Expressions of interest are being sought for the Challenge Leadership Team (CLT) role of Processes and Observations Programme Leader in the Deep South National Science Challenge. The Processes and Observations Programme Leader will lead our Observations for Model Development programme. Projects have been contracted which contribute to the Challenge’s mission through research that spans clouds & aerosols, sea-ice, storm mixing of oceans, and snow & ice catchment processes.

Up to 0.2 FTE is available for this position through to the end of the National Science Challenges in June 2024.

Further information

For more information regarding this position, contact the Challenge Director, Dr Phil Wiles
([email protected], 027-298-9446).

To apply

Please submit your CV together with a covering letter outlining your experience and interest in the role to the Challenge Manager, Mark Webley, [email protected], by no later than 5 pm Friday 4 November 2022.

We are pleased to announce two new team members, filling some crucial gaps.

Mark Webley, Challenge Manager

Mark Webley takes on the role of Challenge Manager. Mark has spent the last 14 years working at NIWA in a project coordinator position for the previous nine. Luckily for us, he is already familiar with the Deep South Challenge; his current position has been as the project coordinator for DSC. This meant working directly with all the previous challenge managers and project management team.

Mark says, “The way Deep South Challenge’s research works to help New Zealand navigate a changing climate and reaches out to people at the forefront appeals to me. It is a privilege to work with such a diverse group of people.”

Mark is a Wellingtonian born and bred, and he lives in Miramar. He is kept busy outside work raising two young children and coaching football. We look forward to having Mark at the helm to help us all to deliver success over the remainder of the Challenge.

Maximillian Scott-Murray, Events Director 

Maximillian Scott-Murray (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Awa) has joined our Engagement Team as Events Director. This new role focuses on the many events, from hapū-based noho wanaga to corporate and central government symposia, which we will be running between now and the end of the Challenge. Max joins us from the community justice space, alongside photography and events management, and brings with him a wealth of knowledge on navigating challenging spaces.

For Max the most important aspect of our Deep South mahi is building interconnections and ensuring wide access to tools, information, and resourcing.

It is important to me that at each step of this journey we uphold the importance of whēnua to Māori, and amplify the voices of tangata whēnua wherever we can.

Maximillian Scott-Murray

Max’s whakapapa is to the Hokianga and Whakatane areas, although he has lived most of his life in Wellington. He’s lucky enough to now reside in the beautiful Titahi Bay. Max will be kept busy as we seek to maximise outcomes from our research; the team has already appreciated his skill in running hui and his eye for details, like having quality kai. 

How are the eleven National Science Challenges (Challenges) meeting the needs of their stakeholders? Results from interviews suggest we are on the right track.

Every two years Kanter Public, on behalf of MBIE, interview stakeholders from across the Challenges to assess how we are progressing. Each Challenge receives a summary of its own progress alongside an overview of the collective progress of the Challenges. The findings of the 2022 research demonstrate that collectively the Challenges have sustained good relationships with their stakeholders.  

Stakeholders hold leadership and researchers in very high regard for their skills, knowledge, expertise, collaboration, cultural competence, and engagement. They demonstrate open, transparent, and respectful ways of working. These working relationships and networks are valued, and stakeholders hope they will be sustained.

KANTAR report

Across the board, stakeholders value the tailored partnership approach. There was an appreciation for research summaries that were accessible and timely. This sidestepped the slower process of academic publication.

While Māori involvement has become more central to the research process over time, there is still variability in how this is implemented, from no Māori involvement to Kaupapa Māori research that is Māori led and focussed on Māori outcomes and aspirations. Māori co-directors, and Kahui Māori (Māori advisory board) send a powerful signal that Māori partnerships, te ao Māori principles, vision mātauranga, and Māori research outcomes are highly valued and incorporated.

Room for improvement was identified in several areas, including: 

• The need for increasing collaboration across Challenges.
• Communicating knowledge in a more accessible way for communities, iwi, hapū, Māori, and individuals.
• Increasing resourcing for Māori and Pasifika researchers.
• Deconstructing insititutionalised racism.
• Ensuring whānau data sovereignty.
• Ensuring that engagement with Māori is place based and geographically driven (mana whenua).

Stakeholders acknowledged the impact of Covid-19, with the most significant impact the loss of kanohi ki te kanohi face-to-face contact. The shift to online platforms had some advantages but led to a loss of personal connection. 

With the Challenges coming to an end in 2024, stakeholders had questions about how progress will be built on and sustained beyond the end date.

