FRSTNews
March 2008

From the chief executive

After a great deal of research and months of backroom work, I am delighted that we have launched the Foundation’s new website, designed with you, our clients, stakeholders and public, in mind.

Some websites are little more than a shop window for an organisation. The Foundation website is an important business tool for those seeking funding, and I know from your feedback it hasn’t been properly meeting the needs of our stakeholders.

That’s why we’ve put real focus on the customer in developing the new website. We have put the navigation and content through its paces during several workshops with our diverse stakeholder groups: business people, academics, researchers, students and public sector workers.

The new website looks different – we have discarded the old grey and gone for a modern, cleaner look. And we have made our processes more visual. All our schemes and portfolios now have graphical timelines that take you through the application process step-by-step.

But what really matters in websites is content, and we hope you find the content on the new website more concise, consistent and easier to understand.

I know many people are short of time. Personally, it feels like there is more and more to do but the days aren’t getting any longer.

With that in mind, we put a real focus on making it easier to find the information you need – both through the structure, and the search functions: a normal website search, which is streets ahead of the old website, and quick searches that bring up information on our investment areas and the funding available.

I think what we have is a solid platform for moving forward. This isn’t a dusty book on a shelf and we want to continually improve it, and I urge you to pass on your feedback on what works and what doesn’t.

I also want to alert you to our moves towards the second phase of the Stable Funding Environment initiative. There is a separate item in this FRST? News on that.

Best wishes

Murray Bain

Moving to phase two of the Stable Funding Environment

The Foundation is preparing to move to the second phase of the Government’s Stable Funding Environment initiative. When announced in 2006, it was heralded as being for two years in its initial format, before moving to a second, enduring phase.

The Minister of Research, Science and Technology, Pete Hodgson, the Foundation, and the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology have been giving careful consideration to phase two. We propose to conduct extensive consultations, starting with the release of a consultation document at the beginning of April.

The initiative involved a change from the previous fully contested investment contracts to a mixture of contestable and negotiated contracts for public good science investments.

Phase one, involving some 30 per cent of the relevant investments, began with the 2006-07 Investment Round and is continuing with the current 2007-08 round, so the changes that are made will need to be put in place by July 1.

Erica Nicholls joins Foundation as Group Manager Investments

Erica Nicholls has joined the Foundation as Group Manager Investments. In this role Erica heads the team primarily responsible for the management of our relationships with research organisations and business clients.

Before joining us, Erica was Operational Director with the National Audit Office in London. She is a Chartered Accountant with a Bachelor in Business Administration and an MBA from Massey University.

Her background has given Erica experience managing operational areas with a technical focus while creating an environment where working collaboratively with clients, without being prepared to compromise standards, is critical. That has parallels with our own environment, where her experience will be invaluable.

For example, while with the National Audit Office, Erica worked closely with the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills as well as the Department of Children, Schools and Families.

“I was working with funding agencies mainly for higher education,” she says. “They struggle with similar issues that we struggle with at the Foundation, such as how to add value for people and to the economy, as well as the operational issues including the timing of getting money out the door.”

Erica brings proven leadership, client and stakeholder management experience as well as a track record in business process improvement, people development and building high performance teams. We are confident you will enjoy working with her.

Global Expert? – Proven Service at the Leading Edge

Companies that use the Foundation’s Global Expert service are overwhelmingly satisfied with the results, a survey has found.

Global Expert is a fast, confidential service, provided by the Foundation that locates, pre-screens and qualifies international experts to help New Zealand companies solve their most challenging problems.

The Foundation conducted a survey late in 2007 with 39 clients as part of Global Expert’s commitment to ensuring the highest possible levels of service.

The survey results found that companies are very pleased with the level of service provided, with 98% of respondents being ‘very satisfied’ or ’satisfied’ with the results. Many are recommending the Global Expert service to others.

Most companies commented that without using the service, they would have spent more time and money using existing human resources to try to solve the problems themselves.

For several, the project outcomes have resulted in companies targeting new markets and improving their R&D capabilities, indicating expansion and growth. Client feedback highlighted the speed of the service as one of its key advantages, along with its ability to open doors and to give companies a new take on what they are doing.

Global Expert puts New Zealand companies in touch with a network of over 20,000 worldwide experts to help solve their most challenging problems. It had been running for 12 months when the survey was undertaken.

Global Expert Specialists are dedicated to working with you to find the best expert to solve your most challenging problems.

Do you have a complex problem needing a solution?

Contact us today: 0800 Get Expert or email: globalexpert@frst.govt.nz

Foundation staff visit Antarctica?

