Second time around for research funding

Shane Stuart, innovation manager for Priority One and Waikato University, said there was a new generation of people influencing the way innovation was practised in local businesses.

Priority One, with the University of Waikato and a group of eight Bay of Plenty hort-tech companies, has put in a bid for government funding to encourage regional research and innovation.

The partners are aiming to create an innovation lab, with the working title of the Centre for Design Innovation Technology and Horticulture.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) last November announced a second round of funding for the regional initiative, first announced in Budget 2015.

The latest application takes into account feedback from MBIE and local businesses, following a submission that failed in the first round of funding, early last year.

In particular, it focuses more specifically on horticulture-related research and innovation.

"Our bid is based in the hort-tech area, which is a significant sector for the region and New Zealand," said Priority One chief executive Nigel Tutt.

"The initiative allows local businesses to partner with us and Waikato University to obtain research and development outcomes that really need to happen."

Mr Tutt, who took up his role late last year, said he had been pleasantly surprised by the number of innovative companies in the area.

Shane Stuart, innovation manager for Priority One and Waikato University, said some of the ideas that had not been successful on the previous submission had morphed into the current innovation lab concept.

"In November the government issued another call for proposals, and based on that, the feedback we had from them last time and some discussion we had with local companies, we decided it was worth having another go," Mr Stuart said.

"The main difference is we've focused in more specifically on hort-tech."

That would include a wider range of horticultural activities in the sector than just the Bay of Plenty mainstay kiwifruit, he said.

Mr Stuart said there was a new generation of people working in the region who had a background in design, had studied and travelled abroad, and were influencing the way innovation was practised in local businesses.

At last year's Priority One annual general meeting, describing the learnings from the first submission, Mr Stuart said local businesses weren't so much interested in adding to research capability, as in being able to access skills and resources for design, innovation, and commercialising ideas.

The previous proposal was two-fold. One was for a Tauranga Research Institute for MedTech for the design, development and manufacture of medical devices, including implants and tools, based on advanced manufacturing such as TiDA/RAM's 3D titanium printing technologies.

The other, which is what the current proposal has largely evolved from, was for an innovation lab matching science and technical expertise in areas such as natural products, horticultural value chains and Maori land use.

That was supported by expressions of interest from 20-plus companies in the Western Bay of Plenty and 10-plus in the Waikato. A pilot had been ready to go involving Bluelab, Comvita, Locus Research, Plus Group, Waka Digital, and Waikato University.

The first funding opportunity hadn't worked out, said Mr Stuart.

"But it didn't change the fact that we had seen a shared vision for a new capability here with world-class design and innovation skills, to build on our strengths and build something of global quality."

Key criteria for regional research funding includes:

* Established and maintained as private or private not-for-profit organisations.

* Must perform relevant research in support of industry-led efforts to increase its R&D intensity.

* Should develop its own in-house expertise, but also facilitate and integrate researchers from other institutions.

* Bring new research activity into the regions, whilst meeting industry demand.