He said it was one his "proudest achievements...[because]...it allows economists, physicists, mathematicians and ecologists to share different ways of approaching and quantifying the impact of networks...[and]... the joint innovation and productivity research has real potential to improve the complex systems that affect people's lives and livelihoods".
[10] The organisation holds that its research spans the "breadth of human knowledge, from computational sciences to environmental economics, and from linguistics to indigenous philosophy to mathematical biology....celebrates the distinct status of Māori as tangata whenua, and is committed to upholding the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi".
Shaun Hendy, David Hayman and Michael Plank were among the high-profile members of the organisation who regularly commented on the COVID-19 pandemic in the news media at the time.
The leadership of Te Pūnaha Matatini investigators has supported the setting up of independent research programmes, including Covid-19 Modelling Aotearoa and The Disinformation Project.
[18] With the high transmissibility of the Delta variant being a concern, the modelling of Te Pūnaha Matatini continued to indicate that without good rates of vaccination to build population immunity, there could still be a substantial community outbreak that would put the healthcare system in New Zealand under immense strain.
[30] Andy Shenk, CEO of Uniservices, the research commercialisation and knowledge mobilisation company of the University of Auckland,[31] said that modelling such as that done by Te Pūnaha Matatini offered "data-crunching power...[to]...sequence and compare virus genomes, which aids contact tracing".
[32] Hendy was invited to present modelling at a press conference with Jacinda Ardern and Ashley Bloomfield on 23 September 2021 and he suggested that even with a high proportion of New Zealand's population vaccinated, up to 7000 deaths a year could be recorded.
Te Pῡnaha Matatini was awarded the 2020 Prime Minister's Science Prize in recognition of their work in developing mathematical models, analysis of data and communication of the results to inform the response of the New Zealand Government to COVID-19.
He set up a multi-disciplinary team as part of Te Pūnaha Matatini that developed mathematical models in different scenarios for the position New Zealand was in early in the pandemic.
[40] Hendy later noted that Peter-Lucas Jones from Te Aupōuri[41] who was present at a Board meeting that confirmed the need to focus on COVID-19, told the story of how the 1918 influenza pandemic had affected his iwi and when statistician Andrew Sporle[42][43] (Ngāti Apa, Rangitāne, Te Rarawa) was brought in to co-lead work focusing on at-risk communities an iwi-led pandemic response was shaped.