Antarctica is the last place you would expect to see an international rugby match – and one that features in the Guinness Book of Records to boot – but Foundation Strategy Manager Ruth Berry and Group Manager Investment Strategy David Johns got a front row view during a recent four day trip to the ice.

Both Ruth and David work closely with Antarctic New Zealand, having been instrumental in setting up a joint process between it and the Foundation, as well as securing extra funding for Antarctic research. They received the coveted invitation (there are no self invites to this part of the world) in October last year and that’s when the planning began, including a rigorous medical testing process.

On reaching Christchurch they were issued with “about 14 kilos of outdoor clothing” for their time on the ice. However, when they arrived at Scott Base, Ruth says, the weather was actually quite mild, just a cool minus three.

Ruth and David made the most of their short trip with an itinerary that included attending Sir Edmund Hillary’s memorial service, climbing to the top of Observation Hill, meeting the science teams onsite including at the atmospheric research centre at Arrival Heights, getting up close and personal with the wildlife and, Ruth’s favourite, checking out the Dry Valleys.

“On one of the days we went on a 12 hour helicopter tour of Antarctica and visited the Dry Valleys. This is Antarctica’s desert where the glaciers just stop and there are sheer walls of ice which are completely quiet."

But to that other highlight, the rugby match – it’s an annual event held between the US and New Zealand. Why does that rate a mention in the Guinness Book of Records? Well it seems the Kiwis have the longest winning streak of any international rugby match – an impressive 51 victories. This year’s score was a respectable 12-0, to the Kiwis of course.

Counting down to MacDiarmid Awards

New Zealand researchers entering this year’s MacDiarmid Young Scientists of the Year Awards will have their work reviewed by a judging panel that brings together top international brainpower across a range of scientific and technology disciplines.

Many of the judges are leaders in their field and are highly regarded in the global scientific community.

The awards are decided through a rigorous three-stage process culminating in finalists presenting their research to a panel of judges. This year’s panel is: Richard Faull, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Auckland; Carolyn Burns, Professor of Zoology at the University of Otago; Peter Jackson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Engineering) at the University of Canterbury and Charles Daugherty, Assistant Vice-Chancellor of Research at Victoria University of Wellington.

Awards host, the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, with principal sponsor Fisher & Paykel Appliances, acknowledge the privilege of attracting such high calibre expertise in the quest to find New Zealand’s top young scientists and researchers.

Entries for the prestigious awards close on March 28, with the gala dinner and presentation to winners being held in Auckland on Thursday 14 August. Entry numbers are already looking to match previous years, as Foundation staff tour the country making presentations to university faculties to promote the awards.

For last year’s winner, Jessie Jacobsen, the awards promoted a new level of thinking: “It makes you step back and think about what you are doing and why it’s important. It’s a challenge to clearly and simply explain your work but it really makes you focus on your overall aims.”

More information.

Booming into international cinemas

As an 11 year old, Matthew Simmons had a small-time business fixing stereo speakers. He cycled around radio shops asking for old and broken equipment and quickly gained a reputation for an ability to fix items previously deemed beyond repair.

Now, the 36 year old Christchurch entrepreneur has his revolutionary acoustic technology installed in cinemas throughout the world. His latest coup is a deal to supply sound systems to motion picture imaging giant Kodak for its Los Angeles test studio.

This is no ordinary sound system. The Hypacoustic™ system is the result of years of research and development, some of it helped with $73,000 of investment support from the Foundation.

"We went back to basics to analyse what happens in sound reproduction, learning how to trick the mind into believing the film is reality, so the study was more about the psychology of sound," says Mr Simmons.

One of the major discoveries of the Hypacoustic research was that around 70 per cent of the emotional content of any sound event is transmitted in the first one to five milliseconds.

"We discovered that the initial burst of sound is the one which creates tingles on the back of the spine and provokes a subconscious response. Traditional cinema theatre speakers, however, distort most in that initial sound so the emotive response wasn’t being relayed," he says.

Learning how the ear and mind work together provided important information for Hypacoustic to design and build speaker systems that allow the brain to believe the film environment is real.

"Existing cinema speaker technology was archaic and locked in tradition. There have been major developments in materials, magnets and acoustics, so we decided to use these new technologies with our psycho-acoustic research to create a marketable point of difference to home theatre for the cinema industry," says Julie Simmons.

Mr Simmons says the Foundation support was pivotal: “As a result, the company now has greater capability which is providing a springboard into other product development.”

Foundation Senior Business Manager Carmel Howley says Hypacoustic leads by example with its focused approach to technology and research and development using it to connect to world markets.

"It is quite an amazing company which is selling its sound systems to studios throughout the world. Hypacoustic is already a great business, having developed unique expertise and has significant growth potential," she says.

