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New initiatives

Improving long-term certainty of funding

To provide long-term certainty of funding in areas of critical importance to New Zealand, we developed a strategy for establishing research platforms, which are large-scale, long-term investments in research and development in areas of national significance. This is part of the ‘stable funding’ policy initiative.

Read about stable funding for research (PDF; 123kb).

In April 2009, the Foundation began consulting on principles to guide us in developing research platforms and ensuring accountability, having transparent decision making, collaborating effectively, and getting results that are relevant and beneficial to New Zealand.

We selected research on natural hazards as a pilot research platform for two reasons:

  • natural hazards is an area of fundamental importance to New Zealand’s future stability
  • the existing National Civil Defence Emergency Management Strategy  provides clear direction for research investments.

Read the Minister of Research, Science and Technology’s press release on the launch Natural Hazards Research Platform. 

CRI Taskforce

The Crown Research Institute (CRI) Taskforce reported in February 2010 on 'How to enhance the value of New Zealand’s investment in CRIs'. The Government announced its response to the CRI Taskforce report on 29 March 2010, endorsing the overall intent of the report.

The following plan details how government will implement the CRI Taskforce recommendations. For a quick overview of the proposed system changes please see this presentation.

More information is available on the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology website.

New business R&D products (TechNZ)

In the May 2010 Budget, the Government announced $234m in support for business R&D to help grow the economy. The Foundation is currently developing two new business assistance products—a technology development grant for R&D intensive firms and a technology voucher to link businesses with research organisations.

Read the Questions and Answers to learn more about the two new products.

Read our fact sheet (PDF; 32kb) with more details on the two new TechNZ investment products.