LANDCARE RESEARCH NEW ZEALAND LTD

Their core work

Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research is New Zealand's Crown Research Institute focused on understanding and managing land-based biodiversity, ecosystems, and environmental change. Their scientific core spans taxonomy and biosystematics of terrestrial invertebrates, palaeoecology, environmental and ancient DNA analysis, and land-use ecology across New Zealand's geographically isolated landscapes. In H2020, they participated exclusively as a third-party host under MSCA schemes — receiving European early-career researchers and doctoral candidates for training secondments, providing access to New Zealand's unique biodiversity collections and ecological archives. Their institutional value to European consortia is as a Southern Hemisphere research node offering field contexts and specimen holdings unavailable anywhere in Europe.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

With only two projects both entered in 2015–2016, the timeline is too compressed to trace a meaningful multi-year shift. The two engagements do suggest complementary but distinct emphases: BIG4 sits in classical and genomic taxonomy of living insect communities, while ISLANDPALECO moves toward reconstructing historical ecological baselines through molecular sediment analysis. If a directional signal exists, it points from morphology-anchored biosystematics toward eDNA-driven environmental history — a transition visible across much of ecology globally in this period.

The move from insect taxonomy (BIG4) to eDNA-based palaeoecological reconstruction (ISLANDPALECO) hints at deepening investment in molecular environmental science, though two data points are insufficient to confirm a sustained trajectory.

How they like to work

Landcare Research participates exclusively as a third party in MSCA schemes — they neither coordinate EU projects nor receive direct EC funding. In practice this means they function as a hosting destination for European researchers (Global Fellows, doctoral secondments) rather than as a full consortium member proposing research agendas. Despite this peripheral formal role, their 23 unique partners across 14 countries suggest they are well-networked within European ecology and biodiversity communities.

Two MSCA engagements have connected Landcare Research to 23 unique consortium partners across 14 countries — a broad reach relative to their project count. Their network is inherently European-facing despite being geographically remote, reflecting the MSCA Global Fellowship model that explicitly targets non-EU host institutions.

What sets them apart

As a New Zealand Crown Research Institute, Landcare Research offers something no European partner can replicate: direct access to New Zealand's geographically isolated ecosystems, national insect and botanical collections, and deep palaeoenvironmental archives spanning thousands of years. For MSCA applicants, they represent a stable, government-backed Southern Hemisphere host with genuine scientific depth rather than a nominal affiliation. Consortia working on biodiversity baselines, biosecurity, or island ecology should consider them as a bridge to Southern Hemisphere data that fundamentally cannot be sourced from within Europe.

Highlights from their portfolio

• BIG4
  One of the largest MSCA training networks in entomology, addressing the four most economically significant insect orders through an integrated biosystematics, genomics, and bioinformatics curriculum.
• ISLANDPALECO
  Methodologically significant for applying sediment ancient DNA (PalEnDNA) alongside pollen records to establish pre-human ecological baselines on islands — a technique with broad applicability to conservation and land-use policy.