“This partnership is about building high-value capability in New Zealand and strengthening our economy for the future,” Dr Reti says.

“By combining our research expertise with the UAE’s strengths in engineering and autonomous technologies, we will develop new tools to better understand and predict how climate change in Antarctica affects our weather, oceans and coastal communities.

“The collaboration supports our Antarctic research goals while strengthening New Zealand’s advanced engineering and autonomous systems capability – technologies that can boost productivity and resilience across key industries.

“It will also provide better insight into Antarctic climate change to help businesses and decision‑makers plan for the future.

“The systems developed, from high-resolution climate modelling to long-range autonomous underwater vehicles, will have applications across marine industries, environmental monitoring and aerospace.

“That means new commercial opportunities, high-value jobs, and stronger national capability in the technologies that will power our future economy.”

The partnership will initially support two Antarctic Science Platform projects focused on improving sea-ice forecasting and deploying advanced autonomous systems to better understand ice shelf melt and ocean circulation.

New Zealand will invest $1 million in the projects, following a Memorandum of Arrangement between Khalifa University and Antarctica New Zealand.

The Antarctic Science Platform will run a targeted contestable process to identify New Zealand research teams to join the collaboration, with proposals assessed on scientific excellence and their potential to build capability for both countries.

The partnership will initially support two projects delivered through the Antarctic Science Platform. These projects will focus on:

• Storm dynamics influence on sea ice formation: Improved forecasting tools will enhance operational planning and build New Zealand’s capability in predictive environmental modelling, integrating high resolution modelling with new observation techniques will improve understanding of how storm dynamics influence sea ice formation.

• Tracking changes to ice shelve using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs): Long-range AUVs and other remote technology will be developed and deployed to measure heat content and water mass exchange on the continental ice shelf. Designed to operate in extreme conditions, these systems will expand New Zealand’s capability in remote sensing technologies while helping fill key data gaps related to iceshelf melt and ocean circulation.

In May 2025, the Government announced an investment of $49 million over the next seven years to support the Antarctic Science Platform. Collaboration between New Zealand and the UAE’s relevant Antarctic institutions through this Platform supports the Government’s work to accelerate long-term economic growth driven by innovation.

It also complements recently announced collaborations with international partners including Japan, Singapore, Australia and the United States across advanced materials, space science, health technologies and climate research supported by the MBIE-administered Catalyst Fund.