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Council members are appointed by the Minister of Health.
Half of the 10 members are or have been engaged in health research, while the balance bring skills and experience in areas such as community affairs, health administration, law, management, and knowledge of health issues from a consumer perspective.
The Council's governance responsibilities include:
- Communicating with the Minister of Health and Minister of Research, Science and Innovation, and other stakeholders to ensure their views are reflected in the HRC's planning.
- Delegating responsibility for achievement of specific objectives to the chief executive.
- Monitoring organisational performance towards achieving objectives.
- Accountability to the Ministers for plans and progress.
- Maintaining effective systems of control.
The Council maintains an interests register and ensures Council members are aware of their obligations to declare interests. The Council is committed to ensuring that all of its activities are conducted in a manner which meets the highest ethical standards.
The criteria for membership of the Council is outlined in Sections 8 to 11 of the Health Research Council Act 1990 and as amended by the Health Research Council Amendment Act 1991. Sections 6, 31 and 34 of the Act sets out the statutory responsibilities of the HRC, which relate to the functions of the Council, consideration of applications, and liaisons with other organisations.
Professor Lester Levy, CNZM - Chair
Professor Lester Levy, CNZM, MBBCH, MBA, FNZIM, has chaired the HRC since 2015. He was recently appointed as the Commissioner of Health New Zealand and is also Professor of Digital Health Leadership at Auckland University of Technology’s Faculty of Health.
Lester is a graduate of Medicine, holds an MBA, and has extensive management and governance experience in both the public and private sectors. He was previously chairman of the Auckland, Waitemata and Counties Manukau District Health Boards as well as Auckland Transport and chief executive of the New Zealand Blood Service and the Mercy Ascot group of hospitals (of which he was a founder). Lester is best known for leading a number of organisational performance transformations as a chief executive, entrepreneur and chairman, in both the public and private sectors.
Previously seconded to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet as an advisor, Lester has been awarded the prestigious King's Fund International Fellowship from the King's Fund in London as well as being made a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management. He was also appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) in the 2013 New Year's Honours List for services to health and education.
Professor Jeroen Douwes
Jeroen Douwes is a professor of Public Health and director of Massey University’s Centre for Hauora and Health in Wellington. He obtained both his MSc and PhD in environmental epidemiology from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. He leads a comprehensive programme of public health research with a focus on respiratory disease and environmental and occupational health. He is also the principal investigator of the Infectious Disease Research Centre at Massey University. Before joining Massey University in 2002, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Otago University, Wellington, and Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Jeroen is associate editor of the International Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Professor Emma Wyeth
Emma Wyeth (Kāi Tahu, Te Ātiawa and Ngāti Mutunga; PhD, BSc(Hons)) is a Professor – Māori Health in the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre at the University of Canterbury. For over 15 years, the majority of Emma's research has focused on Māori injury outcomes and experiences. She leads or co-leads a number of contestable funded projects. More broadly, all of Emma’s work focuses on understanding and improving Māori engagement and experiences within the New Zealand health system and reducing inequities.
Emma holds a number of governance roles including Te Tauraki – the Iwi-Māori Partnership Board for the Ngāi Tahu takiwā, and WellSouth Primary Health Network. She is also heavily involved in her own Māori community and iwi, including as the deputy chair of Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki and as the Alternate Representative for Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki on Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu.
Dr Frances Hughes
Dr Frances Hughes is a practicing registered nurse with over 35 years' nursing and international health experience. She is a recognised leader in her field and has a BA, MA and Doctorate in nursing. She is also a Harkness fellow and senior Fullbright scholar, a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania (USA), and Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology (Australia). Frances’ specialty areas include mental health; aged care; healthcare systems; health workforce; psycho-social emergency response post/disaster management; and public policy. She has held executive management and nursing positions on a global level and was made an Officer and Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2006 and 2019 for her services to nursing, mental health and health.
Professor James Maclaurin
James is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka | the University of Otago. He obtained his PhD in Philosophy of Science from the Research School of Social Science at Australian National University. His research spans the use of artificial intelligence and associated ethics and policymaking, including bias, transparency, and the control of artificial intelligence. James is the Director of Otago’s Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Public Policy. He has worked extensively on the impact of AI on jobs and work in Aotearoa, as well as government use of AI. He has recently developed (with Karaitiana Taiuru) an ethical framework for the use of AI in healthcare in New Zealand, published by the Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science advisor in "Capturing the benefits of AI in healthcare for Aotearoa New Zealand". He is co-author of "A citizen’s guide to artificial intelligence" with MIT Press.
Professor Riz Firestone
Tupa’ilevaililigi Ridvan Firestone (also known as Riz) is a Senior Research Officer at the Centre for Public Health Research, Massey University, Wellington. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in speech-language therapy at the University of Canterbury, and an MPH degree at the University of Otago before embarking on a PhD in sleep science at Massey University. She leads a Pacific Public Health Research Programme at the centre, which involves engaging Pacific youth and rangatahi Māori in youth empowerment programmes designed to build capacity and capability to lead projects in the community. Riz has worked extensively in community-based participatory action research with Pacific communities, and in the co-design of projects that focus on community-centred and community-led prevention programmes of non-communicable diseases, particularly pre-diabetes risk and type 2 diabetes.
Professor Cameron Grant
Cameron is a general paediatrician at Starship Children’s Hospital and Professor and Departmental Head, Paediatrics: Child & Youth Health at the University of Auckland. He is a graduate of the University of Otago (MBChB) and the University of Auckland (PhD). Cameron has worked as an academic general paediatrician in New Zealand since 1993 after postgraduate training at Duke University Medical Center and the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins University.
His research focuses on prevalent child health problems, which cause disparities between population subgroups in New Zealand, and for which the potential exists to eliminate these disparities through immunisation or nutritional interventions.
Cameron’s teaching skills have been recognised with faculty and university teaching awards including a University of Auckland Teaching Excellence Award for sustained excellence in teaching.
Professor Brett Cowan
Brett Cowan is Professor and Tumuaki | Dean of the Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT), overseeing New Zealand's largest trainer of health professionals. He is qualified as a mechanical engineer and emergency medicine doctor and holds an MBA from the University of Auckland.
Brett’s experience includes a leadership role in New Zealand's scientific response to COVID-19 as Chief Scientist at the Crown Research Institute ‘Environmental Science and Research (ESR)’. His career encompasses academic, research, and leadership roles at the University of Auckland where he established the Centre for Advanced MRI (CAMRI) and performed internationally recognised research in artificial intelligence and clinical trials, including the successful commercialisation of intellectual property. He also served as deputy chair of the University of Auckland ethics committee for five years.
Brett is a trusted leader in health sciences and research. He was recently appointed as the Chair of the Mātai Board of Trustees in Tairāwhiti Gisborne, and the New Zealand Synchrotron Group – both overseeing significant health research infrastructure. He has also been appointed as a member of the new independent board, Research Funding New Zealand, which will lead much of the national research funding across the science, innovation and technology system.
Dr Margaret Wilsher
Margaret Wilsher MD, FRACP, FRACMA works for Health NZ as a respiratory physician specialising in interstitial lung disease and is an Honorary Professor, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Auckland. She was formerly the Chief Medical Officer for Auckland District Health Board. She has ongoing research interests in interstitial lung disease and lung structure function relationships having trained at Green Lane Hospital and then at the National Heart and Lung Institute, London, UK as Wellcome Trust/HRC fellow. For the last 25 years she has combined clinical and academic practice with medical management and leadership. Margaret has held a number of public sector governance roles and is currently a director of PHARMAC and Chair, Ministerial Advisory Committee Health Infrastructure.
Mr Paul Foster-Bell
Paul Foster-Bell (Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa, Te Aupōuri) is the Business Development Manager for Society, Culture, Economy, Government and Defence at the University of Otago | Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, based at the Dunedin campus. In this role, he supports the university’s academic staff in achieving maximum social impact from their world-class research.
Paul studied Archaeology and Business (BA and DipGrad), then International Studies (MIntSt with Distinction) at Otago. He served as a New Zealand diplomat offshore – promoting our country’s trade, security, and political interests in the Middle East, as Deputy Ambassador in Tehran and Riyadh – with shorter assignments to Abu Dhabi and Pretoria. Paul also managed a national security programme and was Deputy Chief of Protocol responsible for VIP visits.
Paul was elected to Parliament in 2013, as a List MP based in Wellington Central. He served on the Health (2013-14) and Education and Science (2014-16) select committees during this time. Leaving Parliament in 2017, Paul advised the U.S. Embassy in Wellington, before returning to academia.
Dr Colin McArthur*
*Term beginning 10 July 2026
In one of the first studies of its kind, New Zealand researchers will soon be delving into the immersive next-generation version of the internet – the metaverse – to discover how the marketing and engagement practices of alcohol companies could be playing a role in the real-life drinking experiences of young people.
Lead researcher Associate Professor Taisia Huckle, an expert in alcohol policy, consumption and alcohol-related harms at Massey University, says the metaverse1, powered by advanced machine learning, is built on business models that translate experiences online into real-life consumption – something alcohol companies are keen to exploit.
“Alcohol companies are assertively developing ways of embedding legal but health-damaging products into consumers’ lives in the metaverse. While 41 percent of 18 to 24-year-old drinkers report drinking six or more drinks on one occasion at least monthly2, some millennials and members of Generation Z are drinking less, and alcohol companies are looking at new and innovative ways to recruit them,” says Associate Professor Huckle.
“Alcohol marketing in this digital environment poses significant new health risks, particularly to our rangatahi and young people who are enthusiastic adopters of new digital technologies.”
Associate Professor Huckle and her team, including Professors Antonia Lyons, Tim McCreanor, Helen Moewaka Barnes and Ms Georgia McLellan, have been awarded an Explorer Grant from the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) to carry out this research, which will involve working closely with young people who are users of the metaverse.
“The metaverse is currently unregulated and completely hidden from the scrutiny of health researchers,” says Associate Professor Huckle.
“Virtual drinks are being linked to their real-world products, with metaverse users sent six-packs of actual alcohol, and young consumers interacting in virtual bars.”
“It’s critical we do these early studies to understand what is happening before this new form of ‘immersive commerce’ expands and potentially leads to excessive alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm in our rangatahi and young people,“ says Associate Professor Huckle.
HRC Chief Executive Professor Sunny Collings says the metaverse has the potential to reproduce or even increase health inequities from the real world.
“This study will open up a new research area and also likely stimulate interest in how other legal but unhealthy product producers are targeting young people in the metaverse,” says Professor Collings.
The HRC has awarded 17 Explorer Grants this year for a combined value of $2.55 million. All Explorer Grants must be potentially transformative, and this year several are focusing on the digital side of health, including using digital technology to drive innovation in the medical field and deliver better healthcare.
See below for the full list of 2023 Explorer Grant recipients.
1 The metaverse combines aspects of augmented reality (a digital overlay projected on the real world), virtual reality (accessed using a virtual reality headset), social media, online gaming, and cryptocurrencies.
2 Ministry of Health. New Zealand Health Survey - Annual Data Explorer. 2020/21.
2023 Health Research Council Explorer Grant recipientsDr Claire Badenhorst, Massey University
Our flow: increasing access to health screening through menstrual blood
24 months, $150,000Dr Renoh Johnson Chalakkal, oDocs Eye Care
Robotics system for rapid deployment of teleophthalmology
24 months, $150,000Associate Professor Christopher Brown, University of Otago
Rapid identification of leads for antimicrobials
24 months, $150,000Associate Professor Louise Brough, Massey University
Investigating iodine supplementation in pregnancy
24 months, $149,687Associate Professor Aniruddha Chatterjee, University of Otago
A novel methylation-editing screen to identify epigenetic drivers of metastasis
24 months, $150,000Mr Joe Chen, University of Canterbury
Wearable ultrasonic array for non-invasive imaging and manipulation of the body
24 months, $150,000Dr Cate Curtis, University of Waikato
Injuring oneself, injuring others: Distinctions and commonalities
24 months, $135,674Dr Joanna Hicks, University of Waikato
Avoiding detection: How does gonorrhoea survive within host cells
24 months, $149,994Associate Professor Taisia Huckle, Massey University
The metaverse – new health risks
24 months, $149,882Professor Peter Lockhart, Massey University
Searching for novel antimicrobials
24 months, $149,992
Professor Simon Malpas, the University of Auckland
Transforming the care of people with heart failure through proactive monitoring
24 months, $150,000Dr Vanessa Morris, University of Canterbury
Do shed a tear for me: novel biomarker methods for Parkinson’s disease
24 months, $150,000Professor Anthony Phillips, the University of Auckland
A revolutionary solution to a chronic healing problem
24 months, $150,000Dr Rohit Ramchandra, the University of Auckland
Developing novel devices to relieve congestion in heart failure
24 months, $150,000Mrs Angelique Reweti, Massey University
Wāhi Kōrero: “I felt too whakamā to go to the doctor…”
24 months, $150,000Associate Professor Susanne Roehr, Massey University
Co-exploring dementia risk reduction from a planetary health perspective
24 months, $150,000Dr Shinya Uekusa, University of Canterbury
Transforming crisis communication for linguistic minority communities
24 months, $150,000
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The HRC and Ministry of Health Immunisation Research Strategy partnership funded research was carried out by a Massey University and Whanganui Community team, led by Associate Professor Margie Comrie, and managed by Dr Niki Murray from Massey University’s School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing, who share a long-standing interest in literacy issues.
Dr Murray says an earlier literacy project exposed links between low levels of health and low levels of literacy.
The Whanganui PHO were interested in developing better communication of immunisation information so the team worked to develop a communication tool using extensive input from community end-users and health professionals.
Associate Professor Comrie says that as communicators they thought visual communication and simplicity was really important, but the first step was to work with the community and find out more about people’s decisionmaking around whether or not they chose to immunise their children.
