Wayne Mapp talks about innovation and commercialisation

Update: The text of Wayne Mapp’s speech has now been posted on the Beehive web site.

Dr Wayne Mapp is the Minister of Science, Research and Technology, as well as an Associate Minister of Economic Development and Tertiary Education. The synergy between these portfolios mean that Dr Mapp should be in a good position to encourage the various parts of the innovation sector to work together to spur economic growth.

Dr Mapp spoke at a New Zealand Venture Capital Association and Angel Association gathering last week at NZX, discussing the importance of early-stage investment. He believes that the current innovation system is overly complex, and that simplification will allow the system to “power up” and attain critical mass. He says that science is at the forefront of the government’s growth strategy, and to expect a number of announcements in the coming months in this area.

Key points:

Government priorities for $750m spent on science:

• Primary sector – but it’s hard to get high growth out of the agricultural sector
• CRI’s
  • They need clearer missions
  • CRI funding needs to be more sustainable
  • The CRI’s should have a clearer sense of accountability to the sectors they serve
• Marsden fund – fundamental science
• Health Research Council
• TechNZ – $50m – there is a huge opportunity to upgrade the brand of TechNZ and to make it the principle vehicle of government funding of business in science

A key challenge is to provide a clear architecture of the linkages between TechNZ, NZVIF and NZTE.

The government is commited to making the transformational decisions that will make that $750m [in science] expenditure more effective, easier to access, and more valuable to our country. The ultimate goal is to be able to say that this [NZ] is the place to do business, this is the place of innovation, this is the place of growth for the future.

Listen to or download the audio: