At the New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) this year is a new documentary on Dame Professor Juliet Gerrard, the PM's Chief Science Advisor.
Directed by Shirley Horrocks, Science in Dark Times follows Dame Juliet through three years of dramatic crises, including the Whakaari White Island eruption and the unfolding of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tickets available now for screenings in Wellington November 7-9.
Flicks.co.nz interview - Shirley Horrocks on new doco about the PM’s Chief Science Advisor
Te Ara Paerangi Future Pathways, the long-awaited government green paper on reshaping Aotearoa New Zealand’s science system, has been released, and consultation is open now. This is a very wide-ranging consultation covering many issues including the setting of national science priorities, embedding Te Tiriti in the system, addressing science careers and precarity, improving opportunities for mātauranga Māori, research funding and overheads, institutions and infrastructure.
You can find the green paper, supporting documents and a recording of the video announcing and introducing the green paper from Minister of Science and Innovation Dr Megan Woods and Associate Minister of Science and Innovation Dr Ayesha Verrall, on the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment website.
Te Ara Paerangi - Future pathways
MBIE will be running webinars on the green paper on (November 2,3 and 10) which anyone can register for here and future workshops and detailed meetings on the consultation are planned.
Submissions are due 2 March 2022 by 5pm.
Other useful links:
The New Zealand Association of Scientists:
Renewing the Aotearoa New Zealand Science System discussion document
MBIE:
Te Pae Kahurangi – 2020 review of the Crown Research Institutes (CRIs)
The Research Science and Innovation Report 2021
Science New Zealand:
The Value of CRIs in the New Zealand Science System
Pathways to the Future
The latest edition of the report on the performance of the New Zealand research, science and innovation system has been released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
The Research, Science and Innovation report – 2021
This is the third report on the performance of the science system since the release of the National Statement of Science Investment 2015-2025
The two previous reports can be found below:
Science & Innovation System Performance Report – 2016
Research, Science and Innovation System Performance report – 2018
Just published for NZAS members a thematic issue of New Zealand Science Review covering presentations at the Feed Our Future conference run by The Riddet Institute in Wellington, June 9, 2021.
Feed Our Future: A New Zealand Sustainable Food Systems Dialogue
Feed Our Future – an opportunity to discuss the science of sustainable food systems- Warren McNabb
Congratulations – Allen Petrey, for NZAS Council
Nutrition comes first
Back to the future food systems – Barbara Burlingame
Healthy and sustainable diets: providing nutrition, not only nutrients – Thom Huppertz
The availability and affordability of nutrition – Nick W. Smith
Discussion Session 1
The current food system conversation
Origin of the current conversation: An exploration of the animal/plant divide – Frédéric Leroy
Producing animal source food with respect for human and planetary health –
Hannah H.E. van Zanten, Benjamin van Selm, Anita Frehner
Discussion Session 2
Food systems impact
Our connected future with the turn-key technologies that are reducing food waste and improving nutrition – Wayne Martindale
Environmental footprinting of New Zealand agricultural products and implications for food nutrition – Stewart F. Ledgard
Discussion Session 3
Changing the food system?
The changing face of protein production – Paul Wood and Mahya Tavan
Consumers are central to any change in the food system – Joanne Hort
Discussion Session 4
Overall conclusion on the audience discussions
Concluding commentary
Feeding the future: Reflections on the food systems discussion – John Roche
Our early career researchers Lucy Stewart, Khoon Lim, Georgia Carson and Ben Dickson have prepared an open letter to Marsden Fund Council, and obtained over 700 signatures.
Shouldn't our nation's leading research fund attract the best and brightest by paying the equivalent of a living wage?
Science New Zealand, the consortium of Crown Research Institutes (CRIs), has released two major discussion documents.
They're slightly messy to download from issu.com, here they are (as PDF):
What do you think of their recommendations for the future? Do they make sense? Can you see the science? Does CRI leadership provide a clear and compelling view?
Recommendations from Pathways to the Future:
NZAS has no overall comment on these documents, but our Council has identified that:
As a reminder: NZAS has a recent discussion document, developed over the past year, out on the future of the research system. It considers many of these issues.
A statement prepared by NZAS Council on Science and Mātauranga is now available (linked here).
Our statement makes an effort to respond to requests from Māori colleagues to reaffirm the value of mātauranga and also address specific concerns.
I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge that the sudden focus on this discourse has been between upsetting and hurtful for many Māori scientists, and for tau iwi. It has also been unsettling for many scientists – the discourse asks us each to reconsider the values and assumptions underlying the ways we use science to understand our world.
Finally, I'd like to acknowledge the commitment and energy of authors and contributors on our Council who have debated the difficult points within this statement.
Troy Baisden
President NZAS
NZAS Council is working on a new statement following new debate on the topic of Mātauranga and Science, following on the Double Special Issues in our New Zealand Science Review last year.
Those special issues are available at the link above. To further support their use, the following around now available as separate pdf documents links.
Foreword – Juliet Gerrard and Tahu Kukutai (pdf)
Mātauranga and Science – Introduction – Ocean Mercier and Anne-Marie Jackson (pdf)
Juliet Gerrard and Tahu Kukutai write:
"To turn the tide on anti-science sentiment we need to reframe our science as ‘here to serve’, and ‘here to listen’. Science in Aotearoa New Zealand, and indeed the world, has much to learn from Māori ways of doing, as well as ways of knowing, to bridge these divides."
As an organisation, the New Zealand Association of Scientists (NZAS) recognises the importance of inclusiveness and kindness in science. Transgender, intersex, and gender diverse Kiwis experience significant discrimination within our society. This is partially due to our science system’s inability to even engage with them as part of our population - only this year has Stats NZ offered guidance for collecting sex and gender data which addresses the full scope of gender diversity in Aotearoa.
Additionally, misinformed claims of ‘science’ are often used as a tool of oppression against these groups. It concerns us to see incorrect claims being made that ‘science’ supports the definition of all humans into one of two categories based on assignment of sex at birth. We see science as one of the most important ways we have of learning and talking about ourselves, our world, and everyone within it (we are, after all, scientists). The NZAS recognises that the scientific consensus tells us that gender cannot be reduced down to any simple combination of an individual’s chromosomes, hormones, genitalia, or any other characteristic: it is not a simple binary. The principles of inclusiveness and kindness in science tell us to engage with people as who they are, recognising the world around us, and within us, as it is rather than as we think it should be.
Despite the challenges they face, we already work with trans, gender diverse, and intersex scientists of all genders. They are working and leading in science in Aotearoa as scientists and equals. We support them and all efforts to make science and society in Aotearoa safer for everybody, by taking the stance that this is not only the moral thing to do, nor only the scientifically most valid perspective: supporting trans, gender diverse, and intersex scientists of all genders produces better science for all of society.
The winners of the NZAS 2020 Awards have been announced:
Marsden Medal: Prof. Martha Savage
Shorland Medal: Prof. Mark Costello
Hill Tinsley Medal: Assoc. Prof. Frédérique Vanholsbeeck
Cranwell Medal: Dr Dianne Sika-Paotonu
Congratulations to all of the medal winners!
For full details of these outstanding scientists and their achievements, see the 2020 Awards Recipients page.
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