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Alongside our venture support work with Mental Health innovators and Research Grants, Ember Innovations has completed two Challenge-Led Innovation processes, both focused on acupressure points in the mental health system.
Changemakers developing and delivering innovative solutions with a focus on improving mental health and wellbeing.
Purpose-driven researchers, guided by lived experience, turning evidence into practical solutions that improve wellbeing.
Mental Health Innovation Research Alumna, Dr Jennifer Jiyun Park
Lived Experience Research Alumna, Dr Stephanie Gomes-Ng
Innovator, Jemarl Paerata, Te Kaiarahi

Now accepting submissions of interest for the upcoming issue.
Interconnected is the world’s only digital mental health magazine.
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Only one in three people experiencing mental distress or addiction receive support in Aotearoa. Too often, mental health services are fragmented and lived experience is undervalued. Ember Innovations creates the conditions for systems change and innovation.
By supporting changemakers, sparking new models in areas of opportunity, and centering lived experience, we take a holistic approach to systems innovation—helping reshape how mental health support is imagined, designed and delivered.
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Ember Innovations connects changemakers with the resources, funding and support to drive mental health innovation. We collaborate with tertiary institutions to fund innovative research and diverse projects led by researchers with lived experience. We also mobilise communities around specific mental health challenges, focusing on the needs of identifiable communities and enabling locally relevant solutions.
By advocating for lived expertise and providing wrap-around support, we help turn promising ideas into meaningful, systems-level change.
We fund projects grounded in lived experience, mātauranga Māori and emerging technologies, ensuring innovation is shaped by diverse perspectives.
We collaborate with and provide holistic support to communities for the development of innovative solutions to identifiable challenges or opportunity areas.
Moemoeā nurtures an innovation community that’s grounded in culture, creating space for wānanga, connection and innovation guided by indigenous knowledge and future aspirations.
Three ways to get involved:
Choose the level that fits.
