauranga experts, covering all technical aspects our research. Our research team will be supported by an industry advisory board composed of key NZ stakeholders in robotics/data analytics and viticulture.
Our systems will provide multiple immediate and ultimate benefits across different sectors, including:
increased average yield and improved operational and financial planning for wineries/vineyards
revenue and export opportunities for NZ Agritech high-value-manufacturing and ICT companies,
accelerated vineyard automation which will help to mitigate labour shortages and cost
better preparation of vineyards for climate change.
Our programme will solve an expensive and important problem for the viticulture sector and create new revenue and export opportunities for New Zealand high-value manufacturing companies. We envisage that solving occlusion issues will serve as a template for future research and become a cornerstone for more extensively automating our future agriculture high-tech sector.

Protecting Aotearoa from aerial invaders in a changing climate

Contracting Organisation: New Zealand Forest Research Institute Ltd Trading as Scion
Science Leader(s): Ilze Pretorius
Funding (GST excl): $10,850,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

In New Zealand, and globally, there is a gap in biosecurity defences. This gap allows aerial invaders-invasive pests (insects and pathogens) to reach New Zealand via the wind-assisted pathway; they can spread within New Zealand via this pathway, irrespective of their arrival mode. There are no effective tools to manage this pathway of pest movement, leaving a hole in our biosecurity net. This hole will widen as climate change brings extreme weather events able to transport aerial invaders to our shores, and as the habitat ranges of these invaders expand - both in their source regions and in New Zealand.
It is time to tighten our biosecurity net and close the aerial invader hole.
Our diverse science team will develop a novel, integrated Aerobiological Surveillance and Prediction System (ASaP) to close the aerial invader hole in our biosecurity net. ASaP integrates internationally new science on:
long-distance atmospheric dispersion modelling
atmospheric boundary-layer dynamics
rainfall washout/survival by flying insects.
We also extend existing knowledge on pathogen atmospheric-transit survival, and include innovative aerial invader surveillance by our Māori Partners Taranaki Mounga on the Taranaki coast.
Our science was co-developed with our Programme Advisory Committee, representing the entire biosecurity chain. ASaP will be used by MPI to optimise existing biosecurity systems aligning to Pre-border, Border and Post-Border surveillance and risk analysis biosecurity activities.
Over the past decade, NZ has battled multiple aerial invaders, which are now established pests (for example, myrtle rust, fall armyworm) and there are more on our doorstep, circulating in Australia/Asia-Pacific. Preventing establishment of just 1 serious pest would recover programme costs 10 to 100 times (NZ$0.125B to 1.25B) through avoided losses in the forestry and/or horticultural sectors, maintenance of carbon sequestration, and through biodiversity conservation.

Public housing and urban regeneration: maximising wellbeing

Contracting Organisation: University of Otago
Science Leader(s):
Funding (GST excl): $12,393,935
Funding Year: 2020
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2020
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Every New Zealander has a right to adequate housing, but many people cannot afford to buy or rent a house. The government is now making the largest investment in public housing and urban regeneration seen in many decades. Given the amount invested in different levels and the range of models used to provide public housing, it is important that we have evidence about what works best to improve people’s wellbeing.
Our research will compare social, cultural, economic, environmental and wellbeing outcomes across six models of public housing: the Tāmaki Regeneration Programme; Eastern Porirua Regeneration; He Tipu Manahau (Wainuiomata); Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust; Wellington City Housing; and Salvation Army housing.
Our team of researchers from different universities and disciplines will measure wellbeing outcomes for public housing tenants in areas such as education, health and employment. We will interview tenant and housing providers as well as looking at anonymised data from the Integrated Data Infrastructure. Alongside this, we are evaluating innovative approaches to the residential use of solar energy.
We are working closely with Māori colleagues to develop appropriate wellbeing measures in relation to sustainable housing and urban development that reduce carbon emission. As part of this work we will aspects of wellbeing relating to ease of access to public transport, and building infrastructure.
Our research will bring together the skills of an experienced team to draw ongoing lessons from major housing and urban developments. These findings can help shape the developments, improve people’s wellbeing and reduce the carbon footprint of the built environment.

Pūhiko Nukutū: a green hydrogen geostorage battery in Taranaki

Contracting Organisation: University of Canterbury
Science Leader(s): Andy Nicol
Funding (GST excl): $11,837,090
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Aotearoa New Zealand’s economy and energy system is undergoing a fundamental transformation to achieve climate change and decarbonisation goals. Pūhiko Nukutū (Earth Battery) is investigating how to create large stores of green hydrogen underground earth batteries that can unlock a potentially massive hydrogen industry in Aotearoa. The ability to store hydrogen, in large quantities and for a long time, means that it can be produced when electricity costs are low, and later sold when prices are high, or when it is strategically valuable, for instance, when hydro-dams are low. The cultural, environmental and social acceptability of Pūhiko Nukutū is also being investigated to ensure that decision making is fully informed by both science and mātauranga Māori as integral parts of the holistic impact analysis. This will be essential to progress from innovation to implementation.
Pūhiko Nukutū examines the complex interactions of rocks and microbes when exposed to hydrogen, to predict how, where and for how long hydrogen can be stored. The international exemplar Mauri Model Decision Making Framework is the basis for representing and analysing the holistic impacts upon mauri. We will use geophysical investigations, computer models, and systems thinking to evaluate how different storage approaches impact the mauri (life-supporting capacity) of communities, Iwi and the environment. Finally, we will study how this new technology can integrate symbiotically with New Zealand’s complex energy system.
Our programme will include contributions from scientists, Iwi experts, and industry leaders across Aotearoa. Through our international partners, we have access to cutting edge laboratory and computing facilities. Supported by a well-positioned, transitioning energy sector, hydrogen geostorage has the potential to unlock a multi-billion dollar hydrogen economy that benefits all of New Zealand.

Pungapunga Auaha: Partnering with tangata whenua to develop a new low-carbon pumice economic sector for Aotearoa-NZ

Contracting Organisation: Massey University
Science Leader(s): Anke Zernack, Christine Kenney, Nicola McDonald
Funding (GST excl): $7,997,290
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Pumice, a vesicular volcanic rock with unique properties, is found in large quantities in the central North Island, particularly in forestry lands owned by iwi settlement trusts. Although Māori used pumice traditionally for a wide range of applications (e.g., fishing, containers, and ornaments), and pumice is used for a range of applications overseas (e.g., construction, insulation, cosmetics, polishing), today there are relatively few pumice operations in Aotearoa-NZ. Working with governance entities and iwi/hapū/whānau of Te Arawa Waka, this research programme seeks to kick-start a new pumice economy, driven by Māori, and fulfilling aspirations around intergenerational wellbeing, kaitiakitanga and leadership in a low-carbon future.
The research will determine how new types of concrete can be produced using Aotearoa-NZ pumice as a cement replacement. This is globally important, given that cement is a major source of carbon emissions and concrete consumption is increasing. The programme will also ascertain the extent to which Aotearoa-NZ pumice exhibits properties needed for other new and exciting applications, e.g., architectural paints, filtration, mesoporous technologies. By matching knowledge of required properties with their availability, and applying a range of geological and analytical techniques, a detailed inventory and characterisation of the resource will be established.
Many researchers in the programme are Māori and several whakapapa to Te Arawa waka. To ensure that the future pumice economy is developed appropriately, balances risks and can meet iwi landowner/investor aspirations, the programme interweaves mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) with state-of-the-art tools and approaches from other science disciplines.
The vision is for this programme to be a catalyst for historic pumice mātauranga to be reinvigorated and reinterpreted, with the emergence of new cultural products, as well as products/applications that are widely beneficial across Aotearoa-NZ. 

