The University of Waikato has successfully secured funding for three projects, worth a total of $26.9m, in the latest MBIE Endeavour Fund round.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Professor Bryony James, says the success of each project in receiving funding is testament to the quality of the University’s researchers and their collaborators, coupled with excellent support from the University’s Research and Enterprise Office.
“I’m very proud of the teams for winning this funding in a highly competitive funding environment. Even more important, though, is the impact these researchers will now be able to make for Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond.”
The projects involve large teams from multiple research organisations, with collaborators from New Zealand and overseas, led by University of Waikato researchers.
Associate Professor Māui Hudson, Professor Tahu Kukutai and Associate Professor Te Taka Keegan are leading Tikanga in Technology: Indigenous approaches to transforming data ecosystems, which has been awarded $6m. It will explore accessibility to data science in relation to Indigenous data sovereignty, governance and provenance, with a view to optimising data ecosystems to recognise and benefit Indigenous societies.
Dr Waikaremoana Waitoki, Dr Arama Rata and Professor Francis Collins are leading the research programme Working to End Racial Oppression (WERO), which has been awarded $10m. The interdisciplinary, community-informed research has three interlinked aims focusing on the individual, community and economic costs of racism. It aims to examine the systems that produce and maintain racism, develop institutional policies and responses that can eliminate racial oppression, and produce more robust systems for monitoring and reporting on racism.
Professor Kim Pickering’s Āmiomio Aotearoa - a circular economy for the wellbeing of New Zealand programme has attracted $10.9m of Endeavour funding. Built on a combination of Mātauranga Māori and science, this is a novel concept for a cyclical, regenerative economy that moves beyond the linear model of ‘take-make-waste’. The project brings together disciplines including materials science, engineering, economics, kaupapa Māori, business, law and regulation, social science and public policy.
Professor James says University of Waikato researchers are also active collaborators in programme bids led by other research organisations, reflecting the collegial nature of research in this country.
