Resilient Coasts & Communities

I have been busting my gut to get my ethics application and my Māori ethics consultations submissions in before Christmas. An ethics application must be submitted for each piece of University of Canterbury research that proposes to use human participants and a Māori ethics consultation must be submitted with any research that proposes to engage with Māori participants and both must be obtained before commencing research.

The amount of work, research and ethical/moral/existential thinking that I did for this step felt overwhelming at times. However, I had some pretty good company and an awesome mātauranga mentor to guide me long the way. My supporters helped me focus and complete this step, Thank you!

If not handed in quite in time before Christmas, then at least I am proud to say that my application was among the first for January 2026.

Aside from creating over 150 pages of content for my applications, I came to realise how incredibly useful this step is in a research journey. It gives you a chance to really contemplate your positionality in doing research and really refine your methodology for your study.

Now just need to wait for the applications to be processed, which may take some time.