Geoff Fergusson: Inventors left out in the cold

Economic Development Minister Trevor Mallard wants to open up the debate on innovation. He raised several important issues, but the most critical one was missing.

Solo inventors/innovators are the backbone of commercial ingenuity in New Zealand and around the world.

Trade Me and 42 Below were started in a bedroom and a garage, as did Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computers and countless other innovative projects. The value of independent product developers is beyond dispute, yet grass-roots innovation is actively discouraged.

University and other institutional research continues to receive the lion's share of available government research and development funding, yet they produce few commercial outcomes. The Foundation for Research Science and Technology (FoRST) received $639 million in the last budget. None of it will assist solo innovators.

The Marsden Fund received $39.1 million for a controversial set of research projects In contrast, the only three organisations that help inventors receive nothing.

Business enterprises can be assisted by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, but the department's guidelines dictate that money is only available at the intermediate or advanced stages of a project, not where it is needed most - at the beginning.

We have forgotten what made New Zealand prosper. To succeed in our remote location, our astute ancestors knew we had to exploit our natural climatic advantages and inventiveness.

They actively encouraged new ideas. Government research bodies like the DSIR were designed to support and complement individuals with a good idea.

After Rogernomics, research groups were split up and forced to compete, collaboration was reduced, free access to experts was ended, local manufacturing was hard hit, and inventiveness declined.

Now, other nations threaten to overtake us in industries we pioneered. We have lost our key driver - focused, motivated and continuous grass-roots innovation, encouraged by the state.

New Zealand briefly had an early-stage invention support organisation, the Invention Development Authority. From 1968 to around 1974 it operated successfully until closed by the Labour government, and several major commercial products, including the F&P Humidifier and the Hamilton Jet, benefited from early stage funding.

With well-motivated inventors it is easy to generate many new problem-solving product ideas, but you need robust advisory/evaluation services so that useful concepts are identified quickly. The Inventors Trust has been doing this for years.

Successful product development is partly a numbers game; the more clever practical ideas generated, the more commercial ones emerge. Of course, financially helping early-stage innovation involves cost and some risk but if the Government wants to see more substantial commercial successes, it should not hesitate.

With increasing urbanisation, leisure time and disposable income, many children have less interaction with the practical world. They seldom make or repair their own things and increasingly live life through cellphones, computers, TV and film. We need to be teach creative problem-solving skills from early childhood education onward.

Innovation is a renewable resource; it should be our key strategic advantage on the world stage.

Our planet urgently needs environmental, energy, social and political inventions.

For years there have been high-powered discussions on how to stimulate innovation, without ever getting to the root of the problem.

We must keep exploring ways to kick-start Kiwi innovation, but let's not kid ourselves that the system only needs a new coat of paint. First, start rebuilding the missing foundations.

* Geoff Fergusson is a Kiwi inventor, an evaluation specialist and manager of the Inventors Trust, New Zealand's largest network of innovators.