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. 2025 Feb 16;55(6):2615-2624.
doi: 10.1080/03036758.2025.2460611. eCollection 2025.

From the 'Deep South' to adaptation for all Aotearoa: reflecting on ten years of the Deep South National Science Challenge

Anita Wreford  1 , Olaf Morgenstern  2   3   4 , Sandra L Morrison  5 , David Noone  6 , Kate E Turner  2 , Phil Wiles  2
Affiliations

From the 'Deep South' to adaptation for all Aotearoa: reflecting on ten years of the Deep South National Science Challenge

Anita Wreford et al. J R Soc N Z. .

Abstract

This paper reflects back over the ten years of the Deep South National Science Challenge (DSC), with the intention to identify a series of insights that shaped its legacy, so that future similar endeavours are able to learn from the successes and deliver better investment value. At the time of its establishment, climate change adaptation was poorly understood in Aotearoa New Zealand and the DSC created a space for knowledge development in this area. The DSC had a complicated beginning, with an enforced shift in science direction from the funder. Together with an undue emphasis on an ambitious climate model, this created areas of enduring tension over the ten years. Nonetheless, its eventual agility and investment in targeted investment in knowledge brokering, Vision Mātauranga capability, and a shift towards decision-making despite climate model uncertainty, enabled the DSC to create a legacy for the climate change adaptation landscape in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Keywords: Mission-led science; climate change adaptation; climate change impacts; science funding; uncertainty.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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