Hub receives significant financial boost

MEDIA RELEASE

June 10, 2013

Hub receives significant financial boost

The Health Innovation Hub is delighted to announce it will receive $750,000 in government funding to invest in research towards developing business ideas.

Dr Frances Guyett, NZ Health Innovation Hub Chief Executive, says the funds will provide a significant financial boost to assist in the commercialisation of ideas.

“We are very pleased to have been allocated this funding from the Government’s Pre-Seed Accelerator Fund,” Dr Guyett says.

“The funding will be a critically important tool in commercialising early stage research.”

Dr Guyett says the money will be available for a number of projects, which the hub decides to commercialise from the partner DHBs.

“These potential opportunities will be assessed at each stage of the Hub's Stage Gate process by the Board's investment sub-committee,” she says.

Dr Murray Horn, chair of the NZHIH, says this pre-seed funding was significant as it meant the Hub could help those ideas with potential that needed a bit more work before taking them to the next step.

“Every week our innovation managers in the foundation/ partner-DHBs are meeting clinicians and other staff with bright ideas. This funding will help bring them to life sooner,” Dr Horn says.

The New Zealand Health Innovation Hub is a partnership between New Zealand’s four largest DHBs – Auckland, Canterbury, Counties Manukau and Waitemata. The Hub has funding support from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment as well as the Canterbury Development Corporation and Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development.

The Government is investing more than $15 million over three years in turning New Zealand researchers’ bright ideas into commercial ventures.

The Pre-Seed Accelerator Fund is shared between five organisations who will then allocate funding to specific projects.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has conducted a contestable process and decided on the following investments:

· Health Innovation Hub - $750,000

· Kiwi Innovation Network (KiwiNet, a consortium of universities and Crown Research Institutes) – $7.5 million

· Auckland Uniservices (University of Auckland) – $3.6 million

· Otago Innovation (University of Otago) - $2.4 million

· Scion - $900,000.

Steven Joyce, Science and Innovation Minister, says the funding will help take research through to commercial applications.

“We know from experience that The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment used an independent panel to assess bids for funding, which amounted to more than twice the amount available for allocation,” he says.
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