Research areas project begins

Professor Nancy November is a music historian specialising in chamber music of the late 18th and 19th centuries; Professor Cliona Ni Mhurchu leads a programme of nutrition and diet research.

Their fields look so far apart you might think they have little in common.

Maybe not, says Cliona, citing the example of doctoral candidate Anantha Narayanan, one time music student and trainee vascular surgeon at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences (FMHS). His thesis topic? A randomised controlled trial to see if having music play during an operation lowers the stress of the operating surgeon. The trial proved inconclusive but shows the potential synergy between disparate disciplines.

Right now, Nancy and Cliona are finding much more in common. As associate deans of research, respectively for the Faculties of Arts and Education, and FMHS, Nancy and Cliona are key members of the working group developing a consultative and robust process to create Signature Research Areas for the University.

Nancy has observed similar projects undertaken elsewhere.

“Research themes are part and parcel of quite a few top-notch universities, like Oxford and Cambridge,” she notes.

Nancy sees the Signature Research Areas working metaphorically, like a handshake the University can extend to peer institutions. “This will be a way to clarify partnerships, and from the outside, people looking in will understand what our research strengths are. And this, I’d think, will help build new pipelines in research funding.”

As the project has unfolded, the pair have noted the many existing research collaborations between their faculties. Nancy sees the themes as a way to formalise connections and once formalised, the sum of those collaborations will offer a stronger proposition for communities, funders and the public.

Cliona agrees. “I see huge synergies with arts and education. The social sciences are key to advancing health and medicine research.” She envisages projects in public health law with the Auckland Law School and has no doubt that marketing and business specialists in the Business School should be key partners in delivering health and well-being interventions that engage the public with marketing smarts.

At the moment, the shape of the Signature Research Areas is unknown. Nancy and Cliona are adamant: the quality of the outcome will be determined by the quality of the process.

“We’re agreed broadly that there needs to be an ideation phase,” says Nancy, “and then exchange across faculties and LSRIs to develop research areas that reflect the entire University and make cross-faculty synergies visible.”

To the outsider, and even for insiders like the two associate deans, the University’s research landscape is complicated terrain. A key principle, says Cliona, is to be as inclusive as possible. At FMHS the process will entail focus groups, workshops and school-based meetings. “My hope is that people will contribute in whatever way they feel most comfortable, and we get a broad representation of perspectives.”

A second principle is that the themes reflect the land on which the University stands.

“My personal view is that these transdisciplinary areas absolutely and inevitably will include Māori and Pacific perspectives,” says Cliona, “because we will be thinking about our distinct place in New Zealand and the Pacific.”

Nancy says there can be a multitude of ways to intertwine Māori and Pacific knowledge and world views. “It may be that we bring cross-cutting expertise and methodology into the Signature Research Areas.”

Ultimately Cliona says, “This has to be a bottom-up process, which has always been the approach. That’s a strength of the University in that the academics have always had the freedom to explore new areas of research. The Signature Research Areas will definitely have to make space for the new and the innovative, alongside the established areas and expertise.”

The project is ambitious in its goal to enhance the University’s quest for research excellence in a time of constrained public investment in research. Nancy sees the Signature Research Areas as pragmatic and necessary. “Let’s talk about the boring bit: one key driver is to create the pipeline to enhance external research funding.”

A successful, research-intensive university is a magnet for talent and expertise and an environment that values depth of scholarship and creativity. “That’s what we want,” says Cliona, “a place of ambition and innovation. It would be fantastic if we were the Oxford or the MIT of the Pacific. Wouldn’t that be great?”

Gilbert Wong