2024 Smart Ideas successful proposals

We are familiar with protein as something we eat, but in nature it is used for a diversity of hard, soft, and elastic structures. For example, cat claws, spider silk, our nails and our hair are all protein. What makes silk elastic or claws sharp lies in how proteins are ordered at both molecular and microscopic scales, and like nesting dolls, these materials contain hierarchical layers of order.   

Throughout history, humans have benefited from hierarchically ordered natural materials: think of wool, or leather, each with unique specific properties and uses.  However, artificially creating these protein-derived materials as they are found in nature is challenging. Mainly because manipulating the right layer of order during the formation of the materials to control useful properties has only been theoretical. 

In this Smart Idea project we aim to design a new generation of custom-made biomaterials inspired by the way that nature optimally organises proteins at a microscopic level as a material forms. Natural control of microscopic structure of protein materials allow us to make tailored biomaterials that are flexible, stiff or have gradients of effect, like in-built hinges. Products made this new way will be environmentally friendly and sustainable compared to the material they will replace (largely plastics). Not only are protein materials safely compostable (no microplastics) but they are also recyclable. Compared to other green alternatives, such as paper, products made from these next-generation materials will inherit the unique combinations of natural benefits brought by proteins, such as fire retardancy, breathability and odour absorption. Perhaps your future bike helmet or fire-proof compostable phone will be mostly made of protein.

Globally, fungi pose a significant threat to animal and plant species, causing 65% of pathogen-driven host losses. The estimated annual global economic burden of fungal crop diseases is ~US$200B, whereas in farm animals it is poorly reported globally. For instance, Pithomyces chartarum (Pc), the causal organism of Facial Eczema (FE),  costs NZ$332M p.a. in NZ. Traditional agriculture heavily relies on chemical agents to combat fungal pathogens, but this approach harms the environment. Surprisingly, targeted non-chemical tools to combat fungal pathogens including Pc are scarce, unlike advances in plant-focused approaches.

Our research proposes employing RNAi technology to create environmentally friendly double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) molecules targeting virulence genes in Pc. Further, we propose to develop a new real-time assay to enable Pc detection on-site/farm, enhancing forecasting and agricultural treatment. This scientific endeavour involves four key objectives: firstly, utilising a newly identified toxin gene cluster to engineer a 'trigger molecule' for Antifungal Spray-Induced Gene Silencing to deactivate Pc and its toxin. Secondly, harnessing the pathogens RNAi machinery to overcome barriers posed by its cell structures, ensuring efficient translocation while minimising off-target effects. Thirdly, devising practical methodologies for dsRNA formulation and delivery, utilising biodegradable carriers and facilitated by advanced bioinformatics. Additionally, we will establish an on-site, species-specific RNA/DNA-based assay to rapidly detect/forecast Pc.

This research will yield new knowledge, IP, and technologies that enhance animal production systems, promote chemical-free practices and improve animal welfare, whilst bolstering global confidence in NZ’s animal products. It will support the globally recognised team in developing RNAi therapeutics and technology platforms for emerging agricultural applications. The enhanced detection capabilities will substantially reduce costs and enhance existing Pc forecasting systems, thereby safeguarding NZ's pasture and farm animals.

We will reduce the environmental impact of dairy grazing NZ systems using a novel approach targeted to increase the efficiency of nitrogen delivery to plants. 

Our team's skills and infrastructure enable us to combine nanotechnology, engineering, environmental and agronomic evaluations to assess the effectiveness and direct impact of our proposal. We have considered the early involvement of stakeholders from the industry and policy decision makers to facilitate the pathways for delivery to end users.

When not enough blood flows to the limbs, it can result in serious problems that may eventually require amputation of toes or the lower legs. This condition affects about 3% of the population and is particularly common in Māori and people with diabetes.  Existing methods to detect problems with blood flow miss about one quarter of cases. 

In intensive care, problems affecting blood flow into the major organs occur in nearly 1 in 10 patients resulting in death in nearly 40% of cases. There are no suitable methods to routinely measure blood flow in intensive care.

Our research will develop a new method to accurately measure blood flow in these, and other, situations. Our method is low cost and can be easily applied in community and hospital settings. 

Our team includes clinicians experienced in caring for patients with blood flow conditions, scientists who specialise in measuring blood flow and developing medical technologies, and technologists with experience commercialising health-tech and medical devices.

There has been a dramatic increase in the volume of Fantasy-type drugs in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past few years. These are dangerous and harmful drugs, often used as ‘date rape’ drugs. They are difficult to detect with currently available methods.

This project will use an innovative technology to develop the first portable, fluorescent paper-based test which is capable of detecting different types of Fantasy-type drugs. We will work across sectors, including hospitality, community services, and border and law enforcement agencies to provide them with the tools they need to reduce the harm these drugs have on society.

An interdisciplinary project team will include national and international experts in Point-of-Care device engineering, molecular diagnostics, forensic science, and drug detection analysis. The researchers are positioned to utilise research facilities across Victoria University of Wellington and the Institute of Environmental Science and Research. ESR will connect with potential end-users across hospitality, community services, border and law enforcement agencies to design a testing product that suits how an where they will use the test.

Geothermal power generation produces CO2 emissions due to the naturally-occurring CO2 that is dissolved within geothermal waters. The amount of CO2 produced is low when compared to fossil fuel emissions but, if we plan to continue using and grow geothermal power generation into the future, we must stop these emissions. The operators of geothermal power plants are already trialling systems that capture and reinject this CO2 back underground where it came from, which stops it being released to the atmosphere. This technology is expected to be common practice in the future. The problem is that the effects of long-term CO2 reinjection are not well known. 

Our ambitious multi-disciplinary project aims to better understand how this reinjected CO2 affects the overall chemistry of the geothermal system and its influence on mineral scale deposition in the deep underground. Understanding this part of the system is critical to ensure we can sustainably and efficiently manage such an important resource. 

Our team combines experimental geochemists, computational geophysicists, and industry perspectives working together within the geothermal sector with access to cutting-edge resources and data.

Ammonia, which is essential for global agriculture, presents a pressing carbon emissions challenge. Conventional production methods produce substantial carbon dioxide, impeding global carbon neutrality goals. Currently, only a third of Aotearoa’s ammonia needs are locally sourced, while the rest is imported from countries with even higher carbon-intensive production methods.

Our research proposes a transformative solution: leveraging semiconductor engineering and catalyst development to pioneer ammonia electrolysers. These innovative systems, powered by renewable energy sources like solar and wind, can convert air and water into liquid ammonia. This sustainable approach not only mitigates carbon emissions but also offers versatile applications, from fertilisers to fuel.

We envision a future where farms evolve into energy hubs, enhancing energy resilience, sustainability and affordability. Likewise, ports and energy producers can utilise this technology to produce marine fuel and bolster energy reserves. Our interdisciplinary team, composed of experts in semiconductor electronics, electrochemistry and nanomaterials, collaborates nationally and internationally. GNS Science’s partnership with the Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Auckland, along with industry leaders and international experts, ensures comprehensive expertise and resources.

Crucially, our research prioritises engagement with iwi farmers and remote communities. By fostering inclusive partnerships, we aim to develop solutions that reflect diverse perspectives and benefit all stakeholders.

In realising our vision for a zero-carbon future, we envision distributed, green ammonia production as a cornerstone. Together, our research aims to redefine the agricultural and energy landscapes, paving the way for sustainable development and global environmental stewardship.

All of Aotearoa-New Zealand’s active volcanoes are capable of erupting explosively, creating plumes of volcanic ash. Airborne ash is dangerous for aircraft, whilst ash on the ground can kill crops and harm livestock, damage critical infrastructure (including roads, vehicles and power lines), as well as be harmful to human health. Consequently, when an eruption happens, accurate and fast forecasts of where and when the ash will go are critical to enable emergency and infrastructure managers and communities to make informed decisions to protect New Zealanders. Although the models necessary to create these forecasts exist, they require eruption properties – mass eruption rate, volcanic plume height, eruption start time and duration – as input parameters. Each of these parameters will be different for every eruption. 

We will develop a suite of tools to measure and estimate eruption properties by combining multiple data sources (microphones, webcams, radar, satellites, seismometers and GPS sensors) with numerical models. By considering these data sources in combination rather than isolation, we mitigate the limitations of individual techniques whilst maximising robustness and reliability. The obtained eruption properties can then be used to initiate ash transport models and create forecasts of ash dispersion and fallout.

We hypothesise that we can provide more accurate and rapid estimates of eruption properties within 30 minutes of an eruption being detected, enabling initial ashfall and ash dispersion forecasts to be produced and communicated by one-hour post-eruption. We will also be able to provide continuously updated information as an eruption progresses and more data becomes available. Our research will enable emergency managers and community leaders to make better-informed decisions on volcano eruption impacts, increasing economic and social resilience to volcanic hazards.

Rivers and streams act as conveyor belts for sediment, causing a cascade of effects as fine sediment (sand, silt, and clay) is transported from terrestrial sources to coastal and oceanic receiving environments. Excess sediment negatively affects ecosystems, habitats, and cultural values, and limits land use for industry and infrastructure. Climate change is anticipated to accelerate erosion, increasing the production of sediment and exacerbating its impacts. 

The National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management makes it compulsory for regional councils to manage deposited fine sediment, yet current monitoring protocols and datasets make it difficult to accurately identify state and trend, hampering effective management.

Our research will significantly enhance the resilience and productivity of Aotearoa using technological innovations to quantify the state and trend of fine sediment in aquatic environments, arming policymakers and kaitiaki with the knowledge they need to make effective decisions to safeguard water quality, nationally significant ecosystems, and economic and social well-being.

We will achieve this by fusing recent advances in optical and ranging sensor technology with leading data analytical methods, producing a transferable methodology to enable accurate quantification of deposited fine sediment cover and texture. These datasets will be harmonisable, informing science and policy from local to national scale. Longitudinal datasets will provide enhanced understanding of sediment dynamics, allowing regional councils, Māori organisations, and kaitiaki to better prioritise erosion and sediment controls, and optimise use of our natural capital to enhance economic and social well-being. We will work closely with end-users, who currently invest significant resources into environmental monitoring and management, and whose economic and social well-being are at risk from the impacts of climate change, to give them confidence in our new technology and the knowledge it unlocks.

Reducing erosion and improving freshwater quality while maintaining agricultural productivity are key challenges for environmental managers, policy-makers, and primary industry across NZ. To mitigate the adverse impacts of erosion and sediment we need new tools that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of targeting erosion control to areas contributing the most sediment, particularly at finer scale.

Sediment fingerprinting techniques use geochemical properties of soils and sediments to discriminate and apportion erosion source contribution to downstream sediments. However, this technique continues to be limited by its coarse spatial resolution and/or generic identification of sources. 

Our innovative project will develop the world’s first remote-sensing-based spatial sediment fingerprinting technology. We will integrate high-resolution spatial datasets with advanced geospatial modelling and point geochemistry to derive high-resolution geochemical characterisation of erosion sources for use in sediment fingerprinting. This integration will transform the resolution at which we can geochemically identify and trace the erosion sources of fine sediment from farm to catchment scales, thereby enabling more effective targeting of erosion control measures.

Our team combines world-leading expertise and skills in sediment fingerprinting, erosion process and geospatial modelling, data science, and machine learning. We will work with our stakeholders via existing relationships to ensure our project is at the forefront of international research and effectively disseminates new knowledge produced by the project.

This technology will benefit regional councils, landowners, and environmental managers, offering a sediment fingerprinting approach to enhance and more cost-effectively target erosion control. By mitigating the impacts of erosion and sediment on our landscapes, waterways and downstream receiving environments, our sensitive ecosystems will be preserved and our agricultural productivity maintained.

Landowners striving to adapt to climate change need advice tailored to their specific geography and production system. We propose that new generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technology could help make information and advice accessible to landowners more quickly and cheaply than ever before. We aim to develop a GenAI platform for climate change adaptation, and conduct extensive research to ensure that this technology is ethical and meets the needs of farmers, councils, and Māori landowners. 

This will be the first GenAI platform for climate adaptation developed anywhere in the world. All uses of AI require careful ethical consideration, particularly in relation to issues of Māori data governance and Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles. We will conduct an analysis of global and kaupapa Māori ethics to develop guidelines for adaptation GenAI that are ethically and socially responsible. We will conduct extensive surveys of potential end users to discover their needs and concerns, and test the platform with people working on the ground. 

The platform that we develop will provide valuable information to help Aotearoa New Zealand adapt to climate change. The platform will support rural communities in understanding and responding to climate risks, and will help uncover new economic opportunities for farmers. Our research will pioneer the use of AI in environmental management globally, enable sustainable land management, and support kaitiakitanga.

New Zealand’s intensive agricultural systems, particularly dairy farming, face significant challenges due to their adverse impacts on the environment, notably water contamination and greenhouse gas emissions. Nitrate leaching from farmland contributes to surface water eutrophication and can jeopardize human health if it contaminates drinking water. Additionally, nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, primarily from animal urine and synthetic fertilisers in intensively grazed pastures, constitute a substantial portion (19%) of the country's agricultural sector greenhouse gas emissions, ranking second after methane.

To address these pressing issues, urgent solutions are needed. The proposed research will develop a fundamentally new concept of phage-based nitrification inhibition (NI) technology (as opposed to chemical nitrification inhibitor technology) to reduce both nitrate leaching and N2O emissions. This research initiative aligns with New Zealand's governmental policies, including the Action Plan for Healthy Waterways, which aims to halt the degradation of freshwater resources, and the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act, which targets net-zero emissions of all greenhouse gases (including N2O) by 2050.

The outcomes of this research are transformative. By leveraging scientific advancements in bacteriophage knowledge, the goal is to revolutionise the management of nitrification rates in soil and thus enable and improve the environmental sustainability of agriculture. This new NI technology is urgently required to mitigate the adverse impacts of agriculture and also ensure the long-term viability of intensive agriculture in New Zealand.

Aotearoa-New Zealand’s communities, land, and infrastructure are at risk from geophysical sediment-water flows (mudflows), starkly illustrated by the 2023 mudflow disasters following Cyclones Hale and Gabrielle. The occurrence and severity of these destructive events is predicted to increase rapidly as climate change impacts rainfall intensity, soil loss, and wildfires. Critically, this risk remains unquantified as no approaches to assess the intensity of mudflow hazard impacts currently exist. As a consequence, mitigation strategies in New Zealand rely on hydraulic models that are not capable of forecasting the dramatic modifying effects of sediment on flow behaviour and hazard intensity.

In this project we will define the missing fluid-mechanical models needed to account for the non-linear multiphase physics behind the flow and hazard dynamics of mudflows, and develop the elusive quantitative relationships between flow characteristics and the hazard intensity of these flows on infrastructure.

Led by Massey University and NIWA, and working in partnership with Regional Councils and iwi researchers, our team of national and international experts in multiphase flow, suspension rheology, numerical modelling, and hydrology will investigate the behaviour of geophysical sediment-water flows in the globally-unique large-scale geophysical mass flow facility PELE, use this data to develop and validate mudflow models capable of accounting for non-Newtonian multiphase flow, and calculate the downstream impact on hazard intensity. This will provide the missing tool for Regional Councils, hazard planners, and decision makers to support mitigation for these destructive hazards under changing climate conditions.

Existing plant-meat substitutes are made up of multiple, refined and high-fat ingredients, are ultra-processed, and lack fibrous texture and physical dimension like prime meat cuts. Manufacturing of refined plant ingredients used in commercial meat analogues involves harsh chemical extractions, which generate waste streams and do not fulfil the regulations for sustainable and eco-friendly food manufacturing practices. NZ meat and dairy companies export high-quality protein-based food but also produce low-value dairy proteins/cuts that don’t provide a high return, e.g., meat trim turned into mince. We’ve discovered and patented a novel disruptive technology that co-processes plant-based ingredients without or with NZ meat and/or dairy proteins and completely restructures them to ‘Hybrid meat analogues’ with textures similar to prime meat cuts. When applied to less refined plant ingredients for making meat analogues, the same technology has produced meat analogues with a fibrous structure. Our research programme now proposes further research to optimise unrefined raw material formulations and modulation of process and engineering parameters to develop next-level food analogues that fulfil the high standards required for sustainability claims in the near future. The global export markets will be led by the foods that meet sustainability development goals suggested by the United Nations. Our research will deliver food analogues with nutritional properties vastly superior to commercial plant-based alternatives and are targeted at the rapidly increasing flexitarian market. We will build on our promising findings by working with NZ's plant-based, meat and dairy companies to identify sustainable sources of unrefined ingredients and low-value animal protein streams that can be used to create these products. We will investigate the molecular-level interactions to build an understanding of how plant ingredients constitute meat-like fibrous structures.

Aotearoa-NZ needs effective and affordable ways of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to meet commitments to the Paris Agreement and restrict global temperature increase to below 1.5oC; however, our current national climate strategy relies on buying international carbon offsets at considerable cost. The oceans are a major sink for carbon dioxide but this uptake results in lower pH and dissolved carbonate, a process known as ocean acidification that has negative impacts on marine ecosystems. This project will investigate a novel technique to increase marine carbon dioxide uptake whilst also mitigating ocean acidification, by using clean carbonate generated by Direct Air Capture. This project will determine the risks and benefits of combining two carbon removal techniques, Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement with Direct Air Capture together as OAE-DAC, without the need for deployment. Advanced models will generate maps of the potential scale and distribution of carbon removal, and laboratory experiments will determine whether phytoplankton and taonga shellfish species would benefit from additional carbonate. This information will be combined in a Life Cycle Analysis that considers all operational carbon dioxide emissions, to determine the net carbon benefit of OAE-DAC. Project findings will inform national climate strategy and pathways for reducing dependence on overseas carbon credits whilst developing the domestic carbon removal sector. By assessing the potential to protect coastal ecosystems against ocean acidification, this project will also determine the benefits for coastal iwi, communities and economies.

Climate change is impacting our marine resources, communities and businesses. The severity of climate change impacts is highly uncertain, posing considerable challenges to our decision-makers. In this context, it is important that we properly understand how climate change has affected marine resources in the past. Only then will we be able to predict with certainty the future of these resources. 

We are developing a modelling approach to better predict fish abundances in the past, to then be able to forecast fish abundances in the future under climate change and fishing scenarios. This modelling approach considers how space and fishing pressure influence fish abundances over time. 

Our project team brings together experts in fisheries science, climate change modelling, commercial fisheries (including Māori-owned fishing companies), and resource management. Our modelling, scenarios and forecasts are guided by expert knowledge from Moana New Zealand and Te Ohu Kaimoana and renowned national and overseas scientists. Together our project team uses the models to explore climate change and fishing scenarios that are meaningful to New Zealand commercial fishing companies, and contributes towards making our fisheries climate-resilient. 

