Achieving societal collaboration and impact in Aotearoa-New Zealand through transdisciplinarity

Aotearoa-New Zealand (A-NZ) faces growing complex environmental challenges and a persistent knowledge-action gap that leaves many social and environmental problems unresolved. The Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment, a major science funder, has called for transdisciplinary modes of research to address increasingly complex problems in an integrated and collaborative fashion. We explore what is needed for transdisciplinary research (TDR) to achieve societal collaboration and impact in A-NZ. We introduce mātauranga Māori, A-NZ’s Indigenous and foundational knowledge system, and discuss how mātauranga Māori and Western science currently interact. We examine some social and environmental consequences when mātauranga Māori is marginalised and conclude by discussing how TDR must evolve in order to help tackle complex social and environmental problems in such contexts.