Thesis to business – banking on brainpower
massey-university
Fri Oct 16 2009 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Thesis to business – banking on brainpower
Friday, 16 October 2009, 3:56 pm
Press Release: Massey University
Friday, October 16, 2009
Thesis to business – banking on brainpower
A new strategy aimed at converting more brilliant research ideas into commercial ventures was launched yesterday at the Albany campus.
A groundbreaking partnership between the University and two well-established commercial organisations, the Bio Commerce Centre in Manawatu and the e-centre in Albany, was announced last month. The aim is to have high throughput, with Massey providing leading, innovative research and then quickly handing over the commercialization process to the Bio Commerce Centre and the e-centre.
Opening the launch involving about 80 business and industrial leaders from the Auckland region, Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey said commercialisation was in the University's DNA. "We need to continue our tradition of getting research into the market place.” Mr Maharey said Massey’s invigorated new approach backed the Government’s aim of boosting the economy in order to lift New Zealand’s standard of living.
“We know that as a country we have to earn more if we are to pay for infrastructure and services befitting a first-world country. As a university we are embracing that challenge and doing our utmost to get our research to markets more quickly. Examples of our innovations generating economic success are found across the spectrum and throughout our history – from the recent marketing of the Omega 3 advanced nutritional products to perhaps the first globally-relevant Massey commercialisation, the development of the Perendale sheep in 1956.”
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Steve Corbett, chief executive of the e-centre – a business incubator based at the campus that nurtures and grows entrepreneurial technology companies, said the strategy would open the door for more engagement between the business and technology sectors and researchers across the University’s many disciplines. He gave examples of innovative business success stories channelled through the e-centre, such as CleanFlow, a software-based water and waste management system developed by engineering graduates and now operating in 22 countries.
Guest speaker Chris Pescott, managing director of Perceptive and a finalist in the 2009 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of Year, is a prime example of what the e-centre aspires to doing more of.
Mr Pescott worked with the e-centre to transform his Master of Business Studies thesis into what is one of New Zealand's most successful Marketing Agency companies.
Colin Roberts, principal engineer with DHI New Zealand, a global consulting and research organisation advancing technological developments in water, environment and health, which originated in Denmark, spoke on the Danish approach to uniting the best research brains with business and commercial movers and shakers. It is a model he and Mr Corbett believe could be successfully deployed in New Zealand.
ENDS
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