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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 3d

Thanks for all your abstract submissions for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026! Now to make a programme.

#cccss26 #complexsystems

a cartoon character is holding a stack of paper

Alt: A cartoon duck walks down the stairs with a teetering pile of paper.

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by Te Pūnaha Matatini

Network Science Institute @nunetsi.bsky.social · 5d

The 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 (𝗪𝗪𝗖𝗦𝟮𝟲) has extended its hashtag#deadline for applications to 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟯𝘁𝗵!
For more information 🔗 wwcs2026.github.io
Apply here: tinyurl.com/yu3a8ydd

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 6d

Last chance to get your abstract in for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium! Submissions close Tuesday 7 October → forms.gle/aTUCy1FrE1vm...

#cccss #complexsystems 🧪

a man in a suit and bow tie says new zealand might be a destination i want to go to

Alt: a man in a suit and bow tie says new zealand might be a destination i want to go to

media.tenor.com

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 13d

🚨Deadline extended 🚨 Get your abstracts in for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 by Tuesday 7 October → forms.gle/vdMooRs2srtz...

#cccss26 #complexsystems 🧪

Renata Muylaert presents at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium.

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 9d

...that is, until the Natural and Built Environments Act was repealed later that same year.

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 9d

This is what we managed to change in the Natural and Built Environments Act. Braided rivers were exempted from the old and ill-fitting definition of river → www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/2025/10/03/t...

The land that belongs to the river

The difference between land and riverbed is profound in our environmental law. Ground disturbance and many kinds of development are innocent until proven guilty on land, but guilty until proven innoce...

www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 9d

The Resource Management Act defines riverbed as the land covered by water at the river’s fullest flow without overtopping its banks. So what is wet is river and what is dry is land.

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 9d

The difference between land and riverbed is profound in our environmental law. Ground disturbance and many kinds of development are innocent until proven guilty on land, but guilty until proven innocent on riverbed.

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 9d

The problem is that the land that belongs to the river is not defined or protected in any legal sense. Existing law seeks to separate land from river, because riverbed is a fundamental concept in resource management in Aotearoa.

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 9d

And when the river floods… you can see where this is all heading.

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 9d

And they often flow through land that is used for intensive agriculture. Artificial stop banks are built, and artificial boundaries are bioengineered. Buildings and equipment are installed on land that could become river at any moment.

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 9d

Like Schrodinger’s cat, braided rivers are neither land nor water, but both at once 🧪 🧵

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 11d

How can complexity science help us protect Antarctica?

Te Pūnaha Matatini postdoc Kristin Wilson will share her experience modelling Antarctic governance as a social-ecological system at tomorrow's Café Complexité in Wellington ☕

📆 Thu 2 October
⏰ 8-9am
📍The Atom — Te Kahu o Te Ao innovation space

An illustration of a beaker and some penguins balancing on an iceberg, with an Orca peaking out from behind it.

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 13d

🚨Deadline extended 🚨 Get your abstracts in for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 by Tuesday 7 October → forms.gle/vdMooRs2srtz...

#cccss26 #complexsystems 🧪

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Reposted by Te Pūnaha Matatini

Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 17d

We've booked a venue. We've signed on some keynote speakers. Now we just need you. Submit an abstract for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 → https://forms.gle/g22s2dR85oFqhajX6

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 16d

As Aotearoa restructures its science system, this is a moment to rethink how we fund discovery. Let’s build a system that supports researchers – not just institutions → ojs.victoria.ac.nz/nzsr/article...

Indirect costs: the perverse consequences of Aotearoa New Zealand’s research overheads system | New Zealand Science Review

ojs.victoria.ac.nz

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 16d

→ Fund core institutional costs separately
→ Use research grants for research

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 16d

For Olivia Truax, Camilla Penney and Shelley MacDonell, the way forward is clear: we must move away from a cost recovery model where research grants are expected to fund infrastructure and institutional operations.

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 16d

This system doesn’t just hurt researchers. It undermines collaboration, distorts project design, and weakens Aotearoa’s ability to compete globally. It’s a funding model that rewards cost-cutting over curiosity.

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 16d

Early-career researchers are hit hardest. Grants meant to support them barely cover their time – let alone research costs. Some can’t even apply for small grants because overheads make them financially unviable.

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 16d

Take postdocs: they’re the engine of research in many countries. But in Aotearoa, they’re too expensive to hire. Institutions favour PhD students (who don’t incur overheads), leaving a gaping hole in the research career pipeline.

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 16d

The result?

🔹 Budget-first science
🔹 Multi-institutional project teams are difficult
🔹 Fragmented researcher time
🔹 Fewer postdocs
🔹 Burnout
🔹 Career bottlenecks
🔹 Institutional instability

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 16d

In some cases, overheads exceed 250% of a researcher’s salary. That’s among the highest in the world.

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 16d

This means that when a researcher wins a grant, a huge chunk of the money never reaches the lab. Instead, it’s absorbed by institutional costs.

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Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 16d

In Aotearoa New Zealand, research grants don’t just fund research. They also pay for buildings, admin, IT, and even profit margins. That’s because institutions rely heavily on indirect cost recovery – aka “overheads” – to stay afloat 🧪🧵

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