University of Waikato funded Research Programmes

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.