About Us

Background

The Platform builds on a substantial history of collaborative and multi-disciplinary natural hazards resilience research undertaken as part of the Resilience to Nature's Challenges National Science Challenge (RNC) (2014–2024) and the Natural Hazards Research Platform (2009–2019).

The Platform aims to secure, and build on, the national research strength and depth established under these research efforts, while balancing this with a future-focused research strategy matched to national priorities.

Whakapapa of the new Platform. Credit: Alice Lake-Hammond

Establishment Phase (to end March 2025)

Establishment Phase timeline. Credit Alice Lake-Hammond

The Platform's establishment team has worked to a tight timeline to determine Platform strategic goals and research direction.

During October – December 2024 we held a series of engagement workshops with end-users, to understand their desired outcomes in the long-term, medium-term and short-term. This fed into the draft Outcomes Framework and informed research workshops in January and February 2025. A parallel engagement process has taken place with the Resilience Challenge kaupapa Māori researcher cohort, some of their iwi and hapū collaborators, and the National Iwi Chairs’ Forum.

Platform Plan and research structure

The establishment team collated and synthesised the ideas from the engagement workshops, and brought that direction together in a high-level plan for the Platform. The draft Platform Plan was delivered to MBIE at the end of March 2025, and was formally accepted in May - a significant milestone.

You can read a public version of the Platform Plan here and read an overview of our research structure here.

Resilience Platform research structure, contained in the draft Platform Plan. Credit Alice Lake-Hammond

Next stage of research design

We will be running further workshops as we develop the details of our science themes and programmes. These will be held in the latter part of 2025.

Establishment Advisory Group

Our Establishment Advisory Group (EAG) is chaired by Dame Juliet Gerrard, former Prime Minister’s Chief Science Adviser. Dame Juliet is joined by representatives from key user groups defined by MBIE.