Rapid Characterisation of Earthquakes and Tsunami: Fewer deaths and faster recovery

Contracting Organisation: Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences Limited - Trading as GNS Science
Science Leader(s):
Funding (GST excl): $13,200,000
Funding Year: 2020
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2020
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

New research providing earlier and more accurate information about earthquakes will save lives and enable quicker recovery, says the scientist leading the project. Dr. Bill Fry of GNS Science says his team’s work centres on developing scientific methods allowing more rapid estimates of earthquakes’ characteristics and impacts. “Currently, initial earthquake information is limited to location and estimated magnitude; in other words, a dot on a map represents the rupturing of a three- dimensional fault structure through time.” “By understanding the earthquake’s three-dimensional nature, we can better predict triggering of tsunami and landslides and potential damage to infrastructure in the minutes following the event.”
Dr Fry says his team’s research will help New Zealand respond to and recover from disastrous earthquakes by providing better estimates of their extent and damage from shaking as well as any tsunami that may be generated. “The improved science will provide more rapid and accurate tsunami warnings leading to more effective evacuations and fewer false alarms. It will allow government agencies, utility companies, first-responders and the engineering community to most effectively direct resources, improving life-safety and maintaining critical infrastructure.”
The research will draw on extensive experience of an international team involved in relevant science and first response. Recent investments by government agencies in improved geohazard monitoring will provide the technical and operational structure to swiftly implement and use the research findings.
Data from newly-deployed DART (Deep-Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami) buoys will be used to make estimates of tsunami height, arrival time, duration and inundation.
“This adds value to our recent investment of $47M in DART tsunamameters, making New Zealand and our neighbours in the south-west Pacific more resilient to earthquakes and tsunamis,” Dr Fry says.

Reducing Aotearoa’s urban carbon emissions – a critical pathway to net-zero 2050

Contracting Organisation: Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences Limited – Trading as GNS Science
Science Leader(s): Jocelyn Turnbull
Funding (GST excl): $10,548,103
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

About half of Aotearoa's greenhouse gas emissions occur in cities and towns where people live and work. We will produce the highly detailed information on Aotearoa's urban greenhouse gas emissions that is needed to allow central and local government, iwi, urban planners, traffic planners and industry to better monitor their current emission sources, enable targeted mitigation strategies, and change policy to support low-emissions outcomes.
Urban planning and development choices can dramatically change emissions from transportation, built infrastructure, and the ability of the urban ecology to absorb carbon. We will develop granular emissions information going back in time, that allows us to provide the first real world assessment of how different development choices change emissions in the Aotearoa urban environment. Initial data shows that land carbon exchange – release of carbon through respiration and removal of carbon through photosynthesis – can offset a significant fraction of emissions in Aotearoa's cities. We will determine how much carbon is taken up by Aotearoa's urban environments, and how development styles and management of urban parklands can enhance or reduce this carbon uptake.
We will produce emission maps of both fossil fuel derived carbon dioxide emissions and the land carbon exchange for all of Aotearoa's cities and towns using a consistent and robust approach, underpinned by real-world atmospheric greenhouse gas measurements and modelling. Data will be viewable through a verifiable national emissions dashboard. Together this proposal will identify and address the opportunities in our urban environments to achieve Aotearoa's commitment to reach carbon net-zero.

Reducing flood inundation hazard and risk across Aotearoa/New Zealand

Contracting Organisation: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited
Science Leader(s):
Funding (GST excl): $15,355,360
Funding Year: 2020
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2020
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Flooding is one of New Zealand’s most damaging hazards. It is also the hazard that will change the most rapidly in intensity and nature as climate change impacts become realised. For instance, flash flooding caused by very heavy rainfall over a short period of time is expected to increase the most dramatically. At the same time our country is undergoing intense urban development, that if not linked to climate futures will increase the risk to people’s homes and wellbeing. These dual challenges make reducing flood risk extremely difficult for our current planning and response systems. There is a knowledge vacuum about the scale of these problems, the integration of different policy domains, and the details of how different parts of the country will be affected.
Our research programme will support the changes that are needed. We will produce New Zealand’s first consistent national flood map, showing where flooding is likely to occur, but also identify how vulnerable our assets and taonga are. In partnership with local and central government agencies, iwi, communities and key financial organisations we will work collaboratively to design, test and establish novel decision-making practices that integrate different climate and socio-economic projections and promote proactive adaptation to changing flood risks.
Recent flooding events have demonstrated the ongoing impacts of flooding are not restricted to rescuing those inundated by water but are felt widely through society and the economy. We will work closely with communities to understand these cascading impacts and how we can be better prepared for them.
This programme will generate information and guidance that is immediately relevant as local and central government form the regulations and policy that will drive our response to climate change.

Relational resources for change – New futures for youth with complex needs

Contracting Organisation: Massey University
Science Leader(s):
Funding (GST excl): $6,877,579
Funding Year: 2020
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2020
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

The Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy states: “While most NZ children and young people are doing well, the distressing reality is that many are not experiencing anything close to a good life”. Practitioners working with vulnerable youth report a critical need for culturally and contextually responsive resources that support them to increase the impact they have on the lives of these youth. These resources need to enable relational practices because the evidence has connected these practices to better outcomes. This research builds on a longitudinal study of pathways to adulthood of vulnerable youth which demonstrated the connection between positive relational practices and better youth outcomes. It creates a diverse kete of culturally and contextually anchored resources that youth practitioners can use to build and sustain effective, change-making relationships with vulnerable youth. The resources will be available in a range of formats and able to be used across service systems. They will be tested in diverse practice settings to establish their efficacy and usability. The kete includes tools that can be used to plan, review and track intervention progress and to measure the impact of the work. As a result, organisations can demonstrate the positive impact of their work in a uniform and consistent way and funders can use this data to support decision-making that encourages the use of these relational practices. The research team comprises practitioners, researchers and youth-clients who use a co-design methodology so that resources are culturally and contextually responsive and meaningful to those working in the varied organisations that provide support to vulnerable youth. The kete will be managed by sector organisations so that they are accessible and widely available.

