Valentine’s Day may have come and gone but a virtual meet-up has put the wheels in motion for another exciting year of collaboration between Ara | Te Pūkenga, Ministry of Awesome (MOA) and startup founders from across Aotearoa.

Te Ōhaka matchmaking night brought together the vast pool of talent to be found in Ara’s student body and academic faculties, with at least 10 entrepreneurs connected with MOA-affiliated startup and incubator programmes.

All have a part to play in the development and growth of game-changing ideas across a range of sectors from food waste technology and animal wellbeing to beauty, healthcare systems and software innovations in travel and HR sectors. All have the potential to be commercially important.

Department of Business and Digital Technologies Principal Academic Staff member David Weir said the date with startups was a great start for 2023. "This was an excellent opportunity to give an overview of how departments within Ara - from engineering to ICT, applied sciences, business and creative industries - have students ready and willing to take on capstone projects for start-ups," he said.

For Ara, the collaboration happens through two programmes.

‘Springboard’ enables a start-up with a big project to engage a student (or two) seeking real-world experience in innovation. Each student is responsible for working between 100 and 300 hours on a key project to satisfy their degree or diploma requirements, so the connection works brilliantly both ways.

‘Research Hub’ gives start-ups the chance to call on the expertise of Ara’s staff, perhaps for developing a method, creating a process or generating valuable intellectual property. Involving 300+ hours of work for one or more faculty, the projects have the potential to result in publication, presentation or another research output.

Zach Warder-Gabaldon, Head of Programmes at Ministry of Awesome, says the opportunities provide a win-win for everyone.

"We're connecting Ara students and faculty with real-world opportunities to play a role in the success of high-growth startups at Te Ōhaka," Warder-Gabaldon said. "The Research Hub programme pairs Ara faculty with a startup to conduct critical R&D that is meaningful academically and accelerates the company's agenda. Students in the Springboard programme are paired with startups to work on a 'capstone project' that is meaningful to these young companies with ambitious ideas and limited teams while helping students earn their diploma or degree."

Weir said it was invaluable having Caroline Thalund, CEO and founder of Sustainability 360, on the call to share her experience of working with more than a dozen Ara capstone students in recent years. The company has created an online tool to help business track and report sustainability initiatives.

"Many of our ICT students have had specific projects working on software development and testing for the platform and have increased their skill base and learned much from being embedded with the team at S360," he said. "Currently S360 has two graduates working for them, while others have used their experience with S360 to springboard into employment with other companies."

Weir added the Sustainability 360 story is just one of many.

He said 83% of Ara’s ICT students had work offers by the time their final semester projects were completed last year -a testament to the quality of work achieved and, in many cases, the relationships formed with project sponsors.

Warder-Gabaldon agrees it’s a proven formula.

"Students get experience, faculty pursue research with real-world applications, and start-ups gain access to a bright, engaged talent pool that helps them solve problems better and grow faster," he said, adding that it helps contribute to Christchurch’s reputation.

"Having an engaged startup ecosystem integrating with Christchurch Ōtautahi's tertiary programmes is why Christchurch was recently named the fastest growing startup ecosystem in the world by Startup Blink’s 2022 Global StartUp Ecosystem index. Ara’s collaboration with Ministry of Awesome at Te Ōhaka demonstrates that this city is on a mission to play on the world stage."

With matchmaking for the 2023 cohort under way now, sparks are once again sure to fly.

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