- Home
- Research
Research
EIT is a vibrant, innovative and research-led tertiary education institute. Research emphasis is placed on community-centred research and Rangahau Māori in collaboration with East Coast industry, iwi and organisations, as well as with colleagues in Te Pūkenga and other tertiary institutions. Our research addresses East Coast regional business, iwi and local community concerns as well as broader National, and in some areas, International, issues. Find out more here.
Community Health
EIT’s Health Research highlights the important and innovative research into health-related issues in the Schools of Nursing and Recreation & Sport, as well as those with other EIT and external collaborators.
The aims are to advance health knowledge, clinical practice, health management and health education through high quality research. This also creates opportunity to foster collaborative health research and create links between EIT and research partners.
Te Kura i Awarua Rangahau Māori Centre
Rangahau Māori has emerged as an important component in the community-focused research strategy of EIT | Te Pūkenga . In keeping with this, Te Kura i Awarua, a new EIT Rangahau Māori Centre, was opened at the Hawke’s Bay Campus of EIT | Te Pūkenga last year. Te Kura i Awarua, which means ‘the precious objects (from Awarua)’ is located on EIT’s Hawke’s Bay Campus in Taradale. The new centre has a number of important research projects in health, food security, archiving and working with the rich history of hapū and iwi in the region and environmental challenges.
Innovative Education
EIT researchers undertake research in educational practices and pedagogies in a broad range of areas, from International Student recruitment practices to use of technology and innovative learning environments in teaching practices, and methods to enhance Māori student success. Read more about some of our innovative projects creating real benefits for our learners here.
Creativity and Curation
EIT has a long history in the creative arts through our IDEAschool in Hawke’s Bay and Toihoukura school of Māori Visual Arts in Tairāwhiti. Our artists and lecturers are internationally recognised in their fields. Read more about recent projects here.
Sustainable Futures
EIT is committed to ensuring that operations across all of our campuses are more sustainable, and to enable our graduates to carry out their professions sustainably. To this end, our researchers conduct projects to improve practices and to understand more about the workplaces of the future. Read more about some of these here.
Research & Innovation Centre Newsletters
The EIT | Te Pūkenga Research & Innovation Centre produces regular newsletters to showcase the achievements of our researchers and highlight research events coming up. Here is a full list of the newsletters.
Research news
Our researchers undertake a number of meaningful projects that have a meaningful impact on our communities. We work with local groups to achieve results and provide solutions. Here is a snapshot of some of the good work being done by our researchers.
Contact Us
Please contact our research teams to dscuss your research needs.
Research and Innovation Centre
Research Operations Manager
Megan Allardice
Email: MAllardice@eit.ac.nz
Emeritus Professor
Kay Morris Matthews
Email: kmorris@eit.ac.nz
Communications
AustinMedia
Email: media@eit.ac.nz
Te Kura i Awarua Rangahau Māori Centre
Principal Investigator
Professor David Tipene-Leach
Email: dtipene-leach@eit.ac.nz
Principal Investigator
Professor Boyd Swinburn
Email: boyd.swinburn@auckland.ac.nz
Professor of Rangahau Māori
Professor Annemarie Gillies
Email: AGillies@eit.ac.nz
Senior Research Fellow
Rachael Glassey
Email: rglassey@eit.ac.nz
Research Fellow
Renee Railton
Email: rrailton@eit.ac.nz
Assistant Research Fellow
Kirsten Harrild
Email: kharrild@eit.ac.nz
Research Assistant
Raun Makirere Haerewa
Email: RMakirereHaerewa@eit.ac.nz
Administrator
Tuakana August
Email: taugust@eit.ac.nz
Synergia Contractor
David Rees
Email: david.rees@synergia.co.nz
UoA Research Fellow
Kelly Garton
Email: kelly.garton@auckland.ac.nz
Q&A with our researchers
EIT has many talented researchers who are conducting meaningful community research. In this Q&A series we find out why they love research, what they currently working on and how EIT has encouraged them in their research.
Dr Emily Nelson
Surej P John
Dr Mazin Bahho
Tom Pierard
Dr Emre Erturk
Research Showcase
Spotlight on Early Career Researchers
Jane Qin
Jane Quin
In this feature we interview staff members who have been identified as Early Career Researchers. In the spotlight is Jane Qin, Wine Science Lecturer in the School of Viticulture and Wine Science.
