MBIE's Te Ara Paerangi is dead. Long live Te Ara Paerangi Community

I first learned that Te Ara Paerangi was officially over via the New Zealand Association of Scientists co-presidents' update on the 1st of February. Today this was published: No more ‘Science City’ for Wellington as minister scraps major reform (The Post 8th February 2024). While the government's decision is not surprising, the effect on the already beleaguered public research and tertiary education systems (not to mention societal flow on) is deeply concerning. Many people around the country have put in countless unpaid hours of their lives into Te Ara Paerangi process in an effort to improve our long underfunded and broken down system. The unprecedented number of submissions is a testament to their efforts. No matter who is in government, improvements are badly needed.

‍Te Ara Paerangi Community was created because I was concerned that the process could go pear shaped in a variety of ways. I hoped that by making an independent space for people to come together, we could do something outside of the norm. Our submission sharing for the green paper submission process is one example. As time went on, MBIE's process became less accessible to most people by shifting the focus to 'peak bodies' and similar groups.

I continued to watch carefully, hoping for a positive outcome. At the same time, I was reaching out to people whose activist mahi I really admired. This led to two specific suggestions: Sereana Naepi's idea was to reconfigure the site to lean into it's social media community capabilities. @Ritodhi Chakraborty's contribution was to shift the focus from MBIE's process to support a community of research, capability building, and advocacy. In July, I acted on those suggestions and transformed the site to where it is now. Then I got COVID (and long COVID), which limited my capacity to some extent.

I started posting news stories and events. Those posts were re-posted on Twitter and then Blue Sky, generating interest and bringing in new community members. I had some great discussions with @Tara Satyanand about potential areas of collaboration with the Royal Society Te Apārangi. Recent discussions with @Ritodhi Chakraborty have been centered around bringing together a leadership team and having events.

A key problem that we hope to help address is the poor connectivity seen in our research system.

Some of the ideas that have been discussed include:

• Individual and organisation accounts.
• Ways to communicate to the whole community, to groups with similar interests, and one-on-one.
• A specific drive to promote organisation accounts for scholarly societies operating in Aotearoa.
• Multi-disciplinary mentorship coordination.
• Job / opportunity listings.
• Situations wanted (i.e. I have X skill set and am looking for paid work using that skill set).
• Events listing (with ability to manage sign ups, etc.)
• Discussion / information about setting up and operating research consulting businesses.
• Spaces for ad-hoc or formal research groups to meet and work (any member can set one up).
• In site video conferencing.
• Android and Ios apps (These are available now. They must be customised).

Between the announcement today and issues discussed in this interview, we can expect 2024 to be a very hard year for our public research system, researchers, staff, and everyone involved. Perhaps Te Ara Paerangi Community can help make things a bit better than it may be otherwise. For that to happen, we are looking for people who are keen to get actively involved here. There is plenty to do and a place for everyone and their skills.

Please contact me directly to join the team.