In 2009 HERA put a proposal to Government to work with companies to transition them to being innovative and match fit for a competitive export market. While the proposal was not successful, HERA took up the challenge in establishing the Above Ground Geothermal and Allied Technologies (AGGAT) programme which is part funded by MBIE, and…
Being in New Zealand, it is easy to sometimes think that we are alone in the world – cut off from the mainstream and doing things our own way. And to some extent that is true, we are geographically isolated, we don’t have a multitude of large corporations driving innovation and pulling our smaller companies…
October saw Minister Steven Joyce in overdrive on Innovation Policy releases. First as Minister for Science and Innovation, he launched the National Statement of Science Investment 2015-2025 and a little bit later, as the Minister for Economic Development, he also launched the “Building Innovation” Chapter of the 2015 Business Growth Agenda. Both documents have a…
The media has been full of the news that Fullers ferries are adding two additional 34 metre, 360-seat ferries to their fleet. More importantly, they are having the vessels built by Q-West boat builders in Whanganui. The total value of the order is $16 Million. Q-West built Fuller’s existing Te Kotuku high speed catamaran that…
Auckland University of Technology mechanical engineering final year project HERA is proud to award the 2015 HEERF engineering prize to Maxine Aldred from Auckland University of Technology’s (AUT) engineering school for her project on alleviating the troubles of sleep apnoea. A respiratory condition where a person will experience a cessation of breathing while asleep due to…
The HERA session offered a perspective on the future prospects of our industry which was capped off by a panel discussion were business journalist Rod Oram facilitated a discussion between attendees and a panel of HERA Executive Members. HERA was gratified to see that many leaders of our industry participated and are recognising the need…
Metals Week 2015 was held at the Aotea Centre Auckland 1st – 4th September. In 2014, The Metals New Zealand Executive had the idea to create a significant and overarching event involving as many member associations as possible to: Continue to deliver conferences to inform and inspire Broaden industry networking opportunities Deliver efficiencies in facility…
I have just come back from a study tour to Germany with the theme “Factory of the Future”. This gave me a fantastic insight into what is going on in Germany in future focused research in the metals-based manufacturing industry. The trip to Germany was sponsored by FRIENZ (Facilitating Research and Innovation co-operation between Europe…
We have an image problem. In experimental evolution, Drosophila (the humble fruit fly) is often used to demonstrate evolutionary processes. It is used because genetic changes for the fruit fly can be observed very quickly in response to natural selection. In business, the equivalent of the fruit fly is the IT or information technology company,…
Budget 2015/16 hit the road on the 21st of May and I am probably the last to comment. But I don’t think the timing of this comment matters as we see no change in policy other than the usual ‘steady as we go’ when it comes to changing innovation behaviour of our metals-based manufacturing sector.…
When the low enthalpy power generation research programme was launched about 4 years ago by the Industry Development division at HERA, a vision existed of how it might look like in the future and what potential it could hold for our future metals industry. The vision was to have a support platform for engaged stakeholders…
As a substantial player in the agricultural space, New Zealand lurches from issues with droughts to floods to kiwifruit vine disease, the ever present danger of importing fruit flies to the proclivities of the global price for milk solids that has seen the Fonterra forecast payout per kilogramme of milk solids drop to a jarring…