Science Media Centre

Writing in the Press, Prof John Fairweather of Lincoln University shares some of his insights into how innovation works in New Zealand. Prof Fairweather undertook a Government-funded research programme to identify conditions under which socio-technical networks best foster technology development, adoption and commercialisation. His perspective article in the Press gives an idea of what is [...]

When it comes to supporting R&D, the New Zealand government talks the talk, but are its initiatives working? Writing for Unlimited magazine, Matt Philp examines the government’s efforts to commercialise research. An excerpt (read in full here): Lifting our R&D game Are new government measures more effective? Necessity is supposed to be the mother of [...]

On Thursday the government will announce their 2011 budget for New Zealand. The New Zealand Herald‘s Hamish Fletcher caught up with some of the R&D sector’s major players to get an idea of what the budget might hold for Kiwi high-tech research. An excerpt (read in full here): Budget 2011: Little hope of R&D increase [...]

Earlier today, Prime Minister John Key announced that the government will be spending some $321 million on Research, Science and Technology, of which $225 million will be new funding. The funding will be spent on a range of initiatives, from actively encouraging commercialisation and technology transfer, to funding additional postdocs and attracting talented overseas scientists [...]

Patrick Pilchar writes, in an opinion piece in the New Zealand Herald, about New Zealand’s poor innovation performance, most recently seen in the NZAhead report. The report gave New Zealand a ‘C’, and Pilchar goes on to explore why innovation is key for New Zealand’s future, and the barriers currently standing in its way. An [...]

Christopher Adams writes in the New Zealand Herald about the Materials Accelerator – a new programme designed to help commercialise New Zealand R&D. The programme is a made up of a partnership between 4 major universities and three CRIs, and focuses on helping manufacturers add value to their products by combining materials. An excerpt: (read [...]

Brian Fallow of the New Zealand Herald reports on a paper from the New Zealand Institute which says that the solution to New Zealand’s poor levels of innovation isn’t simply to spend more money on research and development. The Institute says that investment into R&D will be largely wasted unless attention is paid to the [...]

Well it’s all over bar the voting in what has already been a momentous week.The election campaign has been interesting for its preoccupation (finally) with weighty economic issues. But how did the science and technology – which underpin the knowledge economy we are supposed to be fostering, get treated in the election coverage? Well, the [...]

Computerworld sums up the main policies of National and Labour in this week’s issue. Broadband is obviously the dominant one with National’s $1.5 billion plan to fund a national fibre optic network in conjunction with the private sector the centre-piece of its ICT policy. Labour has its own plan which involves contestable funding for broadband [...]