The Deep South Challenge are seen as genuine and helpful

The Deep South Challenge (DSC) specific feedback broadly validated our approach. In particular, our stakeholders identified our approach to engagement as genuine and personable. DSC leadership is seen as extremely helpful and knowledgeable, contributing to a high level of trust and confidence amongst stakeholders. 

Our website was identified as a great place to source information about our work. However, while there is no doubt about the high quality of research produced by the Challenge, stakeholders would like to see outputs become increasingly accessible to the public.

I think they’re setting a really good example for how to ‘meaningfully’ engage with Māori. I’ve never seen so much support towards iwi and hāpu leading their own research, and they don’t want another entity, or another Crown Research Agency engaging with Māori. They want Māori engaging with Māori, which prevents misconceptions of our knowledge when others articulate our mātauranga. So Māori’ communities’ are governing, creating and leading the their own research ideas and inviting others to join where it is appropriate and useful.

Stakeholder feedback

Stakeholders identified DSC as a good example of what it is to put te ao Māori as a central focus. Our update on our Vision Mātuaranga programme shows how we are implementing this. However, there is still room to improve, including by expanding our networks in te ao Māori and increasing resources to support Māori engagement.

In a series of short profiles, we are spotlighting the work of our engagement team with a focus on how they are available to support our researchers.

Angela Halliday is our Partnership Director. Her work focuses on supporting researchers to connect with stakeholders and organising various aspects of our public engagement.

Angela Halliday

Ko wai koe?

Kia ora koutou, ko Angela Halliday taku ingoa.  Ko Murihiku (Southland) te whenua tupu. Nō Horowhenua te kāinga. He Partnerships Director au i Deep South Challenge.

When did you join the DSC and how do you describe what you do in one sentence?

I’ve been with the Deep South Challenge since 2018. I work closely with Engagement team and link in project teams with stakeholders where I can, with a focus on the Implications and Adaptation Programme.  I look after our Representative User Group and assist with events and other initiatives that help to disseminate our research out to those that might use it.  When projects are near completion I facilitate briefings with interested parties to ensure research is understood.

Why might a researcher want to get in touch with you?

If researchers are looking for a platform or opportunity to speak to stakeholders in a particular industry, central or local government, we can help facilitate this. Or even if they want to discuss where their research might help clarify thinking for policymakers or communities, we can make suggestions and linkages to help with these connections. In some cases, it can be helpful to use stakeholders as a sounding board during the research itself, and we can help with this.
My background is in the Primary Sector, so I have contacts in this area. We also have a lot of contacts as a Challenge and across other National Science Challenges as well. We might also approach you to speak about your research at relevant conferences, forums or webinars.

When you’re not working at DSC, where are you most likely to be?

I have two little boys so likely to be wrangling them or dealing with toddler meltdowns! I also do some work for a small Agricultural Research Trust.

How can people find you, and what’s your availability like?

I work most days apart from Friday.

You can email or phone: [email protected] or 0279473344.

The kuaka flies direct: Indigenous observations of a changing environment

We are honoured to bring you this online kōrero with Rikki Solomon (Aotearoa) and Bobby Schaeffer (Alaska). We are also extremely lucky that our Kāhui member and Pou Tikanga (he tūranga hou) Ruia Aperahama will facilitate the kōrero.

This webinar takes its name from the whakatauki about the kuaka (godwit), who connects the two lands of Aotearoa and Alaska. In Māori understandings, the cries of the kuaka are loud as they migrate between Alaska and Aotearoa, a flight of 12,000km. Ancestors navigating the moana observed their course during the day and listened to their cries at night to guide them.

In this webinar, we bring together Indigenous experts Rikki Solomon (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa, Rangitāne-o-Tamaki-nui-a-rua) and Bobby Schaeffer (Iñupiaq), to guide a different kind of climate change conversation. Our speakers bring vital, place-based knowledge, and experiences of change that spring from and are centred around the environment. Research, conversation and action around climate change has much to learn from this relational and experiential approach, steeped in ancestral wisdom and practice.

Like the direct flight of the kuaka, we hope that this webinar will inspire us to clear a pathway into the future, based on learnings and patterns that are ancient in origin. 

Ka ngau ki te turikakao te paringa o te tai, e tika te rere o te kuaka.
The spinifex wanders along the beach like the incoming tide, the kuaka flies direct.

