As the foregoing suggests, the founding Dunedin Study Director Phil Silva was very effective in providing policy advice to multiple New Zealand government agencies and the main political parties during the first decades of the study. The current zeitgeist values such activities and hence they are prioritised by the current Director Richie Poulton. Some examples of recent translational efforts include his membership on the multi-agency (Ministries of Health, Education, Social Development) Advisory Group on Conduct Problems between 2007 and 2012 [109–112], the Prime Minister’s Advisory Group on Reducing the Social and Psychological Morbidity in the Transition through Adolescence in 2010–2011 [113], the National Government’s Early Childhood Education (ECE) Taskforce in 2011 [114], and the Children’s Commissioner’s Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty in 2012 [115, 116]. Further expanding translational opportunities, he has recently been appointed to a part-time role as the inaugural Chief Science Advisor to the Ministry of Social Development, New Zealand’s largest ‘social good’ ministry.
