Cawthron Institute Science Plan

Science and innovation are key to helping humanity thrive, by seizing the opportunities in front of us and tackling the most pressing issues of our time.

 

At Cawthron Institute, there are three key challenges driving our science with unprecedented urgency: climate change, biodiversity loss and food security threaten the health of the environment and the wellbeing of people worldwide. In response to these challenges, Cawthron Institute has identified three outcomes we want to achieve through our work: healthy ecosystems, a prosperous blue economy, and thriving people and communities. We are seeking support from investors to achieve these outcomes

In 2023, we launched our inaugural Science Plan, which outlines five impact pathways and their ‘transformational science programmes’ that aim to address these challenges. The purpose of this Plan is to:

• Provide 5- and 10-year objectives that work towards achieving the three outcomes.
• Identify transformational science programmes that underpin the objectives and outcomes.
• Guide how Cawthron will develop capabilities and empower our people, and ensure we invest in the right infrastructure, systems
and processes to enable our science.
• Inform how Cawthron will allocate internal investment funds.

Supporting resilient Pacific communities

We will support communities in their efforts to better understand, protect, and sustainably enhance their aquatic systems, transform their food systems towards more sustainable pathways, and adapt to the impacts of climate change. As part of this focus, we are aiming to establish two collaborative and co-designed transformational science programmes:

1. Transforming Pacific Island food systems to improve health and wellbeing.

2. Protecting and enhancing aquatic ecosystems.  

Turning the tide on climate change

We will be good ancestors by creating a sustainable future in a changing climate where people and nature thrive. Under this impact pathway, we are collaboratively pursuing three transformational science programmes focused on:

1. Enabling Māori-led climate change research, emphasising Mātauranga Māori.

2. Understanding climate and social tipping points for aquatic socio-ecological systems.

3. Climate resilient low carbon seafoods.

Realising the potential of algae

We will enhance the blue economy in Aotearoa New Zealand by building knowledge of our unique algal species and their potential applications. Cawthron aims to establish three transformational science programmes under this impact pathway:

1. Enabling algal production and development of high-value algal products.

2. Understanding how microalgae are responding to a changing climate.

3. Predicting and safeguarding the environmental distribution of seaweeds.

Securing safe and sustainable food

We will increase food security by improving the safety, nutrition, and sustainability of foods from the community level (e.g., marae) through to industrial scale, by initiating five transformational science programmes:

1. Next generation food safety testing methods and tools.

2. Reducing the carbon footprint of the agriculture sector through novel methane-reducing agents.

3. Community-based aquatic food production systems.

4. Understanding and managing risks in the food supply chain.

5. Supporting the growth of Aotearoa New Zealand’s aquaculture industry through diversification, innovation, and building resilience.