After Two Decades of Wasted Opportunity Government is Starting to Get It Right
This morning’s announcement from Government on research and innovation are the first signs for two decades that the
fundamental problem is being tackled in a comprehensive manner. That problem is the ability of our private sector to
initiate, perform or commission and utilise research in pursuit of market opportunities.
For far too long the focus of our supposedly industrial research has been on academic elegance, and not fitness for the
purpose of building new export companies or morphing old companies into newer and more competitive forms.
“It has been frustrating that it has taken successive governments so long to respond to the engineering profession and
others advocating for a paradigm shift” said Dr Andrew Cleland, Chief Executive of IPENZ “All credit to this government
for getting on with the job in a sensible and pragmatic manner”.
A key to the success of the changes is shifting the decisions about research topics from Government committees to the
private sector. New Zealand will require new skills in industry, and strong commercial education for those with
science-based backgrounds. Engineering schools are increasingly producing the right types of graduate.
ENDS