Restoring Urban Nature

Contracting Organisation: University of Waikato
Science Leader(s): Bruce Clarkson, Martin Breed, Shaun Awatere, Stephen Hartley, Yolanda Van Heezik
Funding (GST excl): $10,069,140
Funding Year: 2021
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2021
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Excitement about returning native biodiversity to towns and cities is growing rapidly due to the many benefits it provides and because 87% of New Zealanders live in urban centres. However, urban ecosystems present challenges differing from national park and rural conservation. Hence, research that reveals how native biodiversity can be maintained in existing, and created in new, urban greenspaces is vital for ensuring healthy cities. Our research team will develop best-practice guidelines for optimal urban ecological restoration through world-leading evidence-based science and strong collaboration with iwi, communities, and councils.
Our four research aims are: Residential Design for Biodiversity, Retain & Restore Urban Wildlife, Restoring Health-Promoting Soil Biodiversity and Whanake rākau, whakatipu mātauranga, poipoia te tangata: Growing trees, enhancing knowledge, nurturing people. Our team’s approach is built on empowering kaitiakitanga, encouragement, and reconnecting urban dwellers with nature to restore native wildlife and create high-quality greenspaces resilient to climate change. This new approach to restoring nature in towns and cities will play a major role in preserving Aotearoa’s native biodiversity for future generations.
Beyond protecting our present biological and cultural heritage, we will recommend how to create high-quality urban greenspace that maximises the wellbeing of humans and native species (e.g., restoring plants important to Māori culture), recreation, and ecosystem services. This will help achieve national policy objectives such as meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals. By expanding our team’s existing urban biodiversity networks and using international methods to track progress, we will contribute to global efforts to treasure biodiversity and enhance city liveability and sustainability. Our team has co-developed this research through 19 partnerships, including 15 councils, iwi/hapū, national agencies, and flagship projects.
To learn more about this programme, please contact peoplecitiesnature@gmail.com

Reversing Carbon Emissions in the Geothermal Energy Industry: Template for Emission-Intensive Industries

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Dr Sadiq Zarrouk
Funding (GST excl): $6,034,345
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

In this project, novel technology will be developed to reduce carbon emissions from geothermal power plants by reinjecting and mineral trapping greenhouse gases back to the geothermal reservoirs where they originally came from. This is in line with the New Zealand government’s targets of 95% renewable electricity generation by 2035 and net zero emissions by 2050.
While there have been several investigations and projects in New Zealand and overseas to capture and store greenhouse gases deep underground, geothermal power developments provide the best opportunity. This is because the geothermal projects typically capture (but release) the greenhouse gases and have existing reinjection wells for the return of the greenhouse gases back into the deep rock formations.
Our technology is based on controlling the chemical reactions between the reinjected gases and the reservoir rock to convert the waste gases into solid form, which will be permanently stored underground.
Our programme will play an essential role in unlocking the potential of Māori resources. It will underpin research for the development of ‘carbon-negative’ energy, economic growth, know-how, and job creation while sustaining the environment.
Partnering with New Zealand and the international industry, iwi, and local government will provide the essential understanding and proven applied implementation of greenhouse gas capture and storage in geothermal systems. Underpinning further advances in greenhouse gas disposal and storage from other fixed emission sources.
Once proven, our novel technology has the potential to be deployed to other, also more intense greenhouse gas emission sources (e.g., power production, material processing, industrial-scale forestry, and dairy).

Safeguarding Te Mana o te Awa o Waikato from emerging climatic pressure

Contracting Organisation: Lincoln Agritech Limited
Science Leader(s): Adam Hartland
Funding (GST excl): $10,476,540
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

We know that the ocean surface is becoming more acidic because of atmospheric CO2 emissions. However, there is currently little awareness of the impact of atmospheric CO2 on freshwater. We suggest that freshwater is not only acidifying faster than the oceans, but is being ecologically restructured by CO2 increases. Through this programme, we will be the first globally to develop a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of increased atmospheric CO2 on freshwater ecosystems.
The Waikato River system will be our exemplar, in which we investigate the effects of atmospheric CO2 on algae, on kākahi (a keystone species and mahinga kai for Māori), on nutrient availability, and via nutrient-changes on the development of harmful algal blooms. We will deploy new methods to monitor water quality, and construct a process-based model validated through intensive monitoring of the river. Using data from international climate forecasts and our process-based ecosystem model, we will predict future algal growth responses and the likely effectiveness of interventions to maintain freshwater quality, in the face of increasing atmospheric CO2. We will work with Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Maniapoto, and Ngāti Tahu – Ngāti Whaoa, as kaitiaki of the Waikato River, to understand the impact of our scientific findings on management plans for the Waikato, and extend our knowledge to freshwater systems Aotearoa-NZ-wide.
Our team combines leading researchers with a wide range of skills from Lincoln Agritech Ltd, Cawthron Institute, Universities of Lincoln, Otago, Victoria, Waikato, Griffith, La Trobe, Tübingen, Uppsala, and Waikato Regional Council. Our relationship-based approach will support implementation of our findings by kaitiaki, including Iwi, Regional Councils and industry responsible for provision of water, to ensure New Zealanders can drink, swim in, and gather food from our freshwater.

Seeing the forest for the trees: transforming tree phenotyping for future forests

Contracting Organisation: Scion
Science Leader(s): Michael Watt
Funding (GST excl): $9,627,500
Funding Year: 2021
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2021
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Planted forests are an essential component of New Zealand’s transition to a carbon-neutral bio-economy. However, our ability to grow radiata pine and other species successfully is at risk due to uncertainty around our changing climate.
One approach to ensuring our planted forests remain productive is to use a tree’s phenotype (characteristics), which is a product of the interaction between genetics and the environment, to identify trees that grow particularly well in specific environments.
Work identifying trees with outstanding phenotypes has already begun, but there is a lot more to be learned about our planted forests. New ways of collecting and analysing data about tree volume, height, shape, carbon content and form – that consider trees in three dimensions – will enable us to identify exceptional trees rapidly.
This research programme is focussed on delivering high throughput forest phenotyping using remotely sensed data and advanced concepts in data science. Combined with genomic data, we will be able to select and breed trees with desirable traits such as high carbon storage and resistance to disease and drought exacerbated by our changing climate.
The programme also extends to indigenous forests, with the aim of combining data with mātauranga Māori to explore the cultural linkages Māori have to forests and taonga species. This “cultural phenotyping” is expected to lead to modern applications of traditional forest-based economic opportunities including diverse forests capable of
delivering a wider range of benefits and to the reinvigoration of Māori customary practices.
Forest-scale phenotyping of millions of trees will enable forest growers to optimally site different genotypes under current and future climates, increasing plantation productivity, health and resilience and contributing to economic, environmental and social gains.

