We are delighted to announce the following Australian and New Zealand speakers for the 14^th Health Services Research Association Australia and New Zealand (HSRAANZ) Conference 2026.

Cheryl leads the Tu Kotahi Māori Asthma and Research Trust – the first Māori asthma society in New Zealand – which is based at Kōkiri Marae in Lower Hutt. Originally established in 1995 by Cheryl, to provide asthma education and advocacy services to whānau in the wider Wellington region, Tu Kotahi soon branched out into health research, going from helping recruit Māori for studies at the University of Otago, Wellington, to participating in all areas of the research process.

“It’s often a big thing for whānau to let you come into their homes and communities to undertake research,” Davies said. “I spent a lot of my time with whānau in those early years allaying their fears about research and building the trust and credibility of Tu Kotahi and Kōkiri Marae as researchers coming into their communities.” Davies believes Tu Kotahi’s success in the research space largely comes down to her team knowing their communities and always having a whānau ora focus. “I’m mindful when we do our research that we can offer support services to whānau if needed. For example, we might go into someone’s home because they have a child with asthma, but once we get there, we can see that their home’s damp and that the whānau need some kai."

Davies was awarded the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) Te Tohu Rapuora Medal at the Royal Society Te Apārangi Research Honours ceremony, in Wellington, for making a tangible difference to improving health outcomes.

Arthur Grimes is Professor of Wellbeing and Public Policy at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Government, and Senior Fellow at Motu Research. Arthur’s research focuses on the economics of wellbeing and on urban economics (including housing). He is a co-convenor of the World Wellbeing Panel and, in 2023, became a Research Fellow of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS). Arthur’s prior positions include President of the New Zealand Association of Economists, and Chief Economist and Chairman of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. He has a Social Science degree from the University of Waikato and an MSc and PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics.

I am an Associate Professor in health economics interested in the various costs of cancer. My research aims to use health services research and health economics to improve cancer care by providing relevant, reliable information for decision making.

I lead the Health Economics Stream at the Daffodil Centre, a joint venture between the University of Sydney and the Cancer Council NSW, and am also based at the Sydney School of Public Health in the University of Sydney. I teach introductory health economics and conduct research in oncology using methods including patient preference studies, estimates of productivity loss and economic evaluations. My research extends the work I did on the economics of cancer as a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, and as a postdoc at the National Cancer Registry in Ireland. I completed my PhD on the costs of chemotherapy side effects at the University of Technology Sydney in 2013, before which I worked in cancer clinical trials and health services research.

My original training was in occupational therapy, and I remain interested in rehabilitation research. I also have a keen interest in early career researcher development.