Our work provides insights into how fish abundances may change among harvest quota management areas and the locations in New Zealand where individual fishing companies operate, in response to future climate and fishing changes. Such knowledge supports strategic foresight and operational flexibility for climate-resilient fisheries. Beyond fisheries assessments and management, our work assists other efforts, such as marine spatial planning that is robust to climate change.

Any questions? Please contact NIWA (Arnaud.Gruss@niwa.co.nz), 

Te Ohu Kaimoana (Kylie.Grigg@teohu.maori.nz), or Fisheries New Zealand (Jean.Davis@mpi.govt.nz).

Flood frequencies and magnitudes are increasing with climate change. This poses a serious risk to the economy of Aotearoa-New Zealand and the safety of our citizens. 

Flood risk mitigation requires accurate flow measurements, for providing public safety warnings, calibrating flood models (forecasting), developing flood protection infrastructure, improving land zoning, allocating water resources (flood harvesting) and monitoring flow trends (climate change). 

However, accurate flood measurements are very challenging to make. Recent advances in flood measurement methods have focused on surface image velocimetry from fixed camera stations and drones. These methods are a significant step forward, yet they suffer from three major problems: (1) poor measurement of large floods without visible reference points; (2) the time and funding required to establish fixed camera stations and survey Ground Control Points (GCPs); and (3) channel cross-section changes during floods are not accounted for, reducing the accuracy of flood measurements.

Our smart idea is to develop next-generation flood measurement systems to address these critical shortcomings. We will:

1. Develop stereoscopic camera ‘point and shoot’ flood measurement systems without needing GCPs.
2. Develop new methods for measuring large floods (without visible reference points) using drones with RTK GPS.
3. Quantify cross-section changes during floods and associated uncertainties if depth and surface velocity measurements are not concurrent.
4. Develop aerial Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and drone echo sounder systems for measurement of flood cross-sections, that are concurrent with surface velocities.

Our project team includes internationally recognised experts in river remote sensing and flow measurement techniques. These next-generation measurement systems will be used by Aotearoa-New Zealand’s flood management organisations to build our resilience to floods and better prepare Aotearoa-New Zealand for the impacts of climate change."

Flooding is a global issue causing casualties and tremendous asset damages each year. Current flood forecast has focused on one or two flood drivers, which cannot capture the flooding due to compound (pluvial, coastal and riverine) events. An accurate real-time compound flood forecast system is urgently required to prepare New Zealanders for future floods due to extreme weather.

We propose a study to develop a compound flood forecast system to predict extreme flood due to heavy rainfall and storms 48 hours in advance. We will use NIWA’s high-resolution numerical weather prediction, ensembles, river flow forecast and storm tide forecast to drive the state-of-the-art flood model BG-Flood. AI techniques will be used to downscale the flood results to speed up the model while retaining high-resolution output. The forecast system will be set up in the case study area (Gisborne), which has been impacted by extreme flood events such as ex-Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023. 

The proposed system will be a world-leading compound flood forecast system that is powered by a hybrid method of numerical modelling and AI. It will be more accurate and faster than traditional approaches and characterise uncertainties in flood depth and extent in real-time. 

The advanced compound flood forecast system will increase local preparedness and reduce losses from flooding. The assessment of contributors to compound floods informs the decision in choosing appropriate flood mitigation measures.

People typically think of ocean waves as a surface phenomenon, encountered as waves breaking along the coast. However, beneath the ocean surface there exists a similar phenomenon - internal waves.  These can be thought of as giant underwater tsunami waves that travel along density layers (distinct vertical layers of different temperature and salinity). Just like the waves at the beach, internal waves can break, creating subsurface turbulence like the swash seen at beaches. The impact of internal wave breaking is noticeable in shelf and coastal waters where they mix cool waters up to the upper ocean, generating pockets of colder water against the backdrop of increasing marine heatwaves and a warming ocean. In doing so, they provide relief from heat stress for marine organisms and generate climate refugia against climate change. However, these internal waves also add stresses to offshore infrastructure, and we need to know where these stressors are in order to appropriately plan expansions to our blue economy. Understanding this effect will become more important for decision-makers as our present response in terms of climate adaptation is currently guided by global models which do not capture smaller scales and processes such as internal waves. This project will address this issue by mapping out the location of internal waves across the motu to identify yet-to-be-discovered marine refugia. Outcomes from this project will better enable us to target marine activities to minimise the impacts of climate change on our blue economy and ecosystems.

The global agriculture industry is still reliant on synthetic nitrogen fertiliser (N-fertiliser) produced using natural gas, which currently accounts for 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Aotearoa New Zealand’s agricultural and horticultural sectors currently release the equivalent of over 900,000 tonnes of CO2 per year through N-fertiliser production. Reaching our national 2050 net-zero greenhouse gas emissions target, while maintaining our agricultural and horticultural economies, will require technological innovations that shift the sector to more sustainable practices.

Our solution to enable these sectors to transition away from synthetic N-fertiliser, uses microscopic organisms called cyanobacteria. Some cyanobacteria can take nitrogen from the air (atmospheric nitrogen or N2) and convert it into nitrogen forms that plants can use such as ammonia (NH3) and nitrate (NO3). Because cyanobacteria consume CO2 through photosynthesis, this could provide a climate-positive and sustainable nitrogen source for agriculture and horticulture.

However, the typically low nitrogen-fixation rates of cyanobacteria are currently a barrier to progress. Our researchers plan to overcome this challenge by implementing improvement strategies that increase the nitrogen-fixation capacity of cyanobacteria through biotechnological interventions and manipulation of growth conditions. The resulting increases in nitrogen-fixation levels could create opportunities for industrial-scale production of cyanobacterial N-fertiliser and move the fertiliser industry away from their dependency on fossil fuels.

Additional benefits from cyanobacterial N-fertilisers could include point-source CO2 capture opportunities, reduced nitrous oxide emissions, less nitrogen run-off into waterways, improved soil health with increased resilience to extreme rain events and drought, better N-fertiliser price stability and lower fertiliser transportation costs. 

Climate-positive and environmentally sustainable solutions, such as this, will ensure that our agricultural and horticultural sectors can maintain favourable market access with premium pricing – while also meeting impending climate change obligations.

The New Zealand salmon farming industry, currently valued at $320M, is already economically significant for many rural areas and is expected to grow markedly with approved expansions both onshore and into the open ocean. However, the diets fed to our Chinook salmon, sourced and formulated overseas from research on different salmonid species (Atlantic salmon and trout), are not optimised for Chinook salmon or our local conditions. This results in poor feed efficiency, requiring more feed for less growth in fish fillet. Such inefficiencies lead to metabolic imbalances and excessive fat deposits around internal organs, adversely affecting fish health. Consequently, optimizing diet formulations has become a critical priority for the industry to enhance fish health and improve feed conversion.

This project aims to transform salmon diets by adopting a radical approach based on the protein leverage theory, a concept developed by our collaborators, David Raubenheimer and Stephen Simpson from the seminal work on locusts at the University of Oxford. This faster, more precise approach uses nutritional geometry to balance proteins, fats, and carbohydrates to meet the specific needs and appetites of salmon, surpassing the slow progress of traditional nutritional approaches. We are working with leading fish nutritionists, fish health and diet design researchers from New Zealand and Australia, to comprehensively understand and define the dietary requirements of our Chinook salmon.

For the first time, we will pinpoint the exact nutritional needs of our prized Chinook salmon, empowering New Zealand's salmon producers to lead the charge for change. The benefits extend far beyond the fish farms – healthier diets mean healthier fish and a cleaner environment- while providing one of the healthiest animal proteins for consumers.

Soil structural degradation is a significant threat to both NZ and global ecosystems. This degradation has profound consequences, including substantial losses in production, soil erosion, nutrient loss, and GHG emissions, costing NZ billions annually. Urgent action is required to manage soil vulnerability amid changing landuse and climate, and to identify areas requiring immediate sustainable soil management practices.

Current methods for assessing soil vulnerability rely on traditional, non-functional properties. These provide inadequate predictions for soil ecosystem services like plant production and GHG mitigation. Our research aims to fundamentally alter this approach by focusing on the dynamic functional properties of soil structure. We hypothesise that soil vulnerability assessment based on dynamic functional properties will bridge the gaps between landuse pressures, climate, and ecosystem services. Through experimentation and modelling, we will evaluate how dynamic functional properties respond to compaction and its impact on crop production and N2O emissions. We will develop predictive models for soil vulnerability assessment parameterised by easily measurable soil properties.

Our team comprises experts in soil science, environmental science, biophysical modelling, and crop production. The team is uniquely positioned to tackle this challenge. Through collaboration with an Advisory Panel representing industry, grower entities, government stakeholders, and Māori, we will develop an outcomes-focused soil management framework by integrating new knowledge and soil vulnerability. This framework, continuously enriched by new knowledge from the science team and practical insights from the panel, will guide future research directions. This will lead to recalibration of soil-based tools like S-map and APSIM. By shifting from a one-size-fits-all approach to a dynamic soil management framework, our research will benefit growers, land stewards, policymakers, and Māori stakeholders, supporting a sustainable future for NZ's economy, environment, and society.

Worldwide, feral cats are responsible for one-third of island bird, mammal, and reptile extinctions. In Aotearoa-NZ our wildlife are particularly vulnerable, with this ‘super-predator’ responsible for local extinction of over 70 species. New, smart AI-driven surveillance devices or traps can be designed to specifically target feral cats but there are no effective lures available to attract these naturally cautious animals to control tools. This programme will determine if silvervine, a kiwifruit species, which is known to attract cats, can provide an effective and sustainable lure to solve this issue.