Hypacoustic equipment is being progressively installed in cinemas throughout New Zealand and Australia, and discussions are underway with European operators. Negotiations with some of the world’s biggest sound and acoustic producers for co-branding arrangements are also being completed.

New funding for partnerships with institutions in Europe

Last year, the Minister of Research, Science and Technology went to Brussels and announced the creation of funding to assist the New Zealand research, science and technology sector to make the most of the opportunities provided by the new International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES) recently introduced by the European Commission under the "People Specific Programme" of FP7.

The Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MoRST) is making available up to $300,000 to fund the mobility costs of New Zealand research organisation staff by establishing the NZ-EU IRSES Counterpart Fund.

Those NZ research organisations included within a proposal for collaboration where their European partners (minimum of two) are successful in attaining funding from the European IRSES Fund will be eligible to apply for funding from the Counterpart Fund. MoRST will also require NZ research organisations interested in receiving mobility funding to register the joint proposal with MoRST, as well as provide a document outlining the scope of the collaboration as well as a budget for the expenses likely to be incurred through staff exchange before the European Commission's deadline.

The IRSES will enable New Zealand research organisations to establish or enhance strategic partnerships with their counterparts in Europe and to exchange significant numbers of staff with these institutions. As well as being a valuable scheme in itself it also provides an opportunity for New Zealand organisations to develop their European relationships with a view to increasing their participation in the ten research themes under the "Cooperation Specific Programme" of FP7.

The European Commission’s call for IRSES proposals opened on 30 November 2007 and closes in late March 2008. Further information about the IRSES and assistance with proposals is available from FRENZ (the platform to Facilitate Research cooperation between Europe and New Zealand) by contacting Carole Glynn at carole.glynn@frenz.org.nz. If you would like to register your joint proposal with MoRST the contact is Corey Wallace, corey.wallace@morst.govt.nz.

New protection weapon for NZ growers

Before spraying:

After spraying:

Photos: Sean Lange, Agrivet Services

A new residue-free spray has been developed by Hawke’s Bay company Post-Harvest Solutions to protect fruit and vegetable crops against rot and infection when bad weather strikes before harvest.

It has the potential to safeguard millions of dollars of horticultural and agricultural export earnings. The product leaves no residue so, unlike conventional sprays, can be used right up to harvest.

The Foundation for Research, Science and Technology provided investment funding to help Post-Harvest Solutions create the spray, which could be available commercially once development is completed and registration approved.

The product is a new formulation of an existing sanitation treatment, which has already proven its worth as post-harvest protection for fruit and vegetables against rots and infection during storage and shipment.

The brain behind the new oxidant product is Post-Harvest’s Managing Director and water engineer Paul Midgley who joined with New Zealand research and product development company Elliott Technologies to develop the protective, pre-harvest spray.

Mr Midgley says the altered formula quickly converts back to its natural state of commonly occurring elements, leaving no residues or carryover on the crop.

Post-Harvest is targeting New Zealand’s rapidly growing grape production where losses from sour rot and Botrytis can be catastrophic if the weather turns foul in the few weeks before harvest.

"It is difficult to control Botrytis once the berries start to size and the bunches close. When the product is sprayed before bunch closure it destroys existing disease spores on foliage and decaying flower parts inside the bunch, protecting all the grapes and not just those on the outside where sprays would normally settle," says Mr Midgley.

Independent trials in various Hawke’s Bay vineyards were carried out last season by horticultural and agricultural research company Geelen Research, now Agrivet Services Limited.

Project biologist Sean Lange says testing was done in vineyards treated with the Post Harvest formulation and on grapes incubated in laboratory conditions that encouraged Botrytis rot by intensifying those conditions that may occur in the field. The new product proved effective when sprayed in the field prior to harvest, he says.

"Standards are becoming more stringent so products that are effective in controlling diseases and rots without leaving residues certainly fill an important market gap," says Mr Lange.

Foundation’s Central Regional Manager, Chris Litten, expects rapid payback on the investment in Post-Harvest’s research and development.

"The New Zealand economy suffers significantly when bad weather destroys or reduces volumes from export crops and anything that provides a safeguard against those losses will make a major difference.

"But it is not only the crop protection advantages, this new formula has the potential to help growers more quickly gain an environmentally superior edge over competitors and maintain a global reputation as suppliers of high quality, clean produce," says Dr Litten.

Post-Harvest says the reconfiguration of the technology for pre-harvest use would not have been undertaken without Foundation support and Mr Midgley is hoping the new product will be formally registered in 2008.

He says export potential for the technology is massive but admits the approval process, involving clearance for use in lucrative United States and European markets, is daunting. For that reason Post-Harvest will consider targeting Australia before expanding globally.