Venture Taranaki is helping turn your questions into research action with Curious Minds Taranaki
Venture Taranaki delivers Curious Minds Taranaki to help foster innovation in our region, which supports our enterprises to innovate and Taranaki to achieve its strategic goals of prosperity, restored/regenerative environment, and inclusive growth.
We provide funding, support, and expertise to community groups to undertake collaborative locally relevant research tackling problems and questions that matter to them.
Curious Minds Taranaki is a Participatory Science Platform (PSP) delivered locally by Venture Taranaki in collaboration with Taranaki Regional Council and funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
What is the Participatory Science Platform?
The Participatory Science Platform (PSP) is a world-first initiative that aims to engage communities of all kinds in research projects that are locally relevant with quality learning outcomes and have robust science/technology practices.
PSP is part of ‘A Nation of Curious Minds, He Whenua Hihiri I Te Mahara: a National Strategic Plan for Science in Society’ (2014). The plan recognises that everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand should feel encouraged and equipped to engage in the key questions facing our society now and in the future. The plan has three core outcomes for which PSP delivers on:
- More science and technology competent learners, and more choosing STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths, Mātauranga) related career pathways
- A more scientifically and technologically engaged public and a more publicly engaged science sector
- A more skilled workforce and more responsive science and technology sector
We are all curious about the world around us, and even more so when it involves our own backyard.
What did we fund?
Curious Minds Taranaki funds collaborative research projects that engage community-based organisations, students, kura, schools, Māori collectives and organisations, and businesses with science, technology and mātauranga professionals.
Project must meet the following core criteria:
- Educationally valuable - offering enduring educational value and two-way learning for those involved.
- Locally relevant- involves community members in research that is engaging and locally relevant and at least in part be driven by community-based champions.
- Scientifically robust - tackling a substantive scientific question in active partnership with science, technology or mātauranga experts.
Current Projects & Case Studies
60 projects have been funded throughout Taranaki since 2015. Find out more about current projects and recent case studies.
Do you have a great idea for a collaborative community based science, technology or mātauranga research project in Taranaki? We want to hear from you!
- Thomas Adams, Programme Coordinator