Nā Te Tumu Whakarae | Chief Executive update
Kia ora koutou
As this is the final edition of The Link for 2025, I’d like to start by wishing everyone a joyous, relaxing and safe holiday season. I hope you enjoy the summer period.
It has been a year of change, even upheaval in many ways, here at the Society and throughout our sector, country and world. But the past two months have also included some great celebrations as we recognised excellence in the three Research Honours Aotearoa events, the awarding of the Prime Minister’s Space prizes, and hosting the Tri-Academy Indigenous Summit, Taikura.
We have also recently hosted the International Science Council’s Committee for Freedom and Responsibility in Science (CFRS) for an in-person meeting, panel discussions, and other events, in Wellington and Auckland.
Celebrations and events of this kind are an important reminder of the truly outstanding research and work that is being conducted in Aotearoa New Zealand and, importantly, that this is recognised internationally. I encourage you to have a look at our website for some insights into any events you weren’t able to participate in; 2025 Research Honours Aotearoa events, 2025 Prime Minister’s Space Prizes, Taikura Tri-Academy Indigenous Summit, and also the research funding announcements and other great stories on our news page. If you haven’t connected with our latest annual review (2024-25), it is a great publication, and we have more recently published our annual financial statements for 2024-25. I would like to thank all the staff at the Society who have made this (at times) turbulent year such a success, along with everyone in our wider community for the support shown for the work we do.
To all our membership, we continue to look for new ways to engage with you and support your mahi. For our Early Career Researchers, there are two initiatives to read about in this newsletter: He Pito Mata, an ECR wānanga which we ran in Wellington in 2021 and 2023, is planned for Auckland in September 2026 (see 'Save the Date' notice), and an ECR Board Observer Programme will be initiated in 2026 to support governance development for one ECR member each year (see Council update). For our Constituent Organisations, look out for the next CO Forum, which will be announced early in the new year and, for our Professional Members, we are looking for two individuals to be points-of-contact to help with our membership engagement plans.
I look forward to connecting with all our membership again through this newsletter, members forums, and other channels in 2026!
Ngā manaakitanga
James Henry
Acting Chief Executive
Royal Society Te Apārangi