Shaping a circular market system for plastics in New Zealand

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Associate Professor Johan Verbeek
Funding (GST excl): $11,713,878
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Remaking products from plastic waste presents an opportunity for New Zealand to reduce the $500m p.a. loss from dysfunctional recycling practices, limit the reliance on virgin plastics we import and create new, high-end plastic materials. Additionally, by keeping plastics in a circular loop, ultimately a reduction in plastic leakage into the environment can be achieved, which has significant environmental and social impact for New Zealand and will improve its poor global ranking on solid waste management.
However, the barriers to collecting and recycling locally are complex and it is widely accepted that a single solution to the plastics waste problem is unrealistic. Instead, a coordinated approach technological innovations and involvement of all stakeholders in supporting a new marketplace for plastics. Recognising this complexity, our research programme has been co-designed with a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from engineering, strategic marketing and design and a comprehensive set of stakeholders from New Zealand’s plastic industry.
Over the next five years, we will develop innovative technologies to reform currently unused plastic waste into upcycled high-end plastic material that can be used for industrial production. For these technologies and materials to be successfully commercialized, we will create a marketplace for plastics and design digital tools (system infrastructure and user interfaces applications) to ensure individuals, communities, start-ups and organisations have the knowledge and access to access the marketplace.

Smart Bioplastic food packaging to extend shelf-life and reduce pollution

Contracting Organisation: Massey University
Science Leader(s): Eric Altermann, Nigel French
Funding (GST excl): $9,265,324
Funding Year: 2021
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2021
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

The SmartBioplastics team will use innovation and challenging scientific hypotheses to bring New Zealand to the forefront of a green plastic revolution. This innovative programme will deliver ground-breaking new food-packaging materials made of biodegradable, compostable and/or edible materials that are cleverly functionalised to actively inhibit food-borne pathogens and spoilage microbes. These next-generation materials will increase shelf-life and provide improved food safety for New Zealand’s fresh foods. The multidisciplinary SmartBioplastics team unites eminent scientists in microbiology, bacterial fermentation, biotechnology, and polymer and material sciences to leverage one of New Zealand’s key strengths: the primary sector.
Shelf-life limitations on fresh agricultural products are one of the most critical factors currently restricting our export markets. Microbial contamination, most notably by Clostridium and Campylobacter, shortens product shelf-life, increases health risks, and causes significant wastage. At the same time, global consumers are demanding a shift towards sustainable and environmentally-friendly packaging materials, prompting a move away from commonly used petroleum-based plastic packing materials due to the pollution they create.
The SmartBioplastics programme will create world-first fully-compostable and/or edible functionalised packaging materials and coatings able to keep food fresher for longer by killing harmful bacteria, initially focussing on protecting fresh meat products against food-spoilage by Clostridium and food-borne disease by Campylobacter. This will add value to the New Zealand primary sector both domestically and internationally by extending product shelf-life, while benefiting all of New Zealand by protecting human health and reducing environmental impact.

Solar Tsunamis: Space- Weather Prediction and Risk Mitigation for New Zealand's Energy Infrastructure

Contracting Organisation: University of Otago
Science Leader(s):
Funding (GST excl): $15,038,728
Funding Year: 2020
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2020
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Space Weather investigates how solar explosions impacts human technology. As our reliance on advanced technology becomes more pronounced, this field has become increasingly important globally. In many countries the principle focus is on the hazard to the electrical power network. Unusually large space weather events have caused blackouts and multi-million dollar equipment has been written off, including here. The concern is that an extreme event will happen again, and could very large amounts of damage across the globe. For the USA the estimated cost of such an event is US$0.5-2.7 trillion. A very rough estimate for New Zealand suggests an annualised risk cost of NZ$1 billion a year.
Solar explosions drive rapid changes to the Earth's magnetic field. Through Faraday's law, changing magnetic fields induce currents in wires and pipelines. It is these induced currents that can write off transformers and cause pipelines to rapidly corrode. This happens at a small level all the time, with large “geomagnetic storms” occurring most years. The issue is around extreme events at the 1 in 100 year to 1 in 200 year level: How likely and how big will such storms be? Can they be forecast? And what impact would that have on our critical energy supply networks, sitting on the land of our country?
Our energy industry partners have identified the detailed questions that need to be answered. Our research will address these questions to mitigate the extreme storm space weather hazard. New Zealand is comparatively small, making the problem tractable, plus the highly collaborative nature of the relationship with our energy sector and international partners is truly unique, and set to maximise reduction of uncertainty in risk mitigation strategies.

Sustainable biomass-derived materials to replace bitumen for transport infrastructure

Contracting Organisation: WSP New Zealand Limited
Science Leader(s): Mr Philip Herrington
Funding (GST excl): $9,100,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

An efficient road transport infrastructure underpins successful societies and economies worldwide. Bitumen, a by-product of petroleum refining, is an essential material component of that infrastructure and globally over 100 million tonnes of bitumen are used annually for road construction and industrial applications. There is currently no viable alternative. The price and availability of bitumen is highly dependent on high-volume refining of crude oil for heating and transport fuels. As a response to climate change, global fossil fuel consumption and hence bitumen availability, is forecast to be greatly reduced in the future. This will make petroleum bitumen less and less affordable and threatens NZ’s security of supply.
Our goal is to convert NZ sustainable forestry and animal biomass products, into a substitute material for petroleum-based bitumen used in road construction, roofing and numerous other industrial applications. Our research is inspired by Ngāi Tūhoe and embodies Māori values and worldview: kaitiakitanga, guardianship and conservation of the land.
Using a novel methodology we aim to convert cellulosic materials into a high-performing viscoelastic “biobitumen” made 100% from natural, renewable materials.
To be successful the new biobitumen must be economically viable, but also be designed to eliminate the rheological and durability deficiencies inherent to petroleum bitumen. Our programme is designed to address these challenges.
We have assembled a strong international research and stakeholder team to ensure scientific excellence and to facilitate efficient uptake and implementation ensuring a wide impact for New Zealand.
Our vision is that our research will create a platform to use New Zealand’s resources towards a low-emissions circular bioeconomy.

Sustainable Earthquake Resilient Buildings for a Better Future

Contracting Organisation: Auckland University of Technology
Science Leader(s): Dr Shahab Ramhormozi an
Funding (GST excl): $8,231,625
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

New Zealand is vulnerable to damaging earthquakes, recent examples being Christchurch in 2011 and Wellington in 2016.
Modern buildings are designed/built to sustain controlled damage during severe earthquakes, protecting occupants but necessitating costly and time-consuming post- earthquake repair or replacement. The cost of rebuilding Christchurch was $40 billion while repairing Wellington is anticipated to cost $30 billion, not taking into account the cost of business disruption and environmental damage. There is an urgent need for sustainable and resilient buildings that can be rapidly reoccupied following major earthquakes.
Conventional building solutions will be damaged and become unreliable after severe earthquakes, for example, demolition of the Christchurch CBD after 2011, while existing more resilient building solutions (e.g. base isolation) are expensive with limited applicability.
This proposal will close the current gap by establishing easily built, cost-effective, sustainable, and highly resilient seismic solutions that can be applied to both new and existing buildings. These will implement semi-rigid friction-sliding connections instead of conventional rigid connections. These novel connections will become flexible during strong earthquakes, limiting earthquake-induced forces and dissipating earthquake-induced energy imposed/exerted on the building. They are based on three decades of R&D by the core research team into innovative earthquake structural solutions.
The goal is to create solutions for sustainable earthquake-resistant buildings, avoiding structural damage and enabling speedy re-occupancy. These solutions, which will be implemented at the same cost as conventional solutions in both new and existing buildings, will revolutionise the long-term prospects for the resilience of all building types, both in New Zealand and around the world. They will be widely accessible on economic grounds due to their adaptability and versatility and low implementation cost, ensuring safer and more sustainable communities in seismic regions.

Tauhokohoko: Indigenising trade policy and enabling mana motuhake through Indigenous trade

Contracting Organisation: University of Waikato
Science Leader(s): Jason Mika
Funding (GST excl): $14,945,415
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Aotearoa New Zealand is a nation with a proud history of international trade, starting with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, which was as much about the prospects for trade as it was about nation-building between Māori and Pākehā. Colonisation, and with it the demise of the Māori economy, denied Māori the chance to participate in, and benefit fairly from, developing the nation’s prowess as a global food producer. It also meant that what trade means, how it happens and why, evolved without the involvement of Māori people, Māori ideas, and Māori resources. If New Zealand is to transition to a climate-resilient, high-value trading nation, this ought to be done Māori involvement, not as stakeholders, but as tāngata whenua and treaty partners, who have contributions to make and expectations about what trade could look like, be like, and deliver.
Tauhokohoko is a 5-year, Māori-led research programme that sets out to transform trade policy, measurement, and facilitation using Indigenous knowledge, methods, and values for the benefit of Māori and non-Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand. We will test the idea that mana motuhake (autonomy) enhances Indigenous trade and its huanga (beneficial) and waiora (wellbeing) effects.
Our expectation is that tauhokohoko will indigenise trade policy and enable mana motuhake and wellbeing through Indigenous trade. We will study 3 new and risky aspects of Indigenous trade: (1) Indigenising trade policy using Indigenous world views, knowledge, and values; (2) measuring Indigenous trade and its relationship to mana motuhake and wellbeing; and (3) enabling Indigenous trade through Indigenous entrepreneurial ecosystems. The research will deliver benefits through our relationships and work with Māori organisations, Crown agencies, and international organisations.

Te mana o Rangitāhua: A holistic approach to transform ecosystem wellbeing

Contracting Organisation: Auckland Museum Trust Board
Science Leader(s):
Funding (GST excl): $13,363,325
Funding Year: 2020
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2020
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Te mana o Rangitāhua will transform Aotearoa’s environmental leadership, executing a Ngāti Kuri-led research programme in a large, pristine and globally significant part of our EEZ. Rangitāhua hosts internationally significant terrestrial nature reserves and one of our largest marine reserves. While scientifically identified as one of the most intact marine ecosystems on Earth, the region remains poorly understood as a consequence of a severe lack of strategic science investment. The mauri of Rangitāhua is not comprehensively understood: we lack the critical knowledge required to guide evidence-based environmental management and protect Rangitāhua ecosystems in the face of future challenges.
We will identify tohu (signs) of change, undertake a stocktake of taonga species, and work with novel methods for monitoring the resilience of Rangitāhua’s ecosystems. Importantly, these methods will be designed and developed within a collaborative framework whereby iwi, as mana whenua, kaitiaki, and researchers in partnership with scientists, are at the centre of delivering on our national and international obligations around marine and terrestrial reserves, and our obligations to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
This is world-leading in research practice, intentionally building knowledge synergies between Mātauranga Māori and Science with emerging technologies to inform and increase understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem functions, while new environmental leadership and reform will result from prioritising cultural values and insights. Re-storying ancestral islandscapes and biodiversity of Rangitāhua enables active Ngāti Kuri kaitiakitanga: scientific discoveries result in new perspectives on the connections between these islands and the wider Pacific. We will together layer our knowledge, producing Te Kupenga, a new way of understanding this ecosystem.
Te mana o Rangitāhua presents a highly ambitious, strategic investment, leading environmental research for the future benefit of Aotearoa and the Pacific.

Te Weu o te Kaitiaki – Indigenous regeneration pathways

Contracting Organisation: Landcare Research
Science Leader(s): Johanna Yletyinen, Phil Lyver
Funding (GST excl): $15,950,000
Funding Year: 2021
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2021
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Our research will use te ao Māori worldview and whakapapa frameworks alongside the integration of value and ecological networks to re-imagine biocultural solutions that simultaneously restore ecological systems, reinforce identity, reconnect people to place, enhance community wellbeing, and deliver sustainable economic growth for communities. We will embed our research within Iwi-specific cultural learning institutions which will support the training and development of new kaitiaki and tangata tiaki.
Our research will be embedded within four case studies: (1) Sequences of wetland plant communities that support mahinga kai aspirations, led by Awarua Rūnaka, (2) Breaking arrested forest succession through economic development, led by Tūhoe Tuawhenua, (3) Biocultural regeneration of Moehau, led by Pare Hauraki, and (4) Tītī by-products and weka management enhance biodiversity and community wellbeing, led by Rakiura Māori.
We will use both te ao Māori and scientific knowledge systems to develop whakapapa frameworks and social-ecological networks and test how the impacts of kaitiakitanga interventions and economic activities cascade through ecosystems and our human communities. To facilitate this process, we will leverage new and existing data sets and network theory to explore the myriad of connections between human values, practices, and metaphysical and biophysical elements in ways that can be used in decision-making and cultural impact assessments.
We will then determine how individual components and the entire architecture of studied social-ecological systems relate to well-being outcomes. The Iwi-entities use this information to achieve outcomes related to restoring biodiversity, promoting sustainable business ventures, improve community wellbeing, and reconnect people with their lands and seas.