This critical conversation is part of our Te Kawa o Te Ora webinar series. A recording of this webinar will be available on our YouTube channel soon after. Please subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date.

We have put together a snap shot of research programmes and agencies that might be relevant to our researchers.

Where there are specific research themes dedicated to Kaupapa Māori research, these have been identified.

Five-year research programmes

The Moana project (Oct 2018 – Sep 2023) aims to improve understanding of coastal ocean circulation, connectivity and marine heatwaves to produce information that supports sustainable growth of the seafood industry, iwi initiatives and how we manage our marine environments. Summary information here.

• He Papa Moana brings ocean modelling, kaimoana connectivity and iwi aspirations to help further iwi interests and marine management within a cross-cultural ocean knowledge platform. This research explores traditional waka voyaging and mātauranga relating to changes in ocean temperatures as well as the effects of a changing climate on Māori fisheries.

Whakahura: Extreme events and the emergence of climate change (Oct 2019 – Sep 2024) aims to improve understanding of how and why extreme weather has affected New Zealand in the 20th century, and to develop new tools to improve the forecasting of extreme weather events in the next four decades.

• Vision Mātauranga in Whakahura aims to improve understanding of damage through a hauora/oranga (wellbeing/livelihood) lens, so that policies can be developed that consider the interests of iwi and hapū.

Future Coasts Aotearoa (2021 – Sep 2026) will develop the evidence-base for sea-level rise risks (focussed on wetlands, estuaries, and coastal farms), develop tools to evaluate well-being in the context of coastal risks, and integrate this into a decision-making framework that brings together social, cultural, economic and natural systems.

Mā te haumaru ō nga puna wai ō Rākaihautū ka ora mo ake tonu: Increasing flood resilience across Aotearoa (Oct 2020  – Sep 2025) is developing a system to consistently map flood hazards across Aotearoa, and look at how flood risk may change over the next 100 years. The programme will also investigate flood risk to the built environment, and how floods impact our communities and social systems.

Tangata Whenua Tangata Ora (2019 – 2024) will investigate whenua initiatives that aim to produce health gains, by exploring health models and initiatives informed by Kaupapa Māori understandings of interrelated health determinants and guiding local, co-created projects developing deeper understandings of reconnecting people to whenua and place as a conceptual and practical way of producing Māori health gains.

National Science Challenges (ending June 2024)

Of the 11 National Science Challenges, we have listed those that may be relevant to your climate change research. You can find a full list of the National Science Challenges here.

Resilience to Nature’s Challenges focusses on resilience to natural hazards, such as volcanic eruption, tsunami, sea-level rise and coastal erosion, and extreme weather and fire.

• Whanake te Kura i Tawhiti Nui aims to increase the visibility, understanding and transformational potential of mātauranga Māori in natural hazard research and resilience.

Sustainable Seas focusses on improving marine resource decision-making and the health of our seas through holistic, ecosystem-based management, and transforming New Zealand’s ability to enhance our marine economy into a blue economy.

• Tangaroa research theme centres and is led by Māori, and explores ecosystem-based management that is founded on and informed by mātauranga and tikanga Māori.

Our Land and Water aims to enhance the production and productivity of New Zealand’s primary sector, while maintaining and improving the quality of the country’s land and water for future generations. (An improved Our Land and Water website is currently in development, to enable easier access to research projects and outputs.)

Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities’s objective is to improve the quality and supply of housing and create smart and attractive urban environments.

• Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua this research area will deliver solutions for how we collaboratively finance, design, and build developments, with buy-in from multiple stakeholders, to overcome discriminatory policy and legislative barriers, to actively support Māori aspirations for long-term, affordable, and healthy housing that meets the needs of their communities. We also focus on Māori wellbeing and housing for those whānau who are homeless.

New Zealand’s Biological Heritage aims to help New Zealanders protect our precious environment, contribute to world-class biosecurity, and create a resilient, thriving environment. Mātauranga Māori and Te Ao Māori is embedded throughout the Challenge.

Centres of Research Excellence

Coastal People Southern Skies focusses on the changes resulting from ocean warming and acidification, sea-level rise, and climate change. Research responds to the decline in culture, local economy, and well-being of coastal people in New Zealand and across the Pacific.

Ngā Pae o te Maramatanga is New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence and supports research under the themes of Whai Rawa (The Māori Economy), Te Tai Ao (The Natural Environment), Mauri Ora (Human Flourishing) and Te Reo me Ngā Tikanga Māori.