New Centre of Research Excellence Launched Tonight

New Centre of Research Excellence Launched Tonight

Te Pūnaha Matatini, a new Centre of Research Excellence will be opened tonight by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Auckland, Professor Stuart McCutcheon.

Te Pūnaha Matatini - ‘the meeting place of many faces’ - is an exciting collaboration that brings together experts from across New Zealand’s academic research community, industry, and government to develop the methods and tools that will transform that data into knowledge, providing insight for businesses, government, and communities.

The Tertiary Education Commission-funded Centre will be led by Professor Shaun Hendy, a physcist at the University of Auckland.

“We live in a data-rich but knowledge poor world,” said Hendy. “Te Pūnaha Matatini will develop new tools for understanding large complex datasets, and transfer these tools to New Zealand’s business and government sectors for increased productivity and insight.”

Te Pūnaha Matatini has launched research projects to study innovation networks and indicators in New Zealand, understand the impact of inequality on childhood outcomes, reconcile economic and biological values of our marine food resources, and optimise health care expenditure.

Te Pūnaha Matatini has assembled a diverse, multidisciplinary team to collaborate on transdisciplinary problems and questions of importance to New Zealand and the world.

“Just as New Zealand’s economy was transformed by the introduction of the first trans-oceanic shipments of frozen sheep meat in 1882”, said Hendy, “Te Pūnaha Matatini will look at contemporary supply chain networks, seeking to better understand optimisation of the network infrastructure, essential for New Zealand – a small, export-based economy at the end of the world’s supply chain.”

Centres of Research Excellence are required to combine internationally significant research programmes with a commitment to developing New Zealand’s human capital, and ability to succeed.

Te Pūnaha Matatini is training a new type of scientist for the benefit of New Zealand; it will offer research projects that develop scientific skills that are relevant New Zealand economy, society, and environment. It will equip these students with the business skills and personal networks to enable them to pursue rewarding careers or start their own knowledge-intensive businesses in New Zealand.

“It’s exciting to see our team’s vision coming to fruition”, said Kate Hannah, the Centre’s Executive Manager. “We’re working to build the kind of New Zealand of which we can all be proud.”

In particular, Te Pūnaha Matatini is committed to working with Māori communities to develop and understand the role of innovation in enhancing the sustainability of regional economies and communities.

Te Pūnaha Matatini takes it’s foundational whakataukī this maxim from Sir Apirana Ngāta (1874-1950):

“E tipu, e rea, mo ngā ra o tau ao – grow up and thrive for the days destined you”

Te Pūnaha Matatini – ‘the meeting place of many faces’ – is a Centre of Research Excellence that will develop methods and approaches for transforming complex data about New Zealand’s environment, economy, and society into knowledge, tools, and insight for making better decisions. The Centre is hosted by the University of Auckland in partnership with the University of Canterbury, Victoria University of Wellington, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, and Massey University.

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