Science diplomat Sir Peter Gluckman has been enlisted to head a new thinktank created to address challenges ¡°which get buried in acute political cycles¡±.

Sir Peter, president-elect of the International Science Council, said the?Koi T¨±?Centre for Informed Futures will exploit the insights that New Zealand can furnish as a diminutive nation with an advanced economy.

¡°By studying small countries you can see the same dynamics going on in bigger countries,¡± said Sir Peter, who was New Zealand¡¯s chief science adviser for nine years. ¡°But it¡¯s harder to see them [in large countries] because there are too many actors. It¡¯s more complex but the same principles are at stake.

¡°Countries like New Zealand have been able to be more innovative, responsive and strategic for that reason. They become the headlights for the path ahead.¡±

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The University of Auckland thinktank will focus on national and global issues arising from rapid and far-reaching social, economic, technological and environmental change. Sir Peter said society craved information it could trust.

¡°The contest of ideas is increasingly taking place in an unhealthy environment of misinformation and ¨C in many places ¨C declining public trust in democratic, scientific and societal institutions,¡± he said.

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¡°Transformations are happening around us at a scale and speed which is unique in human history. As scientists, we have a crucial role to play in ensuring decision-makers [are] armed with robust evidence.¡±

Sir Peter told?Times Higher Education?that the centre would ignore the ¡°political cycle¡± to focus on middle and long-term issues. ¡°Most thinktanks tend to get caught up in short-term transactional issues with a political focus,¡± he said. ¡°Research centres tend also to do that.¡±

He said his centre would focus on ¡°big issues¡± such as how to engage citizens in the ¡°misinformation age¡±, how to promote individual resilience in the context of rapid and inevitable change, and how to make ¡°big decisions¡± like the trade-offs needed to achieve sustainability.

The centre¡¯s deputy director, Anne Bardsley, said it would help communities and governments understand complex issues in ways that led to ¡°robust, societally accepted decisions¡±.

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Sir Peter said New Zealand was ¡°in a very unique position¡± as an advanced economy with a diverse society characterised by Indigenous people and Polynesian and Asian migration. ¡°It¡¯s fair to say we¡¯ve been more willing to confront these issues than many countries,¡± he said.

¡°We¡¯ve been innovative in our social policy; we¡¯ve been innovative in our environmental policy. We¡¯ve managed to be a good global citizen without relying on geostrategic power because we don¡¯t have any geostrategic power. Therefore, we¡¯re well respected.¡±

Sir Peter helped establish the??in 2014. ¡°Could that have been done if I¡¯d come from the US or Britain? I suspect not.¡±

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com