Dr Murray says they set up focus groups involving participants from a range of social support organisations, including Māori, Pacific People and mainstream providers. “We talked to decision-makers and asked them what sort of information they received about immunisation and what they thought about that information. Then we asked them what would be a preferred means of getting information about immunisation and what sorts of things they would like to know,” she says.
“We also showed them some pictures and asked them whether that form of showing them illustrations would help them to remember messages. They were quite adamant that they needed real-life photos and real-life people they could relate to.”
Associate Professor Comrie says they also wanted bright colours, simple words, and bullet points. Almost everyone they spoke to wanted to receive information as part of a discussion. “They also told us that they didn’t want a lot of information all at once but they wanted to know how to get more information if they wanted to.”
From these focus groups they developed a simple illustrated flip chart as a communication tool for the lead maternity carer to use when having a discussion with the mother or family.
It takes them through what immunisation is for, how vaccines work, what are the diseases it can protect against and shows a simplified version of the immunisation chart. It also talks about the immunisation register, where immunisation information is recorded and goes through what happens when they go to the doctor and what happens afterwards.
They also developed an A5 sized fridge magnet which has the key immunisation messages, as well as information on when the injections are due and important contact information.
Associate Professor Comrie says they also tested how much of a difference the pictures made using two groups of 31 mothers who were about 28 weeks pregnant. An intervention group received the information with illustrations while a control group received the same information but without illustrations.
A follow-up phone interview six weeks later found the ones who received information with the accompanying illustrations recalled more information, were more confident in their recall and also felt more confident about making immunisation decisions.
Associate Professor Comrie says they have been talking to midwifery groups and various health boards about further testing and development with a view to finding out how the resources could be most effectively used.
Information: Associate Professor Margie Comrie, Massey University, Palmerston North.
Joseph Gingell undertook part of this project to obtain his BSc (Honours); Richard Bailey is a senior research technician; Joshua Bradley undertook a summer project involving this research and was funded by a Pacific Health summer scholarship and mentored by Debbie Hay through his medical degree via the HRC Pacific Health Workforce mentoring scheme; and Tao Qi was supported for her PhD research by this project, recently completing her thesis.
Understanding how a hormone implicated in migraines triggers a response in receptors in the brain could provide a key to developing better drugs for the debilitating condition.
Dr Debbie Hay from the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Auckland says her three year HRC funded project focused on the calcitonin family of peptide hormones which also have relevance to other health issues ranging from diabetes to bone diseases.
Each type of hormone acts on its own specific cell surface receptor. These are the cellular sensors for these hormones and effectively control hormone action. Therefore, by adjusting the activity of these receptors it is possible to mimic or hinder the activity of these hormones and successfully treat disease.
Targeting the receptors has its challenges because the hormones themselves can’t easily be given as drugs because they are rapidly broken down in the blood.
Dr Hay says what they need to do is either develop better analogs of these hormones or come up with molecules that can mimic or block their actions.
“The aim of my research is to essentially create a blueprint of the receptor and how those hormones specifically interact, so that we can learn how large a drug might need to be, exactly where in the receptor it might bind, and to drive new drug discovery programmes.
“You can think of this as, deciphering the receptor code for new medicines.”
Drug development can be done in a number of ways, Dr Hay explains: “You can go for the holy grail of an orally bio-available small molecule, which is difficult to obtain, or you can play with the hormone itself to try and improve its pharmacokinetics and bioavailability.”
She is working with more than one hormone and one receptor – but in the case of migraine the receptor is for a neuropeptide hormone called calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP).
“We don’t know why, but this hormone has increased concentrations in the blood when people have a migraine headache and if you give someone this hormone they can develop a migraine,” she says.
“Over the past 18-20 years researchers have been trying to develop new drugs to block the actions of CGRP at its receptors to treat migraine and some of my research was related to that.
“We identified specific contact points in the receptor for some first generation drugs which will hopefully soon reach the market and help develop second and third generation drugs that are more specific and have fewer side-effects.”
The project has progressed well. Her PhD student has finished her thesis and they were able to publish plenty of new findings from their HRC funded work.
Dr Hay has also developed new collaborations with the pharmaceutical company Merck to aid in the development of their migraine compounds, so overall it was a very successful project.
She will continue her migraine work and expand into actually understanding how specific neurons sense this hormone CGRP and signal pain.
“This kind of basic biomedical research is really crucial to the development of future drugs.
“The research just with this family of hormones is relevant to diabetes, obesity, bone diseases, cardiovascular disease and lymphatic insufficiency. So whilst we’re only focused on one particular aspect here there are many other possible outcomes that might arise from this research.