What is your highest qualification and where and when did you finish it?
Master of Horticultural Science (in Viticulture and Oenology), Lincoln University, 2016.
What is your role at EIT and what courses do you teach?
I am a wine science lecturer and also help with viticulture courses.
- Chemistry in wine science
- Wine sensory science
- Fundamentals of wine
- Flavour farming
What areas do you specialise in?
- Wine chemistry
- Sensory science
- Grapevine physiology
What research have you been involved in either last year or this year?
To investigate chemical compounds and their contribution to mouthfeel of chardonnay wines, and how winemaking techniques could alter the mouthfeel perception of chardonnay wines.
In collaboration with Dr Ye, we have selected 17 HB chardonnay wines. We had a panel of 3 wine experts who tasted those 17 wines and further selected 8 wines that in their opinion, are good examples of HB chardonnay wines. From there, we run sensory Napping® by employing another 10 wine experts.
For my own individual project, chemical and physical analyses have been conducted and I also did a winemaking survey. At this stage, I haven’t finalised the results yet and I am still waiting for more data to come in. What I have found so far,
- Extended skin contacts and the usage of oak barrels or oak chips resulted in high phenolic content in wine.
- Wine experts who participated in Napping® are able to distinguish those phenolic wines from the others.
- Wines from the same producer must share some similarities in winemaking, based on the consensus map produced from Napping®, although the grapes were sourced from different sub-regions.
The next step is to overlay sensory descriptors, chemical data and the winemaking questionnaire onto the sensory consensus map produced from Napping®, which will help us,
- Understand the logic or sorting criteria why panellists grouped wines like that.
- Making the connections which chemical compound or a group of them may be responsible for a specific mouthfeel perception.
- Making the connections which winemaking technique could alter the mouthfeel of chardonnay wines.
How important is research to you as an academic?
Doing research helps me stay tuned. The current research that I am conducting is especially relevant with the subjects I am teaching, e.g., Sensory Science, Chemistry in Wine Science, and Fundamentals of wine. Research allows me to update my knowledge and course materials, and while teaching those courses, it sparkles my interests in doing more research.
How supportive is EIT in encouraging you to do research?
We have a regular research meeting at our school, where all researchers and technicians present ideas and suggestions. Collaboration is always encouraged. Our head of school, Sue Blackmore is especially supportive and held a symposium last year, and hopefully will have another one this year. The symposium allows us to showcase the research we did or about to conduct, pair up with others who are in the same research field, and gather ideas and suggestions.
Staff at the Research and Innovation Centre are helpful and had given me suggestions on writing up grant application, making budgets and help me to keep track of my budget.
Jadwiga at the library also helped with sourcing research literatures.
Te Pae Tawhiti – EIT Teaching and Learning Conference
ITP Research Symposium 2019
The 2019 ITP Research Symposium, an annual event, was held for the first time at EIT. This was a hugely successful two-day event over 15 & 16 April which saw over 200 delegates attending from thirteen ITPs. There were 63 presentations in total (22 of these by EIT researchers) which were themed around “community-centred research”.
Four strands within this included:
- Engaged arts
- Inspired teaching & learning
- Community Health
- Sustainable
EIT co-hosted this event with Otago Polytechnic which provided a great opportunity for us to strengthen our links with this institution. One highlight of the event was a public concert held at the MTG showcasing Professor Matthew Marshall (guitar), Tessa Petersen (violin) and Heleen du Plessis (cello) and incorporating poetry narrated by Dame Kate Harcourt & Sir Jon Trimmer.
Two exhibitions were also held – one at IDEAschool and one by Toihoukura at Te Ūranga Waka. These involved art work contributions from five institutions and around 30 artists.
A public display was mounted at the arrivals lounge of Hawke’s Bay Airport which profiled this event. Our grateful thanks to the IDEAschool team who were involved in setting up this display.
We are grateful to the Research & Innovation Centre for organising this successful event which showcased EIT research as well as research from across the ITP sector. Particular mention should be given to Professor Nat Waran, Associate Professor Jonathan Sibley, Professor Matthew Marshall along with Pippa McKelvie-Sebileau and Louise Bevin for their efforts in organising this successful event.