This Smart Idea is novel in that it combines unique plant chemistry with animal behaviour, engineering and iwi-led efforts for predator control. Unlike current lures, this lure is not food-based, so will attract feral cats even when food is plentiful. It is both non-toxic and highly species-specific. By programme end, diverse experts in their research areas will have demonstrated the efficacy of a cat-specific lure for integration into novel AI-surveillance and control devices to be used by conservation and iwi groups across Aotearoa-NZ, and with huge potential for international uptake.

With programme success, the group will have a prototype cost-effective, long-lasting, and species-specific lure. If not (owing, for example, to cost or instability of the compounds), we will still have produced in-depth information on cat behaviour and alternative lure efficacy and have deepened relationships with hapū. Benefit and impact will be delivered to the conservation estate, agriculture (a reduction in toxoplasmosis, the disease spread by feral cats), and the public discourse on how to approach feral cat control.

Pāua are a vital part of Aotearoa-NZ’s cultural identity, valued as a food for both domestic and export markets, and for its decorative shell. However, pāua stocks are dwindling and the sustainability of pāua fisheries is paramount. Until now, the challenge of accurately measuring pāua age has hindered effective management. 

This research project will enable pāua age determination by understanding the changes to DNA associated with aging in pāua. Recent breakthroughs in DNA analysis, specifically methylation, will be used to develop a DNA-based clock that can age pāua. This DNA methylation analysis has been identified in vertebrates, but will be a novel approach for aging shellfish.

This innovative approach holds promise for transforming pāua fisheries management and conservation efforts. By accurately assessing age, we can enhance our understanding of stock resilience, set sustainable limits, and ensure the long-term viability of pāua populations. Our collaborative initiative brings together scientists, industry experts, Māori, and fisheries modellers, harnessing collective expertise to construct this innovative tool.

Through this programme, Aotearoa-NZ will reaffirm its commitment to sustainable fisheries management, solidifying its position as a global leader in evidence-based management and marine conservation. By making informed decisions grounded in sound science, we safeguard our oceans for future generations while advancing our economic, cultural, and environmental objectives.

In the natural environment, plants form partnerships with microorganisms. Collectively, the microorganisms are termed the plant microbiome. The plant microbiome can have a significant effect on the growth and health of plants. 

Grapevine trunk disease (GTD) is one of the most destructive diseases of grapevines, decreasing their yield and longevity. It is caused by a complex group of fungi that can remain latent in the plant for many years before they cause symptoms. There are no resistant varieties of grapevines nor curative treatments available to growers. Mitigation is solely by pruning wound protection, sanitation and re-trunking. Currently this problem causes $137M p.a. losses in Aotearoa-NZ and €1.5B globally.

Our preliminary work has demonstrated that individual grapevines thriving in areas of high GTD have a unique microbiome. We will use our understanding of the grapevine and its microbiome to partner grapevines with a customised, gain-of-function microbiome to attain GTD-resistance in a sustainable manner.

Cancer therapy increasingly depends on the use of drugs for specific anticancer targets. Cancer resistance to these therapies is becoming common. New approaches that have the potential to attack resistant cancers and prevent development of drug-resistance are desperately needed.

DNPH1, a newly discovered anticancer target in breast and ovarian cancers hold great promise to provide new avenues of anticancer therapy in combatting drug resistance. This precision medicine approach can complement and strengthen traditional therapy by re-sensitising cancers to the therapy. No drug is available for this target.

This research project plans to develop drug candidates for the new drug target DNPH1. Our approach of transition state theory to discover potent and specific drugs has the potential for the rapid development of new anti-cancer agents for chemo-resistant breast and ovarian cancers.

The reintroduction of kākā to Wellington City has gifted a taonga to Te Whanganui-A-Tara, but also created new conservation challenges. As kākā spread beyond Zealandia Sanctuary and into urban areas, our ability to identify and monitor individuals is hampered by a reliance on traditional approaches such as bird banding. Very few kākā are currently banded in Wellington, and so we have very little information on the movement and survival of birds in the city. This lack of individual-based knowledge impacts our ability to mitigate new threats to urban kākā, including diseases, unintentional poisoning, and conflict with humans. 

We seek to create a new AI-based approach for identifying individual birds, in partnership with tangata whenua (Taranaki Whānui) and conservation organisations. We will develop an AI tool that will be capable of identifying many more individual kākā in the Wellington population than currently possible, adding valuable knowledge on the behaviour and movement of birds in the city. In doing so, we will expand mātauranga and our ability to effectively mitigate new threats to this taonga.

Working out how many animals are in a population is important but challenging, particularly for our remote, hard-to-see taonga species in Aotearoa. Since many of our bird species have loud calls, acoustic monitoring is a standard method to keep tabs on them. However, successful wildlife management needs more than just knowing if they are present: we need to be able to estimate the size of the population. And that means differentiating between one bird calling many times, or lots calling once each. 

Since many species appear to be able to recognise each other from their calls (pairs might duet together, and in some species newcomers to an area can expect an aggressive visit from the locals if they dare to call) we ask if we can train machines to do it too. If so, we can incorporate that information into statistical tools to track changes in population size over time for our taonga species and help them thrive. 

In this project we will focus on kiwi, an iconic species that many iwi and community groups across Aotearoa work very hard to help. We will develop knowledge, methods, and tools that automatically identify individual kiwi from their calls and use that to identify the number of birds present. We will test our methods by generating fake kiwi calls of new individuals and playing them to the inhabitants of the forest to see how they respond, and by comparing the estimates of population size we obtain with those from more intrusive methods such as dog surveys. We will also ask if there is a link between the call and the genetic health of the birds.

Congestive heart failure is a chronic and life-threatening disorder with enormous clinical, social and economic impact that affects millions of people worldwide. It is a leading cause for hospital admissions and many patients die within five years of diagnosis. To date, HF has no cure – the disease can only be managed through pharmacological intervention which is mostly aimed at treating symptoms. A primary factor in the progression of the disease is the overactivation of the cardiac mineralocorticoid receptor. Therefore, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs) would be ideal drugs, if it weren’t for their deleterious side-effects that cause a detrimental rise in potassium levels in the blood and an acute deterioration of renal function. These side effects are a result of the systemic, non-selective actions of current MRAs that also disrupt the accurate function of the mineralocorticoid receptor in the kidney. Thus, many patients are precluded from benefiting from this therapy option. 
 
To address this issue, scientists at the Ferrier Research Institute and the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia, have now teamed up to create a new MRA drug with a selective mode of action that will protect the heart but also spare the kidneys. Without previous limitations attached, this drug will be safe and therefore well-positioned to cater to the needs of a wide range of heart failure patients. The drug will be patent-protected and available for development by a New Zealand biotechnology company, in that way growing New Zealand’s knowledge-intensive biotech industry, creating high-skilled employment, and prompting high-value product manufacture by existing New Zealand companies.

We will develop an Artificial Intelligence-based model that can predict sea level rise over the next several thousand years. Our approach is based on Evolutionary Learning, and unlike other AI approaches, can be physically explained for the processes that lead to the prediction. Our team consists of experts in Evolutionary Learning, AI, interpretable AI and in Earth systems processes, specifically climate change processes. Current models that calculate sea level rise from melting ice sheets must carefully balance the desired accuracy based on modelling the multitude of complex processes that influence the melt process with computational efficiency. Due to the computational costs inherent in traditional models, long-term accurate predictions over several millennia are missing.  Our model will overcome these shortcomings.

We will deliver our new algorithms in a visualisation tool that allows in an interactive interface to correct simulation errors and improve the model.

The manufacturing industry in Aotearoa New Zealand faces a longstanding productivity challenge due to the unsuitability of traditional automation methods for its high-mix-low-volume nature. To address this, we will develop ultra-flexible smooth human-robot collaboration technologies. These innovations will enable seamless interaction between humans and robots in dynamic manufacturing setups, particularly in product assembly, through advanced cognitive capabilities. Robots equipped with real-time human state sensing, reasoning, and adaptive behaviour planning will understand and respond to human physical and cognitive states, enhancing productivity. Multimodal human-robot communication interfaces will ensure accessibility and cultural relevance, including support for te reo Māori.

The team comprises experts in human sensing, robot control, human-machine interactions, and Māori knowledge, ensuring a comprehensive approach. We will collaborate closely with stakeholders throughout the project, including government agencies, industry associations, end-users, consultants, and Māori and Pacific communities. By co-designing the technology with key industry partners, we will ensure its effectiveness and commercial viability. Ultimately, the project seeks to revolutionise manufacturing automation in New Zealand and globally, leading to improved productivity, product quality, and economic benefits. The advanced robot control technologies will also have global applications and can be exported as high-value software packages. Importantly, the project incorporates Tikanga following Māori data sovereignty principles and aims to support workplace well-being for Māori and all New Zealanders, emphasising cultural sensitivity and inclusivity in technology development.

