Knowledge & technology transfer
Discussing research at a farmer field day. Image - Malcolm McLeod
Goal: Landcare Research adds value to the New Zealand economy through commercially viable products and services and their transfer to partners in the private sector.
Goal: Landcare Research's key stakeholders value highly their involvement in the direction and resourcing of our research, knowledge transfer from our work, and also the trusted advice and constructive engagement they receive from our people.
Technology and knowledge transfer are core activities that support development of effective government policy; improve the environmental and economic performance of government agencies, business and industry; and engage and inform the community. We engage with our stakeholders across many levels of their organisations and through participation on advisory groups. At times, we second staff to assist with development of specific capabilities and to help implement research and policy development. We use our expertise to support the New Zealand and China Environmental Cooperation Agreement (management of invasive alien species and biodiversity protection) and New Zealand’s Official Development Assistance Programme in Pacific Island Countries. Our activities are focused on collaborative research and capability-building, not consultancy projects.
We draw on KiwiNet commercialisation expertise and appropriate mentors to help guide the innovation–investor– commercialisation process for new technologies and services. Our subsidiary company Enviro-Mark Solutions is a commercial entity that provides a range of environmental certification services in New Zealand, Australia, Chile and the UK. We also have several specialist laboratories that offer feebased services to a range of clients (mostly in government or local government) in addition to supporting our own research programmes.
All these commercial activities and services are aligned to our Core Purpose.
Key performance indicators
- MBIE’s external stakeholder survey found that 94% of respondents for Landcare Research had adopted knowledge or technology from Landcare Research in the past three years (95% in 2013; 97% in 2012).
- 88% of respondents are satisfi ed with their experience of accessing knowledge or technology from Landcare Research (92% in 2013; 93% in 2012).
| For the year ended 30 June: | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge Transfer | ||||
| New or improved products, processes & services | 80 | 73 | 64 | 401 |
| Contract reports | 190 | 144 | 141 | 1622 |
| Publications on technical information & research results | 374 | 371 | 204 | 402 |
| Science presentations to stakeholders & community groups | 271 | 259 | 229 | 215 |
| Staff invited to participate in stakeholder meetings or workshops | 281 | 259 | 236 | 2073 |
| Landcare Research staff invited onto national advisory groups | 38 | 61 | 60 | 61 |
| Business Development & Commercialisation | ||||
| Patents granted | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Licensing arrangements | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Joint ventures | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| Spinoff companies formed | 0 | 0 | 14 | 15 |
1 We are steadily developing open access web portals and online information systems that give users direct access to multiple data resources (see page 44). We have also developed a number of scenario modelling and decision support systems. Our strategy is to better enable stakeholders and hence reduce their dependence on us for minor services and technological interventions
2 In addition, we provided a further 169 progress reports and 42 other reports
3 27 of which were overseas
4 carboNZero Holdings commenced operating as our fully-owned subsidiary company on 1 July 2012
5 On 1 July 2013, carboNZero Holdings and the Enviro-Mark Programme were merged to become Enviro-Mark Solutions Limited