The 2007 Centres of Research Excellence
A brief overview of each CoRE, with a link to the CoRE's website can be found below.
Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution
The Allan Wilson Centre brings together world-class ecologists, evolutionary biologists and mathematicians who will work to unlock the secrets of our plants, animals, and microbes by answering such questions as: How did they get here? How fast does evolution happen? What are the underlying processes that explain the evolution of our plants, animals, and microbes? and How might these processes affect us in the future?
The diverse studies of the centre range from those on molecular rates of evolution and biodiversity, through to molecular anthropology.
Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery
The study of genomes (an organism's entire DNA sequence) has presented the research and wider community with a huge range of challenges and opportunities. The Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery (CMB) is extracting new knowledge from genomic and proteomic (protein) data and applying state-of-the-art approaches to develop new tools for biotechnology and medicine to advance our understanding of whole cell behaviour. The centre brings together world-class researchers with complementary expertise in the following areas:
- structural and molecular biology;
- microbial biology, molecular immunology and bioinformatics;
- chemotherapeutic drug development;
- proteomics and drug discovery; and
- bioengineering and advanced mathematical modelling.
The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology
The MacDiarmid Institute's is named after 2000 Nobel Chemistry Prize-Winner, New Zealander Alan MacDiarmid. The Institute's work covers the spectrum from fundamental science to applied technology and combines expertise in chemistry, physics and engineering to discover and understand new materials and technologies. The five research themes are:
- nanoengineered materials and devices;
- novel electronic, electro-optic and superconducting materials;
- conducting polymers;
- soft materials; and
- advanced materials.
Bio-Protection Research Centre
Bio-protection encompasses a wide range of management strategies to bring about effective control of crop weeds, pests and diseases. The aim of the centre is to pursue multidisciplinary research and development to meet the biosecurity and pest management needs of New Zealand's plant based primary industries and natural ecosystems. Research programmes span a wide variety of disciplines from molecular biology to conservational biocontrol, computing and field trials.
National Research Centre for Growth and Development
The National Research Centre for Growth and Development brings together leading scientists from six partner organisations across New Zealand to address a single overarching question: what makes a healthy start to life?
This internationally-recognised research seeks to reveal how events in early life affect mammalian development, with both short and long-term consequences for health and disease. The insights gained through this work will lead to new therapeutic and public health policy approaches to diseases with a developmental origin, as well as to improved productivity in farm animals.
Nga Pae o te Maramatanga (Horizons of Insight) - The National Institute of Research Excellence for Maori Development and Advancement
Nga Pae o te Maramatanga has a broad research focus. Its three research programme themes are:
- healthy communities in sustainable environments;
- social and educational transformation; and
- new frontiers of knowledge.
Nga Pae o te Maramatanga's research training programme aims to expand and strengthen both Maori and national capability for transformational change through research and its applications, including:
- increasing the quality and quantity of Maori research;
- influencing policy;
- building processes for communities to engage with each other; and
- enhancing infrastructures' ability to support knowledge transfer.
The Riddet Centre - advancing knowledge in foods and biologicals
The Riddet Centre is dedicated to New Zealand’s most significant economic sector, the food industry, which accounts for over half of New Zealand’s export earnings. The Riddet Centre will bring together some of the best scientific minds in New Zealand, from three universities and two leading Crown Research Institutes, to undertake, "World-class Science - Creating Strategic Opportunities for New Zealand by Advancing Knowledge in Foods and Biologicals".
New Zealand Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (NZIMA)
The New Zealand Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (NZIMA) conducts world-class research in fundamental areas of the mathematical sciences, and facilitates the use of high-level mathematical techniques in modern application areas such as bioengineering, bioinformatics, medical statistics and operations research.
The principal aims of the NZIMA are to:
- Create and sustain a critical mass of researchers in concentrations of excellence in mathematics and statistics and their applications;
- provide New Zealand with a source of high-level quantitative expertise across a range of areas;
- act as a facilitator of access to new developments internationally in the mathematical sciences; and
- raise the level of knowledge and skills in the mathematical sciences in New Zealand.