Greg Cross: Kiwi research excellence at risk

Greg Cross.

Opinion

World leaders disappearing fast and if we don’t act, the franchises they created will go with them, writes Greg Cross

The world as we know it is changing fast and the speed of that change is going to keep accelerating. Our lives are lived continuously online from a device we carry in our pocket that didn't exist 10 years ago using software apps that weren't even thought of.

We are on the verge of the wearable device era and the "internet of things", which will be another massive change in the way we are connected to one another.

In New Zealand we have always punched above our weight in many things including world-leading research from our best, brightest people. Sir Ernest Rutherford, Sir Paul Callaghan and Professor John Boys, to name just a few.

Not to be too insensitive but two of them are no longer with us and one is in the process of retiring from a hugely successful career doing world-leading research in wireless power.

Our world-leading researchers are disappearing quickly and if we are not very deliberate the franchises they created will disappear with them. At a time when we are trying to reinvent our economy based on our ability to think, this is a precarious situation for New Zealand.

I know we have a thriving software industry but with all due respect it may generate some largish companies but will not create broad, valuable economic ecosystems that have the potential to create industries. The problem is simple - our best and brightest students can now aspire to learn anywhere in the world, something that is going to get even easier in the next 10 years with online education.

They will get absorbed into research programmes or commercialisation ecosystems in places like Silicon Valley or an increasing number of locations around the world where the funding platforms are so far ahead of what we have here that we simply aren't in the same ballpark any more.

So if we don't protect what we have now they may be gone forever. Extinct like the moa. What can we do?

We probably have a maximum of four to five (I would love it if there were more) absolutely world-leading researchers and research programmes. To keep them going we will need to:

• Consciously focus our research spending to maintain leadership.

• Attract the best talent from all over the world to bolster these programmes and provide strong succession.

• Focus on building a commercialisation ecosystem around these research programmes to build valuable companies via funding, partnerships and talent.

For the past seven years I have been working with my co-founder to build a wireless power technology company built on top of a world- leading patent portfolio in wireless power, which is the result of 20-plus years of research at the University of Auckland, by Professor Boys and his team.

We have achieved many firsts and validated our success with some of the leading companies in the world - Samsung, Texas Instruments, TE Connectivity and many others.

We are contributing our IP to the emerging industry standards, we have the opportunity to build a long-term wireless power ecosystem and industry in New Zealand.

This has all happened despite the fact that the university and Professor Boys have built their entire research programme and IP portfolio the old-fashioned way with commercial research agreements with international companies.

It's staggering to think they have done this with next to no government funding.

How can it be that with hundreds of millions of dollars of research funding available every year little has come their way?

Whether we get to be that industry platform for New Zealand depends on what happens next. I would hate PowerbyProxi to vanish from New Zealand. I have no doubt New Zealanders will continue to excel all over the world but it will not be to the direct benefit of our economy and it won't create valuable industries in New Zealand.

One thing I do know for sure. If we don't start this debate now it will be too late.

- Greg Cross is chief executive and co-founder of PowerbyProxi