The Influencers: Peter Townsend

Nurturing children

In late August, Te Papa Hauora, the Health Precinct, proudly supported the launch of a new collaboration, ‘Research for Children Aotearoa’.

This initiative is being led by the University of Canterbury and the University of Otago, and strongly supported by local Tangata Whenua and Pasifika.

A first for New Zealand, Research for Children Aotearoa is about collaboration for impact, and a drive towards more equitable outcomes for all children/tamariki and their families/whānau. It will enable and support world-leading, targeted research, that identifies and supports the needs of all children as they grow up.

It will provide the foundation to take child research in New Zealand to a new level and will influence positive changes to policy through identifying the best ways to nurture children. It is intended to be a platform for coordinated research that will provide foundations and appropriate protections, to ensure we can all better invest in our children.

It is exciting to see researchers and institutions working together to foster excellence across disciplines, and increase the impact for children, within and across clinical, medical, sociological and educational domains.

There is an acute need across New Zealand society to address failings in the nurturing of our children. Once more Canterbury will demonstrate what a great place it is to pursue important, cutting edge, collaborate research that can make a real difference.