By SIMON COLLINS
New Zealand will get a chance to showcase its technological edge when Wellington hosts the world research and development management conference next month.
It will be the first time the annual conference has been held in the Southern Hemisphere and it is expected to attract 200 people - two-thirds of them from overseas.
Prime Minister Helen Clark will open the event at Te Papa museum on February 7.
An organiser, Victoria University lecturer Sally Davenport, said a conference theme would be using joint public and private sector research projects to get the maximum potential from limited research budgets.
It was our chance to show New Zealand's progress and interact with the latest thinking elsewhere.
Professor Georges Haour, from the IMD international management school in Lausanne, will speak about successful "science parks" overseas, where businesses set up alongside research institutes and universities for top returns from publicly funded research.
Dr Davenport said research centres at Ruakura, in Hamilton; Palmerston North; Gracefield, in Lower Hutt; and Christchurch had the basis for such collaborative clusters.
"They are there despite what's happening rather than because of it," she said. "We don't nurture them."
Ron Johnston, of the Australian Centre for Innovation and International Competitiveness in Sydney, will outline "essential elements" for managing knowledge in the new economy.
Taiwanese academics will explain how Taiwan and Japan have built science parks, "picked winners" and fostered their success.
French and New Zealand speakers will talk about biotechnology, German and NZ writers will suggest ways to improve innovation in NZ manufacturing, and Israeli experts will sketch the economic impact of Israel's industrial research and development policy.
Technological showcase in Wellington
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.