Govt invests $92 million in high-tech innovation

The Government is injecting $92 million into research that will help grow the high-tech manufacturing sector in New Zealand, Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce announced today.

This funding for high value manufacturing and services research is the second tranche of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s 2012 science investment round.

Over the next six years the Government will invest in 31 projects at universities, Crown Research Institutes and private research organisations. These research investments complement the $115 million a year the Government spends directly on R&D co-funding in New Zealand companies.

“The projects that are being funded have significant export potential. Our top ten high-tech companies export $4 billion of product a year but we need more businesses to grow to this size,” Mr Joyce says.

The projects range from medical technologies like early cancer-detection technology and smart gels to stop bleeding, to novel materials like nano-technology insulation.

“Growing innovation in New Zealand is vital to creating a better performing economy and improving our standard of living,” Mr Joyce says.

“New Zealand businesses need to lift their spending on R&D and I am pleased to see that almost half of these successful research projects are co-funded by the firms that will directly benefit from the work.”

The 31 successful research projects resulted from a contestable process where research organisations bid for available funding. All proposals were reviewed by independent experts, with the successful applicants selected by MBIE’s Science Board.

Last month the Government announced an investment of $133 million over six years in an array of other science research areas in the first tranche of the 2012 science investment round.

For more information on all successful research projects go to:
http://www.msi.govt.nz/get-funded/research-organisations/2012-investment-round/