Science Media Centre

Science was ignited as the fuel of economic growth, but the fame has gone out, writes Professor Jeff Tallon, physicist with The MacDiarmid Institute, in the NZ Herald. An excerpt (read in full): And it is inescapable, the Government needs to invest here much more heavily. We need to fund strategies, not projects. Where is […]

UPDATED: A snapshot of New Zealand’s science and innovation system has laid out where we are doing well and where there is room for improvement compared to other small advanced economies. The Science and Innovation System Performance Report was published yesterday by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and is intended to benchmark performance […]

Writing in the Dominion Post, Minister of Economic Development Steven Joyce lays out the case for a skilled workforce – especially in the Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) sector. An excerpt (read in full here): Getting people with more skills vital to our future Beyond the current fog of misinformation around about trade deals […]

Virtual babies, breast cancer genomics and criminal psychology are just a few subjects to be studied by researchers awarded prestigious fellowships this week. The recipients of two separate sets of fellowships were announced yesterday, totalling millions of dollars of research funding for established and up-and-coming researchers. Twelve of New Zealand’s most talented early to mid-career […]

The Government has announced the recipients of the 2015 Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment funding round, injecting $96.5 million into innovative and exciting research projects over the next four years. Of a total 157 initial proposals, 48 research programmes were selected to be funded in the biological industries, energy and minerals, environment, hazards and […]

Following up on the Government’s recent announcement that it is investing $139 million into 48 of New Zealand’s most promising research programmes, Teuila Fuatai at The New Zealand Herald takes a look at four of the projects that have been approved in the 2014 Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment contestable science investment round. An excerpt (read in full here): […]

The government has announced the recipients of the 2014 Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment funding round, injecting $139 million into innovative and exciting research projects over the next six years. Of a total 207 initial proposals, 48 research programmes were selected to be funded in the biological industries, high-value manufacturing and services, energy and […]

Results are in for the latest government-backed science funding round, worth $278 million over coming years.   The Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) announced yesterday that 51 research projects spread over five priority funding areas have received the green light. Projects are slated to begin in October this year and will run for anywhere […]

In the latest issue of Idealog Pattrick Smellie takes a critical look at the history and current state of Callaghan Innovation. An excerpt (read in full here): Good luck, Callaghan Innovation. You’ll need it The idea behind Callaghan Innovation is good but the way it has burst forth has been slow, bureaucratic, and  politically compromised. According […]