Abstract

As outlined in our strategy, Taumata Teitei, Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland is committed to fostering relevant, purposeful, impactful research for our communities through transdisciplinary research practices. Whilst significant strides have been made in this space through the implementation of a 5-year research impact strategy, this has now reached maturation and we recognised an outstanding need for clearer guidance and support in effective research engagement and communication. To realise the ambitions of Taumata Teitei it is critical we empower our research community to engage meaningfully with stakeholders and communities in a way that fosters mutually beneficial relationships.

In response to this need, our Strategic Engagement team collaborated with the Research and Innovation Office to develop a Research Engagement Framework unique to our context in Aotearoa New Zealand. The question we posed was “How can we create maximum value for the organisation and our stakeholders by prudently investing in growing our capability and capacity to build and maintain meaningful, mana-enhancing relationships?”

The resulting framework provides a ‘how-to-guide’ for individual researchers and Research Engagement Managers on effective, inclusive, and mutually beneficial engagement. It also provides recommendations to enhance and mature our university’s research engagement expertise and improve the environment to enable engagement, and subsequently impact, to occur.

During this presentation, Faith will outline the process of developing the cross-functional framework, highlighting key feedback from both internal researchers and external partners. She will also showcase the framework tool, and explain how Māori and Pacific engagement practices were integrated. Finally, she will offer insights into how this approach can enable a more comprehensive realisation of our vision of becoming a more engaged university.