The Flowering Crisis: Confronting a changing climate’s threat to NZ’s tree crops

Contracting Organisation: The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Andrew Allan
Funding (GST excl): $14,500,000
Funding Year: 2021
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2021
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

New Zealand’s plant-based economy relies heavily on temperate conditions to deliver high quality fruit, vegetable and forestry products to local and global markets. These plants are being affected by the climate crisis due to warming climate, loss of cold nights, as well as extreme weather events such as heatwaves. Flowering is a key parameter for New Zealand’s horticultural and forestry industries, determining yield and quality of its products. Heat reduces flowering in temperate perennials, thus the climate crisis is beginning to threaten horticultural sustainability as New Zealand experiences warmer temperatures.
Our research team is world leading in their study of flowering and the genes that control plant response to the environment. This research programme will use kiwifruit, pine and other plant models as research tools to study flowering. New knowledge will be used to generate variants in commercial crops and to develop ‘climate-ready’ cultivars. This will enhance the country’s fastest growing sector, and protect its competitive advantage as a supplier of premium plant products.
Through our new exemplar plants with increased flowering, we will engage the public in discussion around how climate change may affect New Zealand’s crops as well as how new genetic technologies are one tool to address these issues. The programme will also co-develop new strategies for plant breeding with Māori partners that integrate indigenous knowledge with new selective breeding methods and gene technologies. Public engagement will be a key part of the project, identifying and developing ways for the New Zealand public to positively engage with the scientific concepts.

The Tree Microbiome Project: at the root of climate proofing forests

Contracting Organisation: New Zealand Forest Research Institute Ltd Trading as Scion
Science Leader(s):
Funding (GST excl): $13,500,000
Funding Year: 2020
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2020
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Our future wellbeing and fate of our trees and forests are inextricably intertwined. However, survival of many of our cornerstone native and commercial tree species is at serious risk due to rapidly changing environmental conditions. Breeding new tree varieties tolerant to future conditions will take too long and, for most species, we do not know if climate or disease tolerance traits are even present in their genomes. In short, time is running out to future-proof our trees and forests, putting their survival, and our quality of life, at risk.
We aim to make our trees and forests more adaptable to disruption by using their microbial associations. Just like humans, trees live in close association with diverse microorganisms. And, just like humans, microbes living on plants can profoundly impact their health and fitness. For example, the microbes living in the human gut not only affect our physical state, but communicate directly with our brain, and are associated with psychiatric and neurologic disorders. We contend the soil-root-microbiome has the same function for trees as the gut-microbiome has for humans. We will use the root-microbiome to alter plants environmental perception, learning, and responses to changing environmental conditions.
To achieve these outcomes, we will develop the first tree-microbiome model system using radiata pine. We use pine as we have a wealth of physiologic, trait, and genetic information, availability of national and international trial networks, and access to co-evolutionary host-microbiome associations across its natural and globally expanded ranges.
Our expert national and international team will unravel how the root-microbiome functions to enable extended tree phenotypes that can resist climate change. This is a transformational opportunity to climate-proof both our native and plated trees and forests.

Tikanga in Technology: Indigenous approaches to transforming data ecosystems

Contracting Organisation: University of Waikato
Science Leader(s):
Funding (GST excl): $6,007,260
Funding Year: 2020
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2020
Term: 4 years

Public Statement

The world is undergoing disruptive change as rapid advances in data linkage and powerful digital technologies converge. For Indigenous peoples these innovations are a double-edged sword, creating vast potential for improved wellbeing as well as major risks of group exploitation and harm. The current narrow focus on individual data rights and protection is failing us. We need a profoundly different approach - one that recognises collective identities and allows data to be understood through a wider set of ontological realities.
Situated at the interface of Mātauranga Māori and data science, this interdisciplinary programme leverages our recognised leadership in indigenous data sovereignty to focus on two central questions:
How can tikanga Māori (customary protocols) and Mātauranga Māori (Indigenous knowledge) inform the construction of digital identities and relational responsibilities to data?
What tools, processes and mechanisms create transformative ecosystems for Indigenous data that enable ethical use and generate equitable benefits?
We address these challenges through research to theorise, develop and test Māori approaches to collective privacy, collective benefit and governance in a digital environment; develop novel approaches to data classification, provenance, and valuation that ensure Māori data can be recognised, tracked, and valued within data infrastructures; and move beyond current efforts to reduce bias in algorithms to explore what it means to ‘decolonise’ algorithms that adversely affect Māori communities, and how Indigenous AI might be harnessed to realise Māori aspirations for self-determined development.
This programme has strong support from key data stakeholders across Te Ao Māori and government. We will make publicly available a range of tools, frameworks and principles that will promote ethical and equitable engagement with data grounded in Te Ao Māori worldviews.

Tino Rangatiratanga o Rātou Taonga Katoa

Contracting Organisation: Nga Uri O Te Ngahere Trust
Science Leader(s): Garry Watson
Funding (GST excl): $4,229,268
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

The Tino Rangatiratanga o Rātou Taonga Katoa research programme is derived from the guardianship responsibilities we have to protect Taonga, the treasures of Aotearoa, and address inequalities within our communities.
It researches the rich history of Māori economic development immediately after first European contact, which created the foundation of primary production in Aotearoa and our first agriculture export, and it applies those te Ao Māori principles and practices within the industry, to create whenua based social enterprises that enhance environmental sustainability, delivering wellbeing, as opposed to revenue only, to primary producers.
It draws together the wisdom of gifted Rangatira and the science capability of world renowned scientists from PFR and AGR, creating a confluence of knowledge that will be applied to restoring Mana, and a social licence to operate within the currently exploitative primary production industry.
The research team will redesign primary production as a Mosaic of interwoven land use enterprises that deliver social, environmental, cultural and economic wellbeing, starting in the East Cape region, with 150,000ha of Ngati Porou whenua underpinning this production reformat. It will then, over the following 10 years, support industry to adopt the Model and expand it across Aotearoa.
The programme reconfigures the supply chain making it ecologically responsive and adaptive to producer needs, consumer preferences and market trends. The provenance story and Brand created via the development of eco-credentials and cultural authenticity will deliver a premium return on current [commodified] primary produce, generating an economic lift in rural Māori communities, then across the sector.
This kaupapa Māori research and development programme is an Exemplar. It operationalises Government development objectives and informs new [sustainable] Policy settings.

Toitū ngā taonga waimāori: Cultural keystone species, Māori livelihoods and climate change

Contracting Organisation: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Dr Erica Williams
Funding (GST excl): 11,279,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Climate change is impacting our freshwater Cultural Keystone Species (CKS), habitats/ecosystems, biosecurity, water quality, land use and primary production, and disrupting Māori livelihoods and communities throughout Aotearoa-NZ. Complex environmental issues, such as mahinga kai and biodiversity loss, will be exacerbated by climate change and compounded by increasing conflicts between iwi/hapū food security and regional/national economic priorities.
Māori understand intergenerational equity issues and the need for long-term solutions; however, more work is required by Māori in a safe cultural space to consider what their livelihoods may look like under a changing climate, including new relationships with future freshwater environments and CKS. To prepare for this, Maori want to understand how climate change will modify freshwater CKS communities (e.g., tuna, kōura, kākahi, kanakana/piharau, īnanga/pokotehe, pōrohe, kōaro), their interdependencies, and the diversity of socio-ecological-economic systems they support. This programme will evaluate magnitudes of change that CKS may experience, including spatiotemporal variation in species/cultural practice sensitivities, to forecast climate-related vulnerability patterns of species/cultural practices. This will inform the evaluation and implementation of dynamic evidence-based interventions that are targeted to the cultural contexts within which they will be applied.
The programme responds to a diversity of Māori voices and research needs to deliver new transferrable approaches drawn from multiple knowledge systems. It will identify impacts we cannot avoid and co-design interventions to respond, strengthening resilience of whānau livelihoods, cultural practices and CKS – Te mana o ngā taonga waimāori – reflecting that these taonga tuku iho have mana in and of themselves and as such are beneficiaries of the research – Mō tātou, ā, mō kā uri, ā muri ake nei – for us, and our children after us.

Toka ākau toitu Kaitiakitanga – building a sustainable future for coastal reef ecosystems

Contracting Organisation: University of Waikato
Science Leader(s): Professor Chris Battershill
Funding (GST excl): $8,809,570
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Rocky reefs characterised by kelp are critical to biodiversity and functioning of New Zealand’s coastal ecosystems. Their lynchpin role in cultural, recreational and economic activities in the ‘blue economy’ is undisputed, but they are under serious threat, deteriorating from cumulative land and marine stressors. Fine sediments from catchments smother the benthos and darken coastal waters, shallowing the compensation point for kelp, diminishing recruitment of key species, and contracting suitable habitat.
Reductions in productivity, alterations in nutrient flux and biogeochemistry of neritic waters result in trophic disruption and degradation of rocky reef infrastructure. The problem is urgent and embedded within a fast-changing climate. Mana whenua, as kaitiaki, and society are demanding better management and tools to address these issues; the resources to understand causes and consequences at relevant scales are currently absent.
We will deliver novel science and high-tech tools, combining e-DNA, remotely-sensed biophysical surveillance, acoustic technologies, environmental chemistry, and ecological testing to delineate effects and responses to manageable stressors. Understanding present-day departures of ecosystem health from historic baselines will inform approaches for tracking reef condition. This is achieved through co-design and partnership with mana whenua, an outstanding team of researchers, and established relationships with management agencies mandated to monitor, improve and report on the coastal environment. Together, we aim to reverse reef degradation by formulating an adaptive strategy and toolbox targeting manageable stressors, in-situ testing of scaled-ecosystem drivers, optimisation of tools for addressing degradation, and ground-truthing management options in real-time.
Our base is Mātauranga Māori where knowledge of catchment condition is linked to coastal health and provides restorative targets. Our research spans catchments in four oceanographic regions and harnesses a mātauranga-science approach. Our partnership ensures uptake-into-practice of mitigation measures developed.

Transforming coastal lowland systems threatened by sea- level-rise into prosperous communities

Contracting Organisation: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Scott Stephens
Funding (GST excl): $13,600,000
Funding Year: 2021
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2021
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Aotearoa-NZ’s coastal lowlands are threatened by ongoing relative sea-level rise (RSLR). New Zealanders and our decision-makers need to know how RSLR will affect lowland freshwater systems, wetlands, coastal marshes and estuaries, and the social, cultural and economic systems that depend on them. Knowledge is needed for adaptation governance and planning, including managed retreat. This knowledge includes identifying thresholds (of RSLR) at which a particular land-use is no longer viable, and new actions are therefore necessary, and when and where those thresholds may be reached.
This national-scale programme will identify and provide free access to visualisations of what and where natural habitats and productive lands are exposed to RSLR, and how adaptation thresholds can be determined. This includes new methods and assessments of groundwater rise and salinisation, estuarine habitat evolution as a function of sediment supply and human interactions, and building national maps and datasets of environmental, land-use and asset exposure in coastal lowlands with RSLR. The project will fold this evidence base together with economic evaluation tools into a dynamic adaptive planning and decision-making framework that transparently compares adaptation approaches in terms of costs, benefits, consequences and opportunities across our complex lowland systems.
Uptake of this research will enable integrated adaptation of Aotearoa-NZ’s coastal lowlands to RSLR by quantifying values at risk, identifying opportunities to improve well- being, identifying local adaptation thresholds, and uncovering community tolerances and preferences for adaptation. The programme will enable adaptation planning that increases resilience across socio-economic and cultural systems and natural environments. This research will contribute to a future in which coastal lowland communities continue to prosper in the face of RSLR, ensuring sustainable protection and value from natural habitats alongside built and productive environments.

Vive la résistance - achieving long-term success in managing wilding conifer invasions

Contracting Organisation: Scion
Science Leader(s): Thomas Paul
Funding (GST excl): $12,850,000
Funding Year: 2021
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2021
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Wilding conifers are an economic and environmental disaster that already cover 1.5M of NZ, including Māori land. A further 7.5M ha of productive or iconic conservation land are threatened by invasion in the next 30 years. In response, the Government established a National Wilding Conifer Control Programme to deal with this serious and growing problem. Existing populations are being treated but current control efforts do not consider that cleared land is more likely to be re-invaded due to incomplete initial control, soil legacy effects, seed banks and other causes. We must develop effective strategies to create long-term resistance to re-invasion on treated land – Vive la résistance!
Re-invasion processes differ significantly from those of initial invasion and a critical international knowledge gap exists on how various factors interact to drive re-invasion. We will disentangle the multiple drivers of re-invasion to overcome this gap and address the devastating problem of wilding-conifer re-invasion in NZ. The outcomes of this programme will transform current wilding-management practices by breaking an otherwise inevitable cycle of treatment/re-invasion/re-treatment.
Benefits to NZ from this research include securing $6.3B of projected benefits by 2050 from the current > $100M investment in wilding control and generating substantial benefits of ~$750M (benefit-to-cost ratio ~54:1) by reducing treatment costs and by avoiding multiple re-treatments. Increasing participation of Iwi/Māori in management of wilding re-invasions and restoring Māoritanga and landscape aesthetics are also key research outcomes.

