Speech to WaikatoLink Accelerating Innovation Through Collaboration Forum

Mark Weldon, Mark Stuart, Jim Bolger, David Bennett, Sir John Anderson, Guests of WaikatoLink.

First, can I congratulate Chris De Boer and WaikatoLink on the launch of the AngelLink Network.

People often talk about "picking winners". Governments are not always very good at picking winners. What we need to do is ensure that winners get appropriate assistance. Specialist angel investors bring their skills and expertise to sort out the best. But someone has to choose.

AngelLink brings together investors and science. It directly targets the challenge of bringing science to the market.  The networking of investment funds such as K1W1 set up by Stephen Tindall, Endeavour Capital headed by Neville Jordan, Angel Investment company Movac and Spark Box, comes at a crucial time when early stage capital is more scarce than it has been due to the global financial crisis.

On the Government's part, the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund will ensure $4 million funding through Seed Co Investment Fund.

I understand investments will be on the basis of up to $250,000 per investment, on a 1:1 matched funding basis.  It will be like TechNZ but for start-ups, linked to venture capital and angel investors.

This month, both the Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister and I have given speeches on priorities for the science sector. There are two key issues. The first is the shape of our overall science and research sector. The second is how we can encourage the migration of science from lab to market.

New Zealand has low levels of science investment. This is partly because of the nature of our economy, which is still largely pastoral. We also have large numbers of smaller enterprises, rather than a few large companies. Many smaller companies do not have R&D in a formal sense.

It is also worth noting we have to research across a range of disciplines, including geology, climate science and oceanography that are all of critical importance to New Zealand.

This has meant that the New Zealand Government is a comparatively larger investor into research, science and technology than other countries. Thousands of scientists directly benefit from the investment. It has been a key part of our comparative advantage.

What are the plans for the future? Two weeks ago, I set out my four key themes for Research, Science and Technology. In summary, these were:

• improving science migration from concept to business


• a more strategic approach funding and delivering public good enabling research


• more effective commercialisation of science, and


• simplifying the system.

These themes are not my own. They came from discussions and input from people right across the sector. At the conclusion of that speech, I invited all those who generated and used science to give me input into how we can turn these themes into actions. This evening is a valuable part of that.

Much of the scientific work in New Zealand is undertaken in the universities and in the CRIs. The universities in particular play a vital role in producing both new scientists and new science. Funding through PBRF and many of the funds administered by FORST helps support this fundamental science.

This leads to my second point this evening. We need to get the maximum benefit out of the fervour of ideas in universities. We cannot afford to let good ideas pass by.

The Chief Science Advisor, Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, spoke about this very issue at the Australia-New Zealand Leadership Forum last week. He noted that scientists and business needed to be exposed to each other much earlier in the research cycle. Science can offer so much more than assisting at a late stage in development. Transformational technologies are more likely to be generated if science can be brought to bear on the problem, rather than on a narrow solution.

The corollary of this is that scientists need to also be more focused on the potential outcomes of their research. They need to be more aware of the sorts of problems and challenges that business faces. This can only be achieved by getting science and the marketplace much closer together.

The Government also has an important role in this. The funding systems that we have must be simpler. They must also encourage the flow of science. Everyone responds to the incentives (and disincentives) of where their money comes from. A critical part of this is supporting increased collaboration throughout the system. Keeping science in silos does not help the cross-fertilisation of ideas.

The overall goal is to ensure that the generators of science, whether they be in universities, CRIs, or elsewhere, are not disadvantaged by getting their science into the marketplace.

We must also make sure that the users of science are encouraged to make best use of it. They have to know where to find it, and recognise the leverage that science can provide. They need to think and invest for the long term, not just for tomorrow.

The result is a win for everyone. Scientists benefit, because they get access to funding outside the finite resources of institution funds. Business benefits through improved competitiveness and growth. And New Zealand is the biggest winner through more and better jobs and an increased standard of living.

New Zealand has both the science and the entrepreneurship. We just need to better combine these two key ingredients. This Government is focused on growth.  The AngelLink will provide opportunities for new researchers. The entrepreneurship will provide the opportunity for New Zealand jobs, exports and for New Zealand growth.