This research will revolutionise the production and use of high quality microscopic floating plants, known as microalgae, that are critical as food for the early stages of New Zealand's aquaculture species, such as Greenshell™ mussels, oysters and kingfish. It will also underpin the introduction of new aquaculture species, such as geoduck and bonanza clams, that are urgently needed to diversify our aquaculture industry in the face of climate change. This will be achieved by isolating novel new strains of highly nutritious microalgae from our coastal waters, that are much better-suited for feeding and meeting the nutritional needs of our local aquaculture species. The research will facilitate the low-cost and reliable mass production of these high quality native microalgae through further advances in the technology that is customised for culturing these unique microalgae strains efficiently under local environmental conditions in New Zealand. The research will be undertaken by leading local researchers and industry practitioners in both microalgae and aquaculture production, and includes active partnerships with the two largest commercial shellfish hatchery and nursery production facilities in New Zealand. In addition, advanced photobioreactor hardware and expertise for rearing microalgae will come from a European technology-leader. The research has extensive involvement of aquaculture partners with the capability to immediately apply new technologies emerging from the research project to support their rapid growth in this sector. Māori capability will also be built through supporting a talented PhD to contribute to the research and its commercial application. Overall, this project will underpin the continuing rapid growth and emergence of a globally unique aquaculture industry in Aotearoa-New Zealand by providing a foundation for increasing the scale, efficiency and climate change resilience of our key aquaculture species.

Soft tissues such as the breast deform considerably, making it challenging for surgeons to locate and remove tumours. This is further complicated as diagnostic imaging, such as X-rays, are performed in positions that are significantly different than in surgery.

Our research aims to overcome these challenges and improve breast cancer surgery by developing a Mixed Reality (MR) system that can overlay tumour positions identified from diagnostic imagery directly onto the patient’s body to support surgical planning and navigation on site.

Surgeons equipped with head-mounted MR devices will be able to see the tumour in real time, aligned with the breast’s actual position, and be able to remove it more quickly and completely than with other approaches. Using this technology will significantly reduce the necessity for subsequent operations, thereby improving patient outcomes and safety.

Our research has the potential to enhance not only breast cancer surgery but also be a platform for other medical procedures requiring high precision and real-time predictions of soft tissue motion, such as transplant, neurosurgery, and cardiac surgery.

This project will “support new and existing industries to be knowledge intensive”, by co-developing new technology for NZ industry, including Māori companies, that translates both the gestures of Māori sign language into text, and also the nuances of emotion and cultural significance. This will create more workforce members and companies who are highly skilled in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology we use, and are able to use this technology to create exportable products for sign language understanding as well as other future products that are able to address social interaction with emotional and cultural communication. The impact of the work will also help bring Māori groups already involved further into the knowledge intensive industry, by co-design for the technology, and involvement in delivering the technology to Ngāti Turi (Māori Deaf Community) groups. This will in turn give more Ngāti Turi access to knowledge intensive industries by improving communication for this group. The project will also advance knowledge of sign language including cultural and emotional expressiveness, in digital form. This work will not replace human sign language interpreters, of which there is a shortage, but will enable improved communication for Ngāti Turi in situations where trilingual human interpreters are not readily available, and will support whānau as an additional way of helping with communication. Culturally meaningful Te Reo Māori sign dataset will be delivered to our iwi partners to preserve their valuable heritage as a digital form. Also a sign interpreter robot will be used for healthcare and education purposes. This project will contribute to breaking down barriers of restrictions to signers as well as New Zealanders and creating an equal world.

Knowing how well a fracture is healing is challenging. X-ray imaging struggles to monitor healing progression as it doesn’t always detect the difference between strong healed bone and bone which is still growing and repairing the fracture. Bones are usually held in place by fixation devices - plates and screws that position the bone correctly. We will develop smart, instrumented fixation devices to measure the relative transfer of load between the device and the healing bone.  Detecting the load on the plate will be done by adding our unique measurement system which wirelessly talks to a reader device outside the body and upload the results to a patient health record. Our technology enables us to add tiny instruments to the plate which are much smaller than previously possible, in fact they are so small they do not impact the existing plate shape or ease of use. Quantitative measurement of bone healing will provide optimal clinical outcomes and also allow the patient, their whānau and their doctor, to track recovery from their own home. Our technology will also allow problematic non-union to be detected, facilitating earlier intervention as faster recovery.  For most people it will show successful healing well before the currently recommended conservative recovery time - allowing people to get back to work, sport or hobbies faster. Our aim is to develop and manufacture the technology in New Zealand so that we benefit from improved care and lower health costs, as well as generate high skill jobs and export revenue based on cutting edge medical device manufacturing.

Our proposed research can revolutionise the world of sweeteners and beyond. Our team will expand the applicability of sweet proteins, which are natural compounds found in fruits, and are thousands of times sweeter than sugar. Importantly, sweet proteins do not cause the adversarial health effects of sugar or artificial sweeteners, and thus hold great potential to reshape our diets without limiting dietary choice.

Despite their remarkable sweetness, SPs face challenges due to their limited applicability in foods because of their low stability in food matrices.

Our approach revolves around cutting-edge computational design of new proteins, molecular simulations, and high-tech sensory evaluations. 

By assessing the natural properties of sweet protein sequences we design new sequences storing these properties but with the added benefit of being hyper-stable within the micro-environmental conditions of most foods. 

Crucially, we will develop state-of-the-art platforms for assessing sweetness, including using an electronic tongue. This will ensure rigorous testing of sweetness without the need for human trials, reducing the risks of experimental validations on humans and reducing the costs of sensory trials led by panels of experts. This will further empower food development for NZ industries. 

Most importantly, we have designed an approach that is transferrable, so that we could ultimately revolutionise not only sweeteners but also other proteins, through molecular design across industries.

To successfully fulfil the aims of our endeavour, our team brings together experts from three different continents in both simulation and experimental sciences, opening the door to new science-driven frontiers for expanding product quality, safety and sustainability: all under the umbrella of the enormously promising concept of new protein design.

Could New Zealand experience a hyper-explosive eruption like the 2022 Hunga event in Tonga? How can we recognise this potential? How can we more precisely gauge the upper limit of explosivity for New Zealand volcanoes?  By answering these questions our project can dramatically improve volcanic hazard preparedness.

We will test whether the upper limits of volcanic explosivity are reached if molten rock (magma) meets water underground or below sea level at high pressures – pressures too high for steam to form. Our team from University of Auckland, GNS Science, Lancaster University (UK) and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (Germany) will create lab-scaled explosions in a unique high-pressure apparatus (like an extreme version of a two-sided pressure cooker – but operating at up to 900 oC). We will compare the experiment results to known highly explosive eruptions. Experimental and natural particles will be used to quantify the characteristic signatures of hyper-explosive volcanism. This tool will be then applied to discover the maximum limits of explosivity in diverse New Zealand volcanoes, including Auckland, Ruapehu and Taupo.

We will communicate our findings to volcano advisory groups (Auckland Volcano Science Advisory Group, Caldera Advisory Group in Bay of Plenty, Central Plateau Advisory Group), local authorities (Auckland Council, Bay of Plenty and Waikato Regional Councils), emergency agencies (the National Emergency Management Agency, and local CDEM groups), and iwi agencies. Our new knowledge will thus support regional efforts in volcanic hazard mitigation (e.g. towards updating AVF contingency plan) and can, in future, be used globally for volcanic hazard planning and mitigation.

Glioblastoma, a relentless cancer with a dreadful five-year survival rate of around 7%, stands as a testament to the challenges we face in modern medicine. Glioblastoma not only impacts the individual diagnosed but reverberates throughout families and communities, underscoring the urgency for new therapeutics that improve prognosis.

This project strives to deliver a pre-clinical candidate for glioblastoma within its 3 years timeframe. New Zealand’s isolation prevents many kiwis suffering from this disease accessing the many investigational drugs in clinical trials overseas, so we are dedicated to running clinical trials here in New Zealand for New Zealanders with glioblastoma. Our hope is that New Zealand will be the country where a vital medical breakthrough occurs, ultimately extending and improving the lives of those affected by this devastating cancer. 

To bring our new drug to the clinic as soon as possible, we have assembled a unique interdisciplinary team that includes decades of expertise in medicinal chemistry and brain cancers. Our proposed strategy is completely novel from a drug development perspective, and we are confident our drug candidates will result in a better therapeutic response than the current frontline chemotherapeutic (temozolomide). Longer term, the new technology developed herein will serve as a platform for the inception of a NZ-based company that applies this technology to treat other debilitating diseases, proving on-shore jobs for highly-skilled individuals that would otherwise head overseas.

Flooding is a widespread and impactful hazard, frequently causing damage to housing and infrastructure, disruption to communities and businesses, and risk to human life. It is expected to intensify in future because of climate change through increased storminess coupled with urbanisation. However, stakeholders including Māori lack the detailed, wide-ranging scenario assessments needed for complex decisions regarding mitigation and adaptation, or the means to effectively communicate these to their communities.

We will deliver a novel digital twin (DT) for climate resilience, focussing on flood risk. The system will facilitate rapid, low-cost risk assessments with on-demand scenario analytics, and effective ways to visualise and communicate this risk and its associated uncertainties. With guidance from our Māori partners, the scenarios developed will ensure appropriate options are considered.

Physics-based DTs such as ours will revolutionise access to and use of numerical model predictions, through a “digital twin web” which is powered by rapidly growing data and distributed cloud computing. Yet individual components need to be built and tested to ensure they are fit-for-purpose, democratic and adaptive to society’s needs. Our research will enable this, initially in Aotearoa but with global applicability.

This strategic partnership consists of leaders in flood risk research, humanitarian engineering for hazards, infrastructure practitioners and Iwi leaders. Our team has successfully developed a prototype proof-of-concept DT which will form the foundation for this research. Our DT will remove barriers to flood risk assessment, greatly increasing the availability of information for resilience planning decisions. It will improve communication and understanding of flood risks, and enable communities to be better informed, prepared, and engaged in mitigation and adaptation.

In response to Aotearoa New Zealand's critical need for well-trained professionals in early childhood education (ECE) and healthcare, and confident parents, our research offers an innovative solution: The VR Baby training tool focused on enhancing relational skills in sensitive interactions, particularly between adults and infants.

At the heart of our approach lies whanaungatanga, the Māori value of forming and maintaining relationships. Through immersive VR experiences, our tool aims to develop intuitive responses and attentiveness to communicative cues, ultimately improving care-giving techniques in real-world encounters. By enhancing the quality of care and education provided to infants and paediatric patients, our VR-based approach has the potential to foster higher levels of well-being, reduce failure rates in early childhood learning and healthcare, and alleviate burdens on social services.

Our interdisciplinary team is dedicated to evaluating the impact of VR-enhanced training on relational skills and assessing its applicability across various professions. Early findings indicate significant improvements in professionals' confidence and competence.

The impact of our research extends beyond professionals to the infants and their parents, as well as the broader IT and media training industry in New Zealand. We are committed to extracting design principles from our research to benefit IT and game development for training, ensuring that future professionals are equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary for compassionate and effective care.

Together, we are pioneering a new era in professional education, driven by intercultural values, innovation, and a shared commitment to the well-being of New Zealand's youngest citizens.

Despite the critical importance of mechanical reliability in our modern economy (accounting for 4% of GDP in industrialised nations), assessing reliability, particularly through fatigue failure testing, remains a cumbersome and error-prone process. Traditional methods of fatigue testing are not only slow and costly but also plagued by high variability, making it difficult to predict when mechanical failures might occur. 

The proposed research will pioneer the development and use of a novel mechanical fatigue testing methodology designed to dramatically enhance testing throughput. The improvement in throughput will allow for the creation of very large datasets that will reveal the fatigue life distribution in unprecedented detail. This will enable characterisation of the tail of the distribution, which is the source of rare but catastrophic failures that are pivotal in shaping engineering and investment strategies. With this new information, predictions from existing datasets will be improved and the proposed high-throughput methodology can be used to dramatically reduce both the time and cost associated with fatigue testing. This advancement represents a significant leap forward in the field, promising to influence both current practices and future developments in material testing. 

Our international team, including experts from the University of Canterbury, University of Memphis, Sandia National Laboratory, and industry partners in New Zealand, is collaborating to bring this technology to life. This initiative not only promises to transform the $0.5 billion fatigue testing market in New Zealand but also positions the country at the forefront of technological development, accelerating the transfer of laboratory innovations to market-ready technologies. For existing technology, it offers improved anomaly detection in safety-critical applications, as well as maintenance scheduling, which in many cases constitutes a primary cost of technology utilisation.

To combat the decline of culturally and commercially valuable fish stocks and the habitats that support them it is essential we shift away from broad-scale management approaches to more bespoke, adaptive legislation that can be applied at scales that capture the dynamic ecological processes occurring in coastal oceans.

To achieve this, we will harness technological advancements in seafloor mapping and satellite derived environmental datasets to produce ultra-fine scale, four-dimensional (time integrated) maps of species and habitat distribution. These maps will also factor in the effects of the major stressors on our coastal ecosystems (e.g. fishing, climate change, land-use practices) to forecast impacts and prioritise remediation and restoration action.

This project will work alongside Tangata Tiaki (legislatively empowered fisheries managers) across Customary Protection Areas (i.e.mātaitai and taiāpure) in the Ngāi Tahu takiwā to develop the toolkit and generate proof of concept. This will create a network of highly skilled coastal managers that will lead fisheries management in Aotearoa with the best data possible. We will package this toolkit and make it available for roll out nationally, creating an efficient and standardised approach to coastal management.

This project will once again place Aotearoa at the forefront of international fisheries management and ensure sustainable industry, foster cultural practices and safeguard future opportunities associated with our valuable marine resources.

The red meat industry in Aotearoa generates annual revenue of $10.8 billion, constituting approximately 15% of the country’s total export earnings. This vital sector also employs over 25,000 individuals, typically in rural areas around Aotearoa. The meat industry reports that 0.5-1% of export product is returned / rejected due to spoilage or contamination issues, amounting to financial losses of tens-of-millions of dollars annually.

The main reason for product spoilage is bacterial contamination. Bacterial growth and the production of extracellular materials as they form a complex community is called a biofilm which coats the surface of the meat, leading to off-odours. This contaminated product cannot be exported to international markets is due to the presence of bacterial pathogens. We will leverage the animal’s innate defences, so-called Host Defence Peptides (HDPs), to attack the bacteria responsible for meat becoming spoiled or rejected. HDPs are part of the immune system in animals and have recently been shown to have the ability to kill bacteria, including those within biofilms. We will identify novel bovine and ovine HDPs, assessing the activity of these “natural” compounds against spoilage and pathogenic bacteria, with the goal of developing an HDP-based spray product for commercial use.

Our interdisciplinary team, comprising industry experts from Alliance Group Ltd and Microbiology and Food Science researchers from the University of Otago, have co-designed this project. The Alliance Group will continue to provide guidance and be involved with in-plant implementation of HDPs based mitigation strategies against the twin problems of meat-spoilage and contamination. The development of a next generation natural bacterial control strategy will help to future proof the red meat industry and enhance its competitiveness and sustainability globally.

Signalling proteins control all aspects of plant growth—how a plant responds to its environment, the stature of a plant as it develops, the size of seeds and fruit a plant produces, and everything in between. Small changes in signalling protein levels can markedly change growth characteristics and have outsized impact on plant productivity. Therefore, fine-tuning the turnover rate of signalling proteins has significant potential upside for agriculture. 

There are multiple examples where changing the degradation rate of signalling proteins has had massive agricultural impact. However, most examples have required decades or centuries of traditional plant breeding to integrate genetic variants that occur randomly, or mutagenic screens with chemicals that must be carried out in a laborious manner in whole plants. Both traditional approaches are effectively looking for genetic needles in a haystack. 

Here we will develop an approach to massively accelerate the identification of genetic variants with favourable growth characteristics. Using molecular approaches in the laboratory will enable the discovery of genetic variants that alter turnover rate of signalling proteins on much faster timescales, and in a more cost-effective manner, than traditional approaches. This work will focus on a defined set of targets that are pivotal regulators of plant growth, and in the future the approach could be applied to enhance growth traits and productivity of diverse crop species.

Antibiotics are widely used in agriculture to treat and prevent the spread of disease. However, there is increasing concern about killing of non-target animal, plant and environmental ‘good’ bacteria. In addition, use of antibiotics in farming has been linked to both good and bad bacteria (including those that cause life-threatening infections in humans) becoming resistant to antibiotics so that they no longer work.  Due to these concerns, regulations limiting agricultural use of antibiotics are being introduced. This will have impacts on the ongoing sustainability of farming in NZ. 

We have an innovative planet-positive approach to address this problem. We are re-engineering current antibiotics, carrying out chemical modifications to selectively activate antibiotics in diseased tissues. Our technology means farmers can continue giving antibiotics to animals, but active antibiotic will be concentrated in diseased tissue in sick animals, where it can effectively and safely treat the infection.  Importantly, good bacteria in/on healthy or infected animals are not harmed and antibiotic resistance is less likely to develop. The amount of active antibiotic ending up on pastures and in waterways will be reduced, as will impacts on environmental bacteria.

We have shown we can modify antibiotics to remove activity and that anti-bacterial effects are restored upon exposure to bacterial infection. In this research, we will refine our technology, assess its effective use in common NZ farming infections and work with pharmaceutical companies to bring products to market.

Software errors have led to dire consequences over the years, from failed space missions to aeroplane crashes. Many of these errors are introduced by unassuming software developers who reuse publicly available code. In fact, it is estimated that 96% of all software products reuse code that is publicly available online. AI-inspired code generation techniques will exacerbate the reuse of error-prone code, as large language models (LLMs) are often trained on the same online code. Solutions generated by these models have indeed been shown to inherit the errors that are typically found in code online.

New Zealand software development companies such as those provisioning life-critical software (e.g., Orion Health and Volpara) are not immune to the threats of reusing faulty code. While New Zealand’s tech sector contributed $18.8 billion to GDP in 2021 and exported $8 billion, as overseas sales grew 14.4%, the continued success of New Zealand companies will depend on the delivery of highly reliable and secure software. They need to be vigilant that modules reused in their products do not result in failure or vulnerabilities that may lead to hacking and compromises in client safety, thereby threatening New Zealand’s growing software reputation, especially in light of skill shortages faced by the software development industry.

This project aims to develop and deliver AI-inspired software violation detection and repair algorithms to support New Zealand software developers in their efficient and rapid delivery of high-value, reliable and secure software, with export potential. Further, we will package our algorithms to support the upskilling of under-represented groups in developing coding competency, enhancing participation, and reducing the skill shortage.