Waerau waikawa iti rongoā paturopi: New Generation Peptide Antibiotics

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s):
Funding (GST excl): $9,179,085
Funding Year: 2020
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2020
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

The World Health Organisation stated that “greater innovation and investment are required in research and development of new antimicrobial medicines, vaccines, and diagnostic tools” and published a list of 12 “priority pathogens (superbugs) according to how urgently antibiotics are needed.” New Zealand’s National Antimicrobial Resistance Action Plan broadly aims to improve control and detection of antimicrobial resistance. This research programme addresses antimicrobial resistance by focusing on knowledge creation for new antibiotics for human use, to replace and invigorate the exhausted pipeline. Our last lines of chemical defence against multi-drug resistant Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria are antimicrobial peptides produced by environmental microbes. Due to
their unique bactericidal mechanisms of action, antimicrobial peptides have a lower tendency to elicit antimicrobial resistance than conventional
antibiotics. Insertion of a lipid tail on a peptide sequence increases its affinity for bacterial membranes and selectivity for specific membrane components. This programmes expands the new antibiotic pipeline by optimising the therapeutic properties of lipopeptide antimicrobial peptides using our patented “Cysteine Lipidation on a Peptide or Amino-acid” (CLipPA) technology. The genomes of both cultivated and uncultivated New Zealand microbiomes will also be mined to discover new lipopeptide scaffolds that possess novel mechanisms of antimicrobial action. We will deliver genome-mined and/or chemically engineered easy-to- manufacture lipopeptide antibiotics with superior antimicrobial activity. The investment will disrupt the current therapeutic paradigm and lead to an innovative NZ pharmaceutical sector that discovers, develops and produces antibiotics, an area of high value growth potential in terms of international revenue and highly paid technical job opportunities.

Waste to treasure: using novel chemistry to valorise residual plant materials

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Paul Kilmartin
Funding (GST excl): $9,800,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

We will develop high-value products derived from grape marc, to grow existing New Zealand industries and facilitate new ventures. Currently treated as waste, grape marc is a significant resource.
Our research team holds several patents and has developed leading-edge technological approaches that will be applied to grape marc components.
The NZ food industry will use grape proteins and bioactive polyphenols will as dietary ingredients in their own right, while antioxidant biopolymers will extend the shelf-life of food. We will create value out of fine chemical and surfactants based on grape marc components. We will introduce novel high value paper products with key industry partners, providing fire-retardant and antimicrobial properties and integrated paper-based electronics.
We will take a stakeholder (industry, consumers, community) co-creation approach in the design of novel products for applications in the food, pharmaceutical, building and fine chemicals sectors.
Our team from Auckland University of Technology, Scion, the University of Canterbury and the University of Auckland will work closely with the NZ wine industry for the supply of grape marc and support NZ companies to develop high-value products.
Our programme will be an example of how to create substantial new high-value product revenue streams for NZ companies while eliminating a primary industry waste stream as part of our future circular economy.

Whatu raranga o ngā koiora – weaving cultural authority into gene-drives targeting wasps

Contracting Organisation: University of Otago
Science Leader(s): Peter Dearden
Funding (GST excl): $9,923,945
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Invasive pests damage our economy, environment and health. Control or eradication of those pests is expensive and often environmentally damaging. Novel methods for pest control are going to be needed if we are to reach goals such as Predator Free 2050, or to keep back the tide of pests that assail us. Gene-drives are a genetic technology, untried and controversial, that may solve some of our pest problems. Unfortunately, we don’t know if we can make gene drives that are safe, efficacious, socially acceptable and fit for purpose to control New Zealand’s pests. Without this information, we cannot be sure if gene-drives are something we should embrace, or avoid. We aim to provide this missing information by developing gene drives in containment to control invasive social wasps.
The key to developing socially acceptable gene drives is to ensure they are built with advice from the public, Māori groups, and regulators. We will carry out a programme of consultation with public and Māori groups to determine attitudes to gene-drive technologies, innovations from mātauranga Māori and find ways to mitigate concerns raised in the gene-drive systems we develop. Feeding in this information, and that from regulators, we aim, in containment to develop and test wasp gene-drive technologies.
The data we produce will go on to inform public discussion and evidence-based decision-making regarding the adoption, or not, of gene-drives for pest control.

Wirelessly Powered Transport Infrastructure for a Low-carbon Future

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Grant Covic
Funding (GST excl): $13,507,911
Funding Year: 2021
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2021
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

In order to achieve our goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, New Zealand must tackle the difficult problem of weaning itself off fossil fuels for transport. The bigget single barrier to uptake of electric vehicles is wirelessly charging their batteries – safely, simply, and fast. But there is no technology yet invented that can deliver sufficient charge to heavy vehicles without limiting payload or range. Despite the advice of the Climate Change Commission that we need to switch much of the freight fleet to electricity by 2035, it is unclear how we can do so. This research programme adresses that challenging problem. It will develop the necessary technology to wirelessly power the full range of vehicles on the move, and to deliver very high power quickly to heavy vehicles at off-road locations – without imposing impossible loads on the electricity grid. The science that makes this possible was invented by New Zealand researchers 30 years ago. The science is challenging, but the team is internationally respected for its work in these fields. The outcomes will provide the vehicle-side and in-road charging technology including magnetics, power electronics, and road materials, as well as the traffic and economic data necessary for their deployment in New Zealand roads. Our work will give confidence to fleet owners to invest in EVs and to NZTA and local authorities to invest in the new roading infrastructure. We are partnering with rural and urban iwi groups to ensure our technologies are appropriate for them. This research will help to create the safe, clean future that we want our children to inherit – and create economic opportunities for NZ firms to commercialise the technology.

Working to End Racial Oppression

Contracting Organisation: University of Waikato
Science Leader(s):
Funding (GST excl): $10,030,790
Funding Year: 2020
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2020
Term: 5 years

Public Statement

Racism, as a social structure that underpins forms of interpersonal and institutional discrimination, has had deleterious effects on Aotearoa New Zealand, evident in inequitable outcomes across almost every indicator of wellbeing, including those within health, education, housing, employment and justice. Working to End Racial Oppression is an interdisciplinary research programme that investigates the costs of racism, the systems that produce and reproduce racism, and transformative responses to reduce racism.
In addition to collating and communicating extant evidence of racial inequalities across multiple domains, the costs of racism will be investigated through specific projects analysing: income distribution over time; employment outcomes; housing disadvantage; geospatial segregation and exposure to environmental risk; and the impact of racism on health education and training, and health systems.
Systems through which racism is (re)produced will also be identified through analyses of: the settler colonial racialisation of differentially positioned communities of colour (including tangata whenua, tangata Moana, and migrants of colour); the maintenance of settler colonial narratives through national commemorations; the role of privileged populations in excluding racialised minorities; the significance of employment and housing systems in maintaining inequalities; and the role of technologies (e.g.social media) in exacerbating inequalities.
Finally, responses to racism will include (but not be limited to) the development and dissemination of: toolkits to audit and address institutional racism; protocols to promote inclusive online communication; strategies for building relationships between racialised communities; and guidelines for the ethical remembering of New Zealand history.
The programme assembles knowledge experts in Māori studies, health, Pacific studies, immigration, economics, data science, human geography, sociology and psychology, and will amplify innovation by bringing these knowledge systems into dialogue, towards the transformational long-term agenda of ending racial oppression in Aotearoa.