Bay companies square off in research contest

Lain Jager, CEO of Zespri.

Zespri and Comvita will face off in their category as finalists for this year's KiwiNet Research Commercialisation Awards, designed to celebrate commercialisation success within New Zealand's universities and Crown research institutes.

The two Bay of Plenty-based companies are finalists in the Minter Ellison Rudd Watts & Business Partnership category, with the Biopolymer Network and Barnes Plastics, cited for developing ZealaFoam - a sustainable alternative to polystyrene.

Comvita made the finals for its work in accelerating innovation by promoting research projects and producing commercially relevant outcomes, while Zespri has been cited for its partnership with Plant & Food Research in developing the science and industry response to the Psa-V outbreak.

"The 2015 Awards have uncovered more inspiring success stories of talented researchers pushing business to the frontiers of high-tech innovation," said KiwiNet general manager Dr Bram Smith.

"These unsung heroes of the research community are quietly making an enormous contribution to business innovation across a diverse range of sectors. Their work is delivering a new wave of products, services and processes that help to underpin strong economic growth in New Zealand built on cutting-edge innovation."

The Kiwi Innovation Network (KiwiNet) is a consortium of 15 universities, Crown research institutes and a Crown entity, and was established to boost commercial outcomes from publicly funded research.

Comvita's Innovation team is co-located at the Institute for Innovation in Biotechnology at the University of Auckland and has been collaborating on research projects with the different departments at the university for the past five years. KiwiNet said the partnership was a prime example of the triple helix model of university, industry and government collaboration.

Zespri has for a long time been the largest client of Plant & Food Research, investing several million into R&D annually. Rapid research played an important role in supporting Zespri's management of the pathogen and gave confidence to international marketplaces not to restrict market access, said KiwiNet.

All finalists will deliver a presentation in the final stage of judging on June 17 in Auckland.