Partnership will strengthen Māori innovation and capability

MEDIA RELEASE

Partnership will strengthen Māori innovation and capability

A memorandum of understanding was signed in Whanganui on Thursday September 24 2014, between The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology and Ngā Hononga Marae (Charitable) Trust.

Together, the two organisations will undertake community-based science programmes to develop learning opportunities for young Māori, while also indentifying and supporting science and innovation opportunities for businesses in the Whanganui region.

“Ngā Hononga Marae (Charitable) Trust welcomes this exciting opportunity to collaborate with an organisation of excellence such as the MacDiarmid Institute and can envisage the extraordinary benefits to accessing and adding science, innovation and research integrity to our business arms and the applied educational opportunities for our stakeholdership,” said Trust Manager, Nihi Houia.

The MacDiarmid Institute’s Director Professor Kathryn McGrath added: “Working in a partnership with people who share your vision, while bringing a perspective that strengthens and broadens you own, is a powerful base from which to grow great things for the future in education, science research and Māori Business development. Together we can work to create opportunities that change people’s lives.”

By working together the MacDiarmid Institute and NHMT aim to:

• Create an environment that is mutually respectful of our peoples’ histories and traditions (Māori and scientists alike)

• Support an environment that facilitates and engenders the participation of Māori in life-long learning

• Engender a passion for science and innovation across society, and a culture of engagement in community-centred and community-initiated scientific opportunities

• Set up a cohort of Māori who have the capacity to inspire and be inspired with regard to science learning, resulting in the number of Māori students entering and successfully completing tertiary level STEM degrees increasing

• Realise the full potential of Māori and Māori businesses

• Create an environment where scientists seek Māori participation

About the MacDiarmid Institute

The MacDiarmid Institute is a New Zealand Government funded Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE), established in 2002 by Whanganui-born, the late Professor Sir Paul Callaghan. The role of The MacDiarmid Institute as a CoRE is to deliver educational training and research, specifically in the area of advanced materials and nanotechnology, and to contribute to New Zealand’s future development.

About the Ngā Hononga Marae (Charitable) Trust

Ngā Hononga Marae (Charitable) Trust works in Whanganui to make real and significant changes through creating and implementing new models of structural frameworks and decision-making processes that open doorways to iwi, hapū and whānau-owned development. They aim to find self-sustaining community and regionally-developed enterprises that will provide employment opportunities and a localised wealth economy whether rural or urban, which will in turn enable transformational change from the flax roots up.

© Scoop Media