Te Pūnaha Matatini

The 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 (𝗪𝗪𝗖𝗦𝟮𝟲) has extended its hashtag#deadline for applications to 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟯𝘁𝗵!
For more information 🔗 wwcs2026.github.io
Apply here: tinyurl.com/yu3a8ydd

a man in a suit and bow tie says new zealand might be a destination i want to go to Alt: a man in a suit and bow tie says new zealand might be a destination i want to go to

Last chance to get your abstract in for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium! Submissions close Tuesday 7 October → forms.gle/aTUCy1FrE1vm...

#cccss #complexsystems 🧪

Renata Muylaert presents at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium.

🚨Deadline extended 🚨 Get your abstracts in for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 by Tuesday 7 October → forms.gle/vdMooRs2srtz...

#cccss26 #complexsystems 🧪

...that is, until the Natural and Built Environments Act was repealed later that same year.

This is what we managed to change in the Natural and Built Environments Act. Braided rivers were exempted from the old and ill-fitting definition of river → www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/2025/10/03/t...

The Resource Management Act defines riverbed as the land covered by water at the river’s fullest flow without overtopping its banks. So what is wet is river and what is dry is land.

The difference between land and riverbed is profound in our environmental law. Ground disturbance and many kinds of development are innocent until proven guilty on land, but guilty until proven innocent on riverbed.

The problem is that the land that belongs to the river is not defined or protected in any legal sense. Existing law seeks to separate land from river, because riverbed is a fundamental concept in resource management in Aotearoa.

And when the river floods… you can see where this is all heading.

And they often flow through land that is used for intensive agriculture. Artificial stop banks are built, and artificial boundaries are bioengineered. Buildings and equipment are installed on land that could become river at any moment.

Like Schrodinger’s cat, braided rivers are neither land nor water, but both at once 🧪 🧵

An illustration of a beaker and some penguins balancing on an iceberg, with an Orca peaking out from behind it.

How can complexity science help us protect Antarctica?

Te Pūnaha Matatini postdoc Kristin Wilson will share her experience modelling Antarctic governance as a social-ecological system at tomorrow's Café Complexité in Wellington ☕

📆 Thu 2 October
⏰ 8-9am
📍The Atom — Te Kahu o Te Ao innovation space

Renata Muylaert presents at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium.

🚨Deadline extended 🚨 Get your abstracts in for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 by Tuesday 7 October → forms.gle/vdMooRs2srtz...

#cccss26 #complexsystems 🧪

We've booked a venue. We've signed on some keynote speakers. Now we just need you. Submit an abstract for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 → https://forms.gle/g22s2dR85oFqhajX6

As Aotearoa restructures its science system, this is a moment to rethink how we fund discovery. Let’s build a system that supports researchers – not just institutions → ojs.victoria.ac.nz/nzsr/article...

→ Fund core institutional costs separately
→ Use research grants for research

For Olivia Truax, Camilla Penney and Shelley MacDonell, the way forward is clear: we must move away from a cost recovery model where research grants are expected to fund infrastructure and institutional operations.

This system doesn’t just hurt researchers. It undermines collaboration, distorts project design, and weakens Aotearoa’s ability to compete globally. It’s a funding model that rewards cost-cutting over curiosity.

Early-career researchers are hit hardest. Grants meant to support them barely cover their time – let alone research costs. Some can’t even apply for small grants because overheads make them financially unviable.

Take postdocs: they’re the engine of research in many countries. But in Aotearoa, they’re too expensive to hire. Institutions favour PhD students (who don’t incur overheads), leaving a gaping hole in the research career pipeline.

The result?

🔹 Budget-first science
🔹 Multi-institutional project teams are difficult
🔹 Fragmented researcher time
🔹 Fewer postdocs
🔹 Burnout
🔹 Career bottlenecks
🔹 Institutional instability

In some cases, overheads exceed 250% of a researcher’s salary. That’s among the highest in the world.

This means that when a researcher wins a grant, a huge chunk of the money never reaches the lab. Instead, it’s absorbed by institutional costs.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, research grants don’t just fund research. They also pay for buildings, admin, IT, and even profit margins. That’s because institutions rely heavily on indirect cost recovery – aka “overheads” – to stay afloat 🧪🧵

We've booked a venue. We've signed on some keynote speakers. Now we just need you. Submit an abstract for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 → https://forms.gle/g22s2dR85oFqhajX6

Social slide showing Bill English as a keynote speaker at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026.

Sir Bill English is a former New Zealand Prime Minister and co-founder of Impact Lab, which uses data to support better decision making by measuring social impact.

He'll be joining us as a keynote speaker at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026.

#cccss26 #complexsystems

A social slide showing Simon Upton as a speaker at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026.

Simon Upton is the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment in Aotearoa New Zealand.

He'll be joining us as a keynote speaker at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026.

#cccss26 #complexsystems

Lakeshore shallows can be biodiversity hotspots – but warming is changing their complex ecology Climate change is already affecting lake stratification, the seasonal layering of water into distinct temperature bands, which is crucial for nutrient flows.

Read more about this research at @aunz.theconversation.com → theconversation.com/lakeshore-sh... #complexsystems @troybaisden.bsky.social

This work provides a framework for considering how climate change will affect threatened taonga species in lake habitats.

5. Once absorbed by the plants and algae on the lake bed, these nutrients support healthy growth and provide a long-term food supply for kākahi, a threatened species of freshwater mussel.