Te Pūnaha Matatini is the New Zealand

Centre of Research Excellence The Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs) are interorganisational research networks in New Zealand funded through the Centres of Research Excellence scheme, which is administered by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). History The scheme w ...

for

complex system A complex system is a system composed of many components that may interact with one another. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communication sy ...

s. Te Pūnaha Matatini is funded by the Tertiary Education Commission, hosted by the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

, and works in partnership with fifteen universities and organisations. Te Pūnaha Matatini brings together 100 principal investigators from tertiary institutions, government institutes, private sector organisations and marae communities from throughout New Zealand.

Establishment

The

New Zealand Government The New Zealand Government () is the central government through which political authority is exercised in New Zealand. As in most other parliamentary democracies, the term "Government" refers chiefly to the executive branch, and more specifica ...

developed the Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs) in 2001 based on "international evidence that research is more likely to be successful (in terms of quality, relevance and impact) if there is a critical mass of researchers who work together to share skills, knowledge and resources". In 2012, two researchers, Shaun Hendy and Dion O'Neale began discussing how a collaborative, complex research system could make an impact, and in 2013 a proposal was submitted to the Centre of Research Excellence. After being interviewed by the

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, it was announced in 2014 that Te Pūnaha Matatini Centre for Complex Systems and Networks, to be located in the Faculty of Science, Auckland University, was confirmed as one of the new Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs). Adam Jaffe, in 2017, at the end of a five-year tenure as Director of

Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Motu Economic and Public Policy Research is an economic and public policy research institute based in Wellington, New Zealand. Founded in September 2000ecause..it allows economists, physicists, mathematicians and ecologists to share different ways of approaching and quantifying the impact of networks... nd.. the joint innovation and productivity research has real potential to improve the complex systems that affect people's lives and livelihoods". Funded by the Tertiary Education Commission, Te Pūnaha Matatini aimed to be a collaborative partnership that brought together "New Zealand's leading researchers in physics, economics, mathematics, biology, computer science, operations management, statistics, and social science to study complex systems and networks in the biosphere, the economy, and the marketplace".

Structure

Te Pūnaha Matatini is structured around three Communities of Inquiry (COI) that provide leadership and community around key practices that are fundamental for how they do their research: * Complexity COI * Culture of Research Excellence COI * Engagement COI From 2021–2024 Te Pūnaha Matatini has funded 16 core research projects, which are organised into four interrelated impact areas: * Our changing climate * Building a just and equitable society * Better models and methods * Human and environmental health and wellbeing These research projects are funded as part of an annual grant of $4 million from the Tertiary Education Commission. Each of the ten currently-funded Centres of Research Excellence receives between $4–6.4 million in funding each year. The organisation holds that its research spans the "breadth of human knowledge, from computational sciences to

environmental economics Environmental economics is a sub-field of economics concerned with environmental issues. It has become a widely studied subject due to growing environmental concerns in the twenty-first century. Environmental economics "undertakes theoretical ...

, and from

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

philosophy to

mathematical biology Mathematical and theoretical biology, or biomathematics, is a branch of biology which employs theoretical analysis, mathematical models and abstractions of living organisms to investigate the principles that govern the structure, development ...

....celebrates the distinct status of

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

tangata whenua In New Zealand, tangata whenua () is a Māori term that translates to "people of the land". It can refer to either a specific group of people with historical claims to a district, or more broadly the Māori people who's common ancestors are bur ...

, and is committed to upholding the principles of

Te Tiriti o Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi (), sometimes referred to as ''Te Tiriti'', is a document of central importance to the history of New Zealand, Constitution of New Zealand, its constitution, and its national mythos. It has played a major role in the tr ...

". Shaun Hendy was Director until June 2021, when he was replaced by Cilla Wehi. Since January 2024 the centre is co-directed by Wehi and Markus Luczak-Roesch. Operationally the organisation is structured with Kaumatua, an Executive Team, a Strategic Leadership Group, and Principal Investigators. Dr Andrea Byrom accepted the role of Kairangi (person held in high esteem) in 2021 and TPM Whānau has a role within the organisation as a network for emerging scientists in an "active transdisciplinary community, with a shared interest in complex systems and networks, comprising postgraduate students, postdocs and early career researchers from all over New Zealand". The 2022 Annual Report of Te Pūnaha Matatini recorded that in 2022 the organisation had 77 Principal Investigators, 233 TPM Whānau, an HQ Team of 4, and 1 Kaumātua. Te Pūnaha Matatini has worked in partnership with

Massey University Massey University () is a Public university, public research university in New Zealand that provides internal and distance education. The university has campuses in Auckland, Palmerston North, and Wellington. Data from Universities New Zealand ...

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington (), also known by its shorter names "VUW" or "Vic", is a public university, public research university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of New Zealand Parliament, Parliament, and w ...

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research Landcare Research (Māori: Manaaki Whenua) is a New Zealand Crown Research Institute whose focus of research is the environment, biodiversity, and sustainability. The New Zealand Government intends to merge the institute into the New Zealand ...

and

Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Motu Economic and Public Policy Research is an economic and public policy research institute based in Wellington, New Zealand. Founded in September 2000 COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, a group of researchers brought together by Te Pūnaha Matatini developed mathematical models within different scenarios and provided data to inform the response of the New Zealand Government to the pandemic.

Shaun Hendy Shaun Cameron Hendy is a New Zealand physicist. He is the chief scientist at climate innovation company Toha. He was previously a professor at the University of Auckland and was the first director of Te Pūnaha Matatini, a centre of research ...

David Hayman David Hayman (born 9 February 1948) is a Scottish film, television and stage actor and director from Glasgow. His acting credits include '' Sid and Nancy'' (1986), '' Hope and Glory'' (1987), '' Rob Roy'' (1995), '' The Jackal'' (1997), '' Tri ...

and Michael Plank were among the high-profile members of the organisation who regularly commented on the COVID-19 pandemic in the news media at the time. The leadership of Te Pūnaha Matatini investigators has supported the setting up of independent research programmes, including ''Covid-19 Modelling Aotearoa'' and ''The Disinformation Project''.

Modelling and commentary

In June 2020, modelling by Te Pūnaha Matatini had indicated that 83 per cent of New Zealanders would have needed to be vaccinated before other measures such as

lockdowns A lockdown () is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely. The term is used for a prison protocol that us ...

were reduced but 97 per cent of the eligible people in the country would need both Pfizer jabs if the Delta variant spread. At the time, Shaun Hendy said it was unlikely that level of vaccine coverage would be reached. Principal Investigator Michael Plank said that just reaching a vaccination target would not give total default protection against the virus and "other communities which were hard to access or more at-risk to the virus might have lower rates of vaccination". As Auckland faced a second lockdown in August 2021, Hendy noted the significance of identification of links to border cases as this indicated fewer cases spreading in the community. He later suggested that, despite a caveat to the prediction because of the possible effect of the opening some shops, modelling indicated that Auckland's outbreak could peak by November 2021. He said that the improving rate of vaccinations in the country might reduce the chance of the numbers increasing rapidly but a focus was needed on getting vulnerable rural communities vaccinated. When

Jacinda Ardern Dame Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern ( ; born 26 July 1980) is a New Zealand politician and activist who was the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, leader of the Labour Party from 2017 to 2023. She was ...

announced a possible re-opening of the borders between Australia and New Zealand in April 2022, Hendy said this was a "significant milestone" in the approach of New Zealand to COVID-19 and Michael Plank said it showed the benefit of the elimination strategies pursued in both countries. Their comments however were tempered by the possibility of there being an escalation of the virus in Australia. With the high transmissibility of the

Delta variant The Delta variant (B.1.617.2) was a variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It was first detected in India on 5 October 2020. The Delta variant was named on 31 May 2021 and had spread to over 179 countries by 22 November 202 ...

being a concern, the modelling of Te Pūnaha Matatini continued to indicate that without good rates of vaccination to build population immunity, there could still be a substantial community outbreak that would put the healthcare system in New Zealand under immense strain. By the middle of December 2021, Plank said he was troubled about the impact of the high transmissibility of the

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variant in New Zealand, and the case could be made for a review of the plans to open the border with Australia in 2022 due to an increase in cases in Sydney. When the

COVID-19 variant was confirmed as likely to be circulating within New Zealand, Plank said that the modelling suggested an outbreak, and this would require careful management of isolation periods.

