TalentNZ

TalentNZ is a research project that aims to contribute to a national conversation on how we can make New Zealand a thriving and attractive place to live.

The project aims to contribute to Sir Paul Callaghan’s vision of making New Zealand ‘a place where talent wants to live’ by testing his assumptions and exploring ways New Zealanders might make this vision a reality.

TalentNZ builds on Sir Paul Callaghan’s vision, which he originally advocated in 2011 at the StrategyNZ workshop. Sir Paul could see the important role that talent would have in New Zealand’s economic and social development, he understood the capacity of young people to surprise us with their talents, and he knew we needed to develop a mindset where we respected those whose talents were different from our own.

Interconnecting research projects

The ForesightNZ, StrategyNZ and ReportingNZ projects are all interlinked with TalentNZ. Foresight shapes strategy; strategy requires reporting; and reporting creates foresight.

More detail

Sir Paul Callaghan’s legacy (ongoing)
Sir Paul was a patron of the Institute until his death in 2012. In 2011 he presented his thoughts on New Zealand’s long-term future at an Institute workshop. A video of his speech can be found on YouTube and has had over 70,000 views. Paul was a New Zealand physicist who, as the founding director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology at Victoria University of Wellington, held the position of Alan MacDiarmid Professor of Physical Sciences and was President of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance.