The commercial fishing industry is a complex system, and one issue that can hamper the success of fishing companies is the inadvertent capture of fish that are not target species. Under the Quota Management System, if a company has limited quota for a non target-species then fishing for target species has to stop once the limited quota of a non-target species has been met. The Waikawa Fishing Company proposed to address the bycatch issue by designing and creating fish traps, from mātauranga Māori, that target individual species. In collaboration with Cawthron Institute, the economic feasibility of these fish traps were assessed and found to have potential to reduce bycatch.

Māori have used geothermal waters and materials for centuries, yet in contemporary times only a few iwi groups have developed their geothermal resources, even though geothermal energy has sustainable and renewable attributes. One barrier to development has been a clear pathway that incorporates kaitiakitanga responsibilities into the development process.
 

The Life and Living in Advanced Age; A Cohort Study in New Zealand (LILACSNZ): Te Puāwaitanga o Ngā Tapuwae Kia Ora Tonu is the first large-scale study of people in advanced age in Aotearoa, New Zealand and the only longitudinal study of people in advanced age that includes a large number of Māori people. The overall study, funded by the Health Research Council, aims to find out what factors contribute to ageing successfully in those already very old.  LILACSNZ is directed by a joint leadership team in close relationship with the RōpūKaitiaki o Ngā Tikanga Māori/Protectors of Principles in Conduct in Māori Research.

This research project’s origins date back 27 years when Dr Joe Te Rito helped establish local Māori radio station Radio Kahungunu at the Hawke’s Bay Polytechnic, Taradale. Joe saw how the dialect of his iwi Rongomaiwahine-Ngāti Kahungunu was diminishing in quality, in terms of grammatical and spoken fluency, with each generation. The station was to fill the gap for children who did not have Māori spoken in the home or role models to learn te reo from. While schools looked after education, the station wanted to bring the voices into the home.

Health promotion was traditionally delivered within a public health setting in New Zealand. With changes to primary care delivery, health promotion is increasingly delivered within the primary care setting due to national strategy changes aimed at improving health outcomes. Rather than dealing primarily with the individual in a treatment and support role, primary care is now also tasked with providing preventative and health promotion activities. This research focussed on what organisational pre-requisites are necessary for implementing and funding a Māori health promotion framework in a primary care setting.

First a public servant in the Native Lands Purchase Department then later MP for Napier and Minister for Native Affairs, Sir Donald McLean (Makarini) was a major architect in the most formative period of our colonial history (c.1850–1880). His fluency in te reo Māori and his willingness to visit Māori in their own communities gained the respect of many rangatira of that time.

This research was carried out on behalf of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. The primary research aim was to find out how Māori individuals and whānau have been affected by problem gambling and the strategies they have taken to address this issue.
 

This project is developing a computer based bioengineered model of the human eye to give greater insight into eye disease and treatments. This will help patients and families better understand their eye and vision exams, and have improved clinical outcomes, says Jason.

This scoping project focussed on determining the Adélie penguin population's responses to climate change. It also successfully lifted the profile of Māori participation, contribution and leadership in the Antarctic research and science. This project was completed in 2008.

This research aimed to develop a Body Area Network using novel ideas from swarm intelligence and, in particular, Ant Colony Optimization. A Body Area Network is a network of sensors (sometimes mobile sensors) outside or inside the human body.  Examples are ‘smart’ clothing where the network is typically a network of sensors recording human body biometric data or for advanced medical monitoring. A system inside the body could be for remote medical sensing, drug delivery, surgery or internal imaging in a distributed way, especially via a mobile ad hoc network such as a horde of nano robots or mobile micro devices.