Selected publications

* ''Model-free estimation of COVID-19 transmission dynamics from a complete outbreak''(2021). Using a dataset of epidemiologically linked cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand, this paper explored transmission dynamics of the virus that depended on factors such as age, and response to different control measures. The research showed that children and imported cases had a low probability of transmitting the virus, but

superspreading event A superspreading event (SSEV) is an event in which an infectious disease is spread much more than usual, while an unusually contagious organism infected with a disease is known as a superspreader. In the context of a human-borne illness, a super ...

contributed significantly to the dynamics and this could be limited by

border controls Borders are generally defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ...

and

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dise ...

measures. * ''We built a model that shows how small rule changes can fuel delta's spread'' (2021). Members of Te Pūnaha Matatini COVID-19 modelling team looked at how small policy changes can result in widespread spread of COVID-19 through networks due to the percolation effects. The research published in the article showed even if there were only a small number of additional connections, an uncontrolled spread was likely to find unvaccinated people. * ''Doughnuts and dandelions: Reimagining our food system post Covid-19'' (2020) This article in

The Spinoff ''The Spinoff'' is a New Zealand online magazine and news website that was founded in 2014. It is known for current affairs coverage, political and social analysis, and cultural commentary. It earns money through commercial sponsorship and su ...

looked at community initiatives in Auckland that were building resilient food systems that were socially inclusive and sustainable to deal with vulnerabilities in food chains as a result of COVID-restrictions. The writers said a healthier food system that supported more people was achievable in

Aotearoa ''Aotearoa'' () is the Māori name for New Zealand. The name was originally used by Māori in reference only to the North Island, with the whole country being referred to as ''Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu'' – where ''Te Ika-a-Māui'' means N ...

. * ''Collective impact: Shining the light on community post Covid-19''(2020) Researchers from Te Pūnaha Matatini looked at how New Zealand communities, as a result of the disruption caused by COVID-19 were becoming more vocal about what needed to change due to unequal access to resources and power and how this inequality was increasingly impacting on the health of people in diverse communities. It was suggested that the proposed Public Service Legislation Bill before

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at the time may learn from COVID-19 to listen to the needs and aspirations of New Zealand communities. * ''Estimated inequities in COVID-19 infection fatality rates by

ethnicity An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they Collective consciousness, collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, ...

for

New Zealand ''(2020). This paper examined differential impacts of COVID-19 for high-risk groups within New Zealand, particularly

and Pasifika and concluded that the impacts of

colonisation 475px, Map of the year each country achieved List of sovereign states by date of formation, independence. Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing occupation of or control over foreign territories or peoples f ...

had contributed to inequities due to the

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of these communities.

Reception of COVID-19 work

In May 2020, Samak Datta, a population modeller from

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research or NIWA (), is a Crown Research Institute of New Zealand. Established in 1992, NIWA conducts research across a broad range of disciplines in the environmental sciences. It also maintai ...

(NIWA), was part of a team of experts appointed to review the modelling done by Te Pūnaha Matatini. Datta said that "COVID-19 models developed by the Te Pūnaha Matatini researchers tend to be

stochastic Stochastic (; ) is the property of being well-described by a random probability distribution. ''Stochasticity'' and ''randomness'' are technically distinct concepts: the former refers to a modeling approach, while the latter describes phenomena; i ...

...this means they use probabilities rather than exact numbers. Models like these are useful because they can be run many times to see best-case, worst-case and most-likely scenarios of potential COVID-19 spread". When funding was reconfirmed in 2021,

Dawn Freshwater Dawn Freshwater (born August 1962) is a British academic, university professor, mental health researcher, and the current Vice-Chancellor of the University of Auckland. Early life and education Freshwater was born in a mining family in Notti ...

acknowledged that the work of researchers from Te Pūnaha Matatini to the COVID-19 response underlined the importance of the Centres of Research Excellence. Andy Shenk,

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of Uniservices, the research commercialisation and knowledge mobilisation company of the University of Auckland, said that modelling such as that done by Te Pūnaha Matatini offered "data-crunching power... o..sequence and compare virus genomes, which aids contact tracing". Hendy was invited to present modelling at a press conference with Jacinda Ardern and

Ashley Bloomfield Sir Ashley Robin Bloomfield (born March 1966) is a New Zealand public health official. He served as the chief executive of the Ministry of Health (New Zealand), Ministry of Health and the country's Director-General of Health from 2018 to 2022. ...

on 23 September 2021 and he suggested that even with a high proportion of New Zealand's population vaccinated, up to 7000 deaths a year could be recorded. Ardern cautioned that the modelling was only one of the tools the government was using in its response to COVID-19. Rodney Jones, another modeller who had provided advice to the New Zealand Government, disputed the claims made by Hendy, saying that the model was implausible and there was no need to "scare New Zealanders into getting vaccinated". Hendy noted that the base model had been peer-reviewed earlier in the year, and did use "NZ-specific data on health outcomes", and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she would use modelling as one of the tools to inform decisions for the health response, without it being a "singular pathway" resulting in an inevitable outcome. In 2022, the model was published in the peer-reviewed Nature-group journal

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Awards

Te Pῡnaha Matatini was awarded the 2020 Prime Minister's Science Prize in recognition of their work in developing

mathematical models A mathematical model is an abstract description of a concrete system using mathematical concepts and language. The process of developing a mathematical model is termed ''mathematical modeling''. Mathematical models are used in applied mathemati ...

, analysis of data and communication of the results to inform the response of the New Zealand Government to COVID-19.

said that it had been an "unrepeatable experience" working with the team. As the New Zealand Prime Minister,

announced the award, she commented:

Even I underestimated the centrality of cienceadvice for me, in this time in office, and just how important it would become to us as a government ndI want to thank the many, many, many people in this room who were a part in your own ways in either helping us generate the information we needed to make those decisions, or who helped us communicate those decisions when it mattered most.

Covid-19 Modelling Aotearoa

In 2020, Shaun Hendy identified a gap in the science data being provided to the New Zealand Government to inform its response to COVID-19. He set up a multi-disciplinary team as part of Te Pūnaha Matatini that developed mathematical models in different scenarios for the position New Zealand was in early in the pandemic. This team became known as ''Covid-19 Modelling Aotearoa'' and has been a stand-alone project since 2021, funded as of 2022 by Manatū Hauora Ministry of Health. The modelling and analysis covered areas such as "hospital capability, contagion rates and likely disease spread, virus genomic tracing, contact tracing, and vaccination... translated for use by the government policymakers and front-line operators and helped inform the government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic". Hendy later noted that Peter-Lucas Jones from Te Aupōuri who was present at a Board meeting that confirmed the need to focus on COVID-19, told the story of how the 1918 influenza pandemic had affected his iwi and when statistician Andrew Sporle (

Ngāti Apa Ngāti Apa is a Māori iwi (tribe) in Rangitikei District of New Zealand. Its rohe (traditional tribal lands) extend between the Mangawhero, Whangaehu, Turakina and Rangitīkei rivers. This area is bounded by Whanganui River in the north-west ...

Rangitāne Rangitāne is a Māori iwi (tribe). Their rohe (territory) is in the Manawatū, Horowhenua, Wairarapa and Marlborough areas of New Zealand. The iwi was formed as one of two divisions (aside from Muaūpoko) of the expedition team led by Wh ...

Te Rarawa Te Rarawa is a Māori iwi of Northland, New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New ...

) was brought in to co-lead work focusing on at-risk communities an iwi-led pandemic response was shaped. Other researchers

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Ilze Ziedins, Dr Mike O'Sullivan and Associate Professor Cameron Walker from the Faculty of Engineering worked on models to predict the effect on hospitals if the virus spread widely within New Zealand.

The Disinformation Project

Initially set up within Te Punaha Matatini, ''The Disinformation Project'' as of 2024 is an independent research programme that has analysed the seeding and spread of mis- and

disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...

within New Zealand society from the early days of COVID-19 through to the aftermath of the occupation of the New Zealand parliament grounds.

References

External links

Projects funded by Te Pūnaha Matatini 2021 to 2024 Te Pūnaha Matatini Official websiteDr Michael O'Sullivan – analytics to improve health delivery services 2020 Prime Minister's Science Prize winner: Te Pūnaha Matatini
{{DEFAULTSORT:Te Pūnaha Matatini Research in New Zealand Scientific organisations based in New Zealand