Millions of dollars have been pumped into scientific research projects in Tauranga and Rotorua. Photo / Supplied
Millions of dollars have been pumped into scientific research projects in Tauranga and Rotorua as part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's 2022 Endeavour Fund.
The Endeavour Fund supports research with the potential to positively transform New Zealand's economy, environment and society. This year, a total of $236.5 million has been allocated to 71 projects out of more than 400 funding applications.
A research project incorporating mātauranga Māori to improve the health of coastal reef ecosystems led by a Tauranga professor received $8.8m.
Two research projects at Scion, which has its headquarters in Rotorua, received $1.9m over three years for two research projects.
Scion scientists will also contribute to six collaborative projects - alongside Auckland University, WSP Research NZ Ltd, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, Lincoln University, Auckland University of Technology and Massey University - that received a total of $5,754,700 from the Endeavour Fund.
The successful science projects were announced by Research, Science and Innovation Minister Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall this month.
Top Tauranga marine biologist and University of Waikato professor Chris Battershill was the lead investigator on a project which received $8.8m in funding.
"We are absolutely delighted to be awarded this grant," he said.
"The funding recognises the 'call to arms' ...as it were from mana whenua, to focus on our coastal marine estate."
The project - Toka ākau toitu Kaitiakitanga - will incorporate mātauranga Māori in work that aims to improve the health of the coastal environment and help contribute to reversing the decline of New Zealand's kelp ecosystems.
Using test kelp forest beds in four economically, ecologically and culturally important regions, the project will work across three themes to establish pathways into co-management models, test and model variables between regions, and assess and evaluate interventions.
The impact will be seen in more resilient rocky reef ecosystems, and the development of sustainable intergenerational management strategies for kaimoana and marine health.
Battershill said the project team was made up of iwi leaders and scientists from regional councils in the Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, and the South Island, alongside Waikato, Canterbury, and Otago universities.
"Professor David Schiel of the University of Canterbury and our team have recognised the urgency of focusing on our near shore coastal zone as the region of maximum potential in Aotearoa to realise huge economic value of our marine estate...
"While at the same time, and of even more importance, it is this very marine region that is under considerable threat due to what's known as the 'darkening seas'."
Battershill said the "darkening seas" was where the productivity of reef systems that support kelp forests, and plants, were under increasing stress due to sediment discharges from catchments cutting down light and smothering habitat.
"This habitat should be one of the most productive systems we have and is the base for many other linked systems, a nursery for inshore and offshore fisheries for instance, not to mention the key habitat for most of our marine kai moana."
Battershill said the funding will support mātauranga Māori-led research initiatives to understand the critical stressors that are limiting a fully functional coastal reef system.
"This includes the effects of muddy river discharges [New Zealand has one of the highest sedimentary coastal loads on the planet], combined with the changes we are already seeing from warming seas, strong and more frequent storms as well as the effects of our presence all around the coast.
"It is designed to identify realistic management options that will enhance the resilience of reef systems around the country, in turn, allowing support of a productive coastal ecosystem and restoration of important kaimoana species, which are also the species that contribute to long-term health and stability of coastal ecosystems."
"It is a solutions-orientated programme enmeshed in mātauranga Māori that provides the backdrop of understanding about coastal dynamics over intergenerational time and also the targets by which we will know we have been successful."
Battershill said the research project will permit management options for catchments and urban centres, reef systems and coastal zones to enhance resilience in the face of a fast-changing marine climate.
"It is designed to future-proof as much as is possible the productivity and connectedness of our vast coastal zone.
"This in turn will permit sustainable realisation of the potential our coastal blue economy has."
Battershill said Mātauranga Māori was fundamental, seamless and infused at all levels of the programme.
Its inception was informed and co-designed by mana whenua and led by a prestigious steering committee headed by Wha Rahera Ohia and Ta (Sir) Mark Solomon, he said.
"It builds on long-term comprehensive partnerships we have been privileged to build especially in the Moana a Toi (Bay of Plenty), forged during the MV Rena tragedy."
The programme was expected to take about five years but it was building on a "decadal legacy" of collaborative research in Tauranga Moana, Maketu, and the wider Moana a Toi, Battershill said.
"It will lead to ongoing focus on our coastal zone, its resilience and restoration and in realising the benefits cultural, economic and conservatively that a healthy coastal zone can and should offer in a world where sustainability and maintenance of natural ecosystems connections is increasingly paramount.
"It will permit a much wider, holistic understanding of the dynamics of our coastal marine estate, drawing on the power of mātauranga Māori, which provides the intergenerational knowledge of the connections between the land and the sea, that 'western science' cannot achieve."
Scion chief executive Dr Julian Elder said the announcement was fantastic news.
"We are delighted with the funding win, which acknowledges the value that we know forests can contribute to a more prosperous economy and healthier environment.
"Forests will be at the heart of a low-carbon future New Zealand."
The first Scion project, in partnership with the University of Cambridge, received $1m over three years to design sensors to measure the nutritional status, vitality, carbon capture efficiency and microbiome fitness of growing trees.
Monitoring the physiological processes inside trees in real-time helped scientists to fully understand how trees were responding to their environment and future-proof their resilience to climate change.
Scion scientists aimed to develop sophisticated low-cost bioelectronic sensors which can be implanted inside trees. Data generated by the sensors will be transmitted from the trees via a wireless network in the forest.
Elder said these types of sensors have been used in biomedical research but are rarely used inside trees for forestry.
"Their use in New Zealand radiata pine will be pioneering."
The second Scion project was awarded $900,000 over three years for scientists to explore new technology that aimed to improve the tissue culture technique that makes clonal forestry possible in conifers.
Elder said commercial forestry relied on producing vast numbers of trees, often elite clones.
Somatic embryogenesis is the tissue culture technique that is used to create embryos for this purpose, but it has some limitations as they can have trouble maturing on a flat surface, he said.
"In nature, these embryos would mature in a complex three-dimensional structure as they interact with other cells and respond to different gradients and signals of temperature, mechanical force, nutrients and plant hormones.
"Replicating this environment is extremely challenging in the laboratory, yet it is the key to successful tissue culture."
This project will adopt sophisticated 3D printing techniques using hydrogels to create a scaffold with gradients of hormones, nutrients and porosity along its length.
"Imagine a large cardboard tube with round holes in the sides and complex gradients of hormones and nutrients along its length.
"While the immediate application is in the forestry industry, the same technique can be applied to other plant species, mammals and create new biomedical opportunities."
Elder said Scion was proud to lead research that will "unleash the power of forestry", tackle climate change and help transition New Zealand to a circular bioeconomy.
Research, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall said the Endeavour Fund provided investment in projects that will help build a productive, sustainable and inclusive economy to improve the wellbeing of all living in New Zealand.
Verrall said, in a media statement, projects that received funding played a key role in helping to deliver the Government's focus on building a productive, sustainable and inclusive economy.
"We're supporting and investing in research which will have future potential economic benefits as well as addressing some of our biggest challenges such as climate change."
Another priority for the fund was to support Vision Mātauranga, which aims to unlock the science and innovation potential of Māori knowledge, she said.
"Our research priorities include tackling long-standing social issues, transitioning into low emissions and climate resilience, and building a more knowledge-intensive economy.
"The science and innovation community are coming up with solutions to tackle some of our most important issues, this funding will help them to carry out their important work.
Motorists should avoid SH2 East between Stanley Rd and Fraser Rd.