Leading Thinkers was established in 2003 under the government’s Partnerships for Excellence Framework, to support world-class scholarship at Otago in areas considered vital for the nation’s future wellbeing.
The idea was to invest in people, rather than infrastructure.
As a result, there are now 27 chairs and projects across all academic divisions, on a range of topics, like diabetes, Scottish studies, infectious diseases, and childhood studies.
The first project to be established was the
Edgar Diabetes and Obesity Research Centre, chaired by Prof Sir Jim Mann.
Over the years, the projects and their findings have had major impacts on New Zealand and the rest of the world, such as informing international guidelines via the World Health Organisation on management of diseases.
Many of the chairs, researchers and university leaders from the time the initiative was created gathered to celebrate the achievements of Leading Thinkers.