Extracting value from invasive species could develop new environmentally positive industries while sustaining control programmes thus reducing the negative impacts of invasives.  The invasive kelp Undaria pinnatifida reached New Zealand in the late 1980s and is now ubiquitous part of valuable rocky reef habitats, particularly in the SE of the South Island and Stewart Island.  Undaria (Wakame) is an important food and is rich in bioactives however the low landed value for whole Undaria in New Zealand is not sufficient to sustain control programmes and is a key bottleneck to accessing this resource. To address this problem, we will merge fine-scale maps of Undaria biomass and data on key drivers (e.g. temperature, light) of bioactive concentration to build a Bioactive Forecast Model that directs control programmes and processing pathways to maximise value of the Undaria resource and the efficiency of extraction. In parallel, we will optimise and apply green extraction technology with the dual purpose of determining bioactive concentration to inform predictions while developing technology to extract bioactives within regionally distributed research and bioactive extraction hubs. The project will initially focus high value bioactives within Undaria but the technology developed can extend to other bioactives, other algae, terrestrial plants and waste streams. This project will inform and equip specialist Undaria control divers providing fine scale maps of high value resources and green bioactive extraction technology – allowing value to remain in the small coastal communities that surround the Undaria resource – unlocking a quadruple bottom line industry.

Pathogenic bacteria are a major challenge in healthcare and agriculture, particularly antibiotic resistant ‘superbugs’. Antibiotic resistance is rising and spreading rapidly, driving a global health crisis. The economic impacts of antibiotic resistance are predicted to exceed US$1 trillion annually by 2030 but the global R&D pipeline for new antibacterials is described by the World Health Organisation as “insufficient”. As such, innovation is required to develop new, commercially viable therapies targeting antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Here, we will combine cutting-edge generative artificial intelligence tools with a 100-year-old therapy to develop engineered bacterial viruses, known as bacteriophages, into precision antibiotic products that can be commercially scaled for global use.

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB), caused by Mycobacterium bovis, and Johne’s disease (JD), caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) are highly infectious livestock diseases that cost Aotearoa’s primary sector NZ$160 million/ year. Rapid detection and isolation of infected animals can reduce disease spread. The current gold-standard bTB and JD tests require at least 72 hour turnaround, specialist equipment, skilled staff, and laboratory infrastructure, preventing diagnosis of the disease on farm (point-of-need [PON]), and allowing infected animals to stay in their herds.

We will develop a rapid, cost-effective, point-of-need multiplex test (NZ-TBDx) for simultaneous detection of bTB and JD, that can be performed by non-experts. Our diagnostic test will facilitate herd management with farmers able to implement disease control solutions rapidly to reduce cost and production losses. Our test can also serve as a platform technology for the detection of other pathogens.

Our research proposes a novel approach for aquatic ecosystem modelling, combining machine learning techniques (deep multi-modal sensor fusion) with ecosystem-informed models to forecast changes in water-quality. This innovative solution will provide early warnings and actionable insights, enabling data-driven decision-making and enhanced management of freshwater ecosystems. 

Current monitoring approaches in aquatic ecosystems operate at heterogeneous spatial and temporal scales, hindering data synthesis and ecosystem modelling. Our approach addresses this limitation by integrating machine learning techniques with ecosystem models, enabling the development of robust predictive tools. By leveraging abundant water-quality data and advances in sensor fusion and ecological forecasting theory, we will develop accurate forecasts and actionable insights for regional councils and iwi. 

Our approach will provide near-term (days to months), iterative (repeatedly updated with new data) forecasts, enabling adaptive management and targeted interventions. By improving freshwater management, we can protect and restore these critical ecosystems, supporting biodiversity and human well-being. Our project's outcomes will contribute to the development of effective management strategies, ultimately protecting New Zealand's freshwater ecosystems for future generations. Additionally, our approach will advance ecological theory by understanding what models do best under what conditions, and what driver variables are most important for model development.

The transportation and protection of delicate items like electronics and glass rely heavily on packaging materials with adequate cushioning. Currently, plastic foams and polystyrene are commonly used for this purpose, but their disposal poses significant economic and environmental challenges due to their non-biodegradable nature and high handling costs. To overcome these problems, functionally graded (variable density and strength) cellulose foams with outstanding shock resistance properties will be produced using microfibres obtained from recycled cardboard fibre reinforced with harakeke fibre. Researchers at the University of Waikato and Scion will work with the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology and industrial collaborators Oji Fibre Solutions Ltd. and KTK Creative Ltd. to execute the project.  

With the success of this project, we can replace current polystyrene packaging which could lower the carbon footprint of packaging by a factor of 5. By introducing recyclable cellulose foam, the outcomes of this project will reduce the load on landfills of plastic foams, polystyrene and unrecycled cellulose fibre. This project will produce a recyclable and sustainable foam that will contribute to the transition to a circular economy and support New Zealand’s target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. While mitigating the waste problem, the project outcomes will also create business opportunities in the packaging market. 

This Smart Ideas research project will understand, refine, and optimise Lightmyography as a new muscle-machine interface technology. By harnessing the unique properties of light to decipher the intricacies of natural muscle movements, we will both advance a critical human machine interfacing technology and redefine possibilities for those reliant on prosthetic and assistive devices. Our experts in mechatronics, biomechatronics, robotics, machine learning, and cultural studies will work together to sculpt a future where assistive technologies seamlessly integrate into the lives of end-users, enhancing their autonomy, wellbeing, and quality of life. Furthermore, by embedding cultural insights and sensitivity into our approach, we also seek to advance scientific frontiers and set new standards in the field, driving meaningful advancements in the design approaches for the interfaces that facilitate interactions with state-of-the-art robotic, prosthetic, and computing devices (including virtual reality and augmented reality devices).

New Zealand has an acute housing shortage, especially in affordable and social housing. There are many reasons for this: high immigration, a small local market, stringent requirements for seismic resilience and watertightness, and a looming shortage of construction-grade timber. The country is in immediate need of affordable housing units to address the needs of those experiencing homelessness and difficulty obtaining housing, especially the Māori and Pasifika communities. However, current construction techniques make it difficult to meet the speed of building required and NZ’s carbon budget target. New Zealand has set a target to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, which involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% below 2005 levels by 2030. The construction industry contributes 20% of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions. Conventional cement, a major cause of these emissions, accounts for 10% of the volume of concrete but contributes 80% to its carbon footprint. There is significant energy expenditure required in maintaining a building throughout its service life. Thus, we need an end-to-end construction solution that is faster and requires less long-term maintenance.

We will develop a low-carbon, self-sensing 3D-printable concrete mix using locally-sourced materials, reducing construction time, carbon emissions, and maintenance costs. Our binder will contain at most 20-30% Portland cement clinker, significantly less than New Zealand's lowest carbon general purpose cement. High-strength concrete mixtures with nanocomposite-based sensors will ensure durability and enable strain mapping throughout a structure’s life.  Together with community partners, iwi housing organisations, developers, architects, engineers, planners, and councils this product will address New Zealand’s housing crisis, creating warm, healthy, low carbon homes for vulnerable communities, generating new job opportunities for rangatahi, and export opportunities for New Zealand companies.

“Abundance creates abundance” – incentivising rehabilitation of soft-sediment fisheries

Contracting Organisation: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Sean Handley
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Most of Aotearoa-New Zealand’s coastal shellfish and invertebrate habitats have been degraded by multiple stressors from the land and in the sea. Key stressors are the 11-fold increase in sedimentation rates and disturbance from bottom-fishing methods. Oceans are also warming and acidifying. At the top of the South Island/Te Tauihu, shellfisheries have recently collapsed with collateral habitats destroyed.
We hypothesise that rehabilitation and protection of habitats will deliver orders-of-magnitude net benefit in fisheries abundance (finfish, shellfish), enhancing cultural, economic, and environmental outcomes. Importantly, lost habitats provided refugia for juvenile fish, sequestered carbon and sediment and prevented seabed erosion.
Our Smart Idea is to use an interactive model-based approach to assess and demonstrate the relative benefits (cultural, economic) of a range of rehabilitation and protection scenarios designed specifically to engage iwi and stakeholders. To effect lasting change, bold and ambitious science is required. We will reconstruct the distribution of lost habitats, use forensic sediment tracing to determine which land-uses contribute sedimentation, and attempt to estimate the fate of carbon/sediment under different habitat rehabilitation scenarios. A novel Habitat and Environmental Socio-economic module for NIWA’s Nelson Bays ‘Atlantis’ Ecosystem Model will be constructed, to enable full-wellbeing accounting of scenarios.
Our team includes nationally and internationally recognised experts in ecosystem modelling, soil source tracing, and sediment biogeochemistry, supported by scientists from The Nature Conservancy, with international links in ecosystem-based management and rehabilitation. We will engage and collaborate with Kotahitanga mō Te Taiao Alliance iwi and stakeholders to understand their priorities and values around rehabilitation of the marine environment and the scenarios of greatest interest. For example tested scenarios may include retiring forestry on steep slopes, spatially managing bottom fishing and/or protecting and rehabilitating habitats.

A coupled climate-catchment- lake mixing model to protect New Zealand’s iconic deep lakes

Contracting Organisation: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Piet Verburg
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

This project models the impacts of climate change on lakes, including the effects of climate change on river inflows from the catchment. The focus is on Lake Taupo and the amount of oxygen in its bottom waters. We model the climate up to the year 2100, use that to model the hydrology of the rivers flowing into Lake Taupo, and then model the response in the lake to climate change, using highly detailed 3D lake modelling. We verify the modelling for the present by comparing with observations from lake and river monitoring including the Taupo buoy. We expect that including the climate change effects on the quantity, temperature and density, oxygen content and timing of the inflows from the catchment can provide new insights missing from most research on climate change effects on lakes. We will examine the important question whether climate change, depending on CO2 emission scenarios, will cause bottom water to lose all its oxygen. Changes in vertical mixing during winter and changes in river inflows could result in such a loss of oxygen in the deep water. This would in turn trigger release of phosphorus from the sediments (its concentration in the sediments is high) and potentially lead to eutrophication. The work can provide insights into climate change effects on deep lakes in general, and development of management approaches to mitigate these impacts.

A ligase-based solution for non- natural nucleic acid synthesis

Contracting Organisation: University of Waikato
Science Leader(s): Dr Adele Williamson
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Xeno-Nucleic-Acids (XNAs) are artificial equivalents of natural genetic material DNA and RNA and have potential applications in synthetic biology, nanotechnology therapeutics and diagnostics. They behave in a similar way to natural nucleic-acids folding into double-helices and storing information, but they can have much greater chemical diversity and are often more stable in biological fluids like blood and saliva. This makes XNAs extremely useful for biotechnological applications such as next- generation aptamers. Aptamers are pieces of nucleic acid that fold up into 3D structures and can bind other to molecules and have potential use as biosensors or drugs. XNA-aptamers are better suited for this purpose than ones built from DNA because they bind tighter and are not degraded as easily.
One of the biggest issues with XNAs is they are difficult to synthesize: our Smart Idea will solve this problem by discovering and engineering enzymes to build large XNAs from small synthetic pieces. We plan to use DNA ligases, enzymes that join breaks in double-stranded DNA in nature. We will begin with ligases that we find in the genomes of bacteria and viruses from extreme environments like Antarctica and geothermal regions of Aotearoa New Zealand, working together with iwi and hapū who are kaitiaki of these taonga. We will also determine the molecular details and 3D shape of how of these enzymes bind to XNAs so we can tweak them to work even better. Our ultimate goal is to provide an enzymatic toolkit for synthesis of XNAs that can be used to find solutions for New Zealand-specific problems like pest detection, water-quality monitoring and healthcare.

A Multimodal Wearable Device for the Rapid Detection of Complications after Gut Surgery

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Assistant Professor Greg O'Grady
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Complications are a significant problem for patients and surgeons after major bowel surgery. One of the most feared and deadly complications is anastomotic leak, where a join in the bowel breaks down and starts to leak into the abdomen. Unfortunately, the diagnosis of these complications is often delayed, as doctors have to rely on non-specific signs, symptoms, and blood tests. If leaks and other postoperative complications could be detected early, they could be managed before patients become unwell.
We will develop a wearable device to detect anastomotic leaks and other postoperative complications, combining multiple sensor technologies to help monitor patients more closely after surgery. We will design this device together with patients, surgeons, nurses, and other healthcare workers to ensure it can be easily applied in hospitals. Input from Māori will ensure the device is culturally safe, especially given that Māori patients have a greater burden from postoperative complications. Other research studies will ensure that the wearable sensors are as accurate as monitors used in Intensive Care Units.
Developing this device will make surgery safer, improve postoperative recovery, and presents an incredible opportunity to grow the MedTech industry in Aotearoa New Zealand.

A new era for biocontrol: artificial eggs for in vitro parasitoid rearing

Contracting Organisation: The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Gonzalo Avila
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

A multidisciplinary collaborative team of experts from China, USA and Aotearoa-NZ will share, develop and enhance research efforts to develop a world-first 'artificial egg' prototype that mimics an insect egg, providing a novel way to rear egg parasitoids in vitro. Egg parasitoids lay their eggs insect other insects’ eggs, thereby killing the host. They are natural enemies of insect pests and can be used to reduce or eradicate such pests. The successful development of our technology will provide a cheaper, more efficient and sustainable means for mass producing egg parasitoids to use against invasive pest insects and will help accelerate the reduction/elimination of pesticide use. We will use the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) and the Samurai wasp as our model system. This host-parasitoid system is of global importance and of high biosecurity relevance to Aotearoa-NZ.
We will use state-of-the-art imaging, analytical biochemistry and nano-engineering methods to determine the nutrient content profile, eggshell chemical composition and surface characteristics of BMSB eggs. With this information, we will recreate and encapsulate artificial BMSB eggs in biomaterials and use these artificial eggs to mass rear Samurai wasps in the laboratory.
The findings of our project will lead to significant advances in our understanding of in vitro rearing of egg parasitoids and the use of artificial host eggs to mass rear biological control agents as part of an integrated pest management approach. This project will also establish enduring collaborations between the three participating countries. The information and technology platform generated by this project is also expected to be transferable to a range of egg parasitoids of other potential biosecurity threats to Aotearoa-NZ’s primary industries and native state.

A powerful, flexible, and portable system for production of high-value molecules

Contracting Organisation: The Research Trust of Victoria University of Wellington
Science Leader(s): Daniel Berry
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Plants and microbes produce natural products to protect themselves against other organisms. These natural products have found many uses in modern society, notably as antibiotics for treatment of infectious diseases. New technologies are required to accelerate natural product discovery and development of natural products to provide solutions for modern problems. For example, many diseases are becoming resistant to existing antibiotics, limiting our ability to treat them.
Fungi have provided many of the natural products that are used as antibiotics or other medicines today. Studies have shown that fungi contain enormous untapped reserves of undiscovered natural products. However, most of these products are not produced under laboratory conditions, making them difficult to obtain. This program will develop technologies that allow us to produce any fungal natural product within the laboratory, accelerating the rate at which these molecules can be discovered and bought to market.

A simple capillaric platform for real-time diagnostic devices: In- house wine testing as proof-of- principle

Contracting Organisation: University of Canterbury
Science Leader(s): Dr Volker Nock
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

The key elements to run a pre-programmed complex multistep enzymatic assay in capillaric devices are yet to be developed. The new elements needed include automated and simple switch-on, switch-off, mixing, timed incubation, and measurement functionalities.
Leveraging our new IP in capillaric devices and expertise in diagnostic assays, we will develop these elements and create an easy-to-use chip for in-house, quantitative real-time testing of grape juice, wine ferments, or finished wines as proof-of-principle. Wine makers tell us this is needed to reduce uncertainty, reduce production and analytical costs, and improve productivity. New Zealand winemakers already spend ~$60M p.a. on assays, yet produce just 1% of wines globally—if we are successful in developing our capillaric platform, then there is a significant international market for assay devices to be manufactured here in New Zealand and exported to wine makers overseas.
If successful in wine making, our platform will be adapted for the much larger biomedical diagnostics sector (e.g., ELISAs), or the environmental monitoring sector (e.g., nitrate sensing).
Our team consists of experts in assay design, microfluidics, wine chemistry, diagnostics, device engineering and commercialisation. We partner with wine makers and the wine industry through the Bragato Research Institute, which is the New Zealand Winegrowers’ research centre.

AI-based behavioural analytics for live sports broadcast

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Patrice Delmas
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Our research programme addresses the need for better sports analytics as used by broadcasters to improve their customer’s viewing experience, increasing their viewership and revenue, and by sports clubs to improve their coaching and training strategies, improving competitiveness.
Currently, the application of computer vision techniques and automatic intelligent analysis — discovering the causal reasons for why actions are made — is lacking. Even wealthy sports teams and leagues are not able to leverage the latest advances in Artificial intelligence and behaviour modelling despite the extensive availability of team visual data recorded during training and live broadcasting.
Providing intelligent analysis through computer vision and causal models will improve access to affordable explanatory and predictive analytics for: sports clubs; small broadcasters and content creators, providing an affordable means to deliver accurate analysis of players; and team behaviours with the potential to increase their revenue, viewership, and competitiveness across a variety of sports (individual, team, and e-sports). It will also provide fans with a more immersive sporting experience, further increasing viewership and revenue.
Our broadcasting (Sky TV), Sports (The warriors) team and software development (Arcanum and 9spokes) partners will support our research and ensure a successful outcome by the end of this project. We expect potential benefits to the New Zealand economy of between NZ$10M and $NZ100M by 2030, while significantly reducing the incidence of sport injuries in New Zealand which cost our country up to NZ$700M each year.
We expect spill-over benefits to the public and the economy such as i) reduced mental and physical health effects of sport injuries; ii) support to small-scale local broadcasters and content creators; iii) new high-value manufacturing products and jobs in media and AI software applications.

An artificial intelligence framework for development of novel selective kinase inhibitors

Contracting Organisation: The Research Trust of Victoria University of Wellington
Science Leader(s): Binh Nguyen
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

This project brings together artificial intelligence and drug discovery to develop novel and selective kinase inhibitors. Kinases are enzymes that play a crucial role in signalling pathways within cells, and kinase inhibitors have shown potential for treating diseases such as cancer and metabolic disorders. However, the issue of target selectivity has been a significant challenge in the development of novel therapeutic agents.
This project aims to develop an artificial intelligence framework that will design kinase inhibitors with high target selectivity and prioritise those with the potential to be effective. By exploring molecular features that engender selectivity in kinase inhibition, the framework will be able to produce compounds that have the inherent characteristics of target-selective inhibitors.
This transformative research has the potential to revolutionise pharmaceutical discovery, opening up new possibilities for drug development. Additionally, the project will contribute to the development of high-value industries in New Zealand, such as the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors, thereby diversifying the economy and linking it to international expertise and markets.
The proposed approach to drug discovery is also environmentally friendly, contributing to the transition to a low-emission economy. By reducing the use of energy-intensive experiments and environmentally harmful chemicals, the method enhances the efficiency of drug discovery while contributing to environmental sustainability.

Antibody therapy to control viruses and Varroa parasites in honