Infectious Disease research platform

New Zealand’s response to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic has presented opportunities for improvement in our research response to future infectious diseases. The Government wishes to ensure that New Zealand has world-class research capability in place to respond to infectious disease threats into the future.

The aims of the Infectious Diseases Research Platform are to:

• build New Zealand’s research capability for greater strength and scale
• ensure New Zealand is better prepared for known and emerging infectious disease threats, including future pandemics
• meet our obligations under Te Tiriti and the aims of Pae Ora (healthy futures for Māori)
• prioritise research to address health inequities
• link with international research.

We will achieve these aims whilst continuing our work to address COVID-19 and other serious infectious diseases. We will use a Te Ao Māori framework, recognising Rangatiratanga and Pātuitanga consistent with NZ Health Strategies and Action Plans.

The outcome will be that New Zealand’s research effort is co-ordinated and well prepared to meet the challenges of future threats from infectious diseases.

The Platform will be hosted in partnership by The Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) and the University of Otago, engaging communities and researchers through a nation-wide network.

The Infectious Disease Research Platform, Te Niwha, takes a transdisciplinary and integrated approach to infectious diseases and pandemic preparedness, to deliver a strong, prepared, and unified research network for Aotearoa New Zealand.  Through this network we aim to drive our Mission for world-class research capability by embedding the Te Niwha Charter principles of accountability, relationships, partnerships, and leadership.

The research themes of Te Niwha span Mātauranga Māori, Public Health, Social and Biomedical Sciences.  The focus of our strategic, commissioned and seeding research projects remains two-fold:

• Improve prevention and control of infectious diseases
• Improve response to and management of infectious diseases.

Our achievements this year include delivering four well attended research commissioning workshops and a strategic project workshop.  All research project submissions highlighted both direct and linked international relationships and affiliations, and a strong alignment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Vision Mātauranga, our Mission and Charter.  We also successfully launched the inaugural Te Niwha symposium signalling the first diverse gathering of research experts and community.

Our commissioned research portfolio spans all our priority areas: Prevention, Surveillance, Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Te Ao Māori.  Workshops in 2022/23 led to Te Niwha commissioning 16 multi-partnered projects in early 2023/24. Projects including likely pandemic agents and scenarios, covid-19 synthesis, antimicrobial stewardship, burden of disease analysis across drinking water infrastructure, foodborne illness to viral and bacterial disease treatments, expanding rapid point of care and biopsy technologies and understanding our risk profile through genomics and epidemiology. 

The platform is also growing critical and diverse capability through 45 research scholarships and studentships and 5 fellowships with more than half of these awarded already.  Throughout the lifetime of the platform targeting training across all facets of research will see more than 200 Te Niwha funded researchers engage in development workshops and events including the annual Te Niwha hosted Infectious Diseases and Pandemic Preparedness Summit.