SPOTS 25

02/2025 - 04/2025

We’re back, back again!

SPOTS 25 was the second round to be run under the SPOTS brand, but at a smaller scale. The partnership was focused between the SPOTS team at Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland, and Burnett Foundation Aotearoa.

The primary purpose of this round was to conduct research to inform New Zealand’s National HIV Action Plan 2023–2030, towards the goal of achieving zero new local HIV transmissions by 2030. More simply, we want to provide timely monitoring of risk behaviours in a fast changing biobehavioural HIV prevention environment, to identify inequities, and to encourage greater engagement from our communities. You can read more about the Action Plan on the Manatū Hauora Ministry of Health website.

While SPOTS 25 was smaller and did not include biospecimen collection via the collection of DBS, the purpose was to refine the campaign and ask questions on the use of new STI prevention tools (e.g., Mpox, DoxyPEP) which were not available in the last round. 

This round saw the addition of our SPOTS Roadshow series in which several members of the team travel around the motu to give back the results to the very people who kindly spent their time telling us about their sexual health experiences. We’re constantly thinking of other ways we can spotlight the data that you have graciously provided for us – keep an eye out for this in the near future!

The Team

  • A/Prof Peter Saxton (University of Auckland)

  • Tony Sriamporn (University of Auckland)

  • James Bickford (University of Auckland)

  • Adrian Ludlum (University of Auckland)

  • Jax Kenrick (Burnett Foundation Aotearoa)

  • Anthony Walton (Burnett Foundation Aotearoa)

  • All our incredible fieldworkers!

Our partners for 2025

SPOTS 25 Publications

The main outputs so far from SPOTS 25 are the latest summary tables, the raw data responses to the survey questions including the new for 2025 questions. Click the report cover to read this, or check it out on our Findings page.

Work is ongoing on several academic outputs, however, the team has already made a global impact through several invitations to speak to international audiences and at conferences that will feature SPOTS 2025 data.

If you want to stay in the loop on new SPOTS publications and presentations, you can sign up to our mailing list.

The Campaign

The 2025 survey saw the return of in-person surveying, and the fieldwork team travelling across Aotearoa to Pride events and Sex on Site Venues (SOSV) collecting survey responses. It launched on 16 February at Big Gay Out in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, and ran until the end of April. A total of 3,203 participants engaged in this surveillance round – thank you to everyone who gave us their time and experience.

As well as being able to survey in person, we also introduced a number of new topics to the survey including:

  • Mpox vaccination status

  • DoxyPEP

  • Vaginal swabs

  • A greater variety of partnering options (asking about female partners, non-binary partners)

  • Where participants met their sexual partners

For a complete list of questions and participant responses, see the SPOTS 25 summary tables report.

The team at UoA collaborated with the marketing and graphics design team at Burnett Foundation to create a series of posters to get the message out. They were shared across several physical locations around the country, and shared online via social media and other sites frequented by MSM. You can check out the posters below.

SPOTS 25 Posters

Top: The four main posters. Bottom: sex on site venue poster and online-only trans and nonbinary poster

Images clockwise from top left: James presenting at the Body Positive men’s retreat, Rāwiri filling out the survey at Big Gay Out in front of his poster, Gaga and SPOTS posters, SPOTS stand at the Christchurch Pride Market.

SPOTS Roadshow

It’s no good collecting the data if we don’t share what we learnt! During Pride Season 2026 (Feb-April), the SPOTS team travelled around the country on the SPOTS Roadshow, showing off our swanky posters and answering your questions about the survey. We created three posters with various bite-sized infographics, and shared these at several Pride events in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Whangarei, and Hamilton.

You can check out the posters below, if you have any questions about the posters or SPOTS 25 data, reach out via our contact us page and we’ll get back to you.

SPOTS Fieldwork

HIV and STIs in Aotearoa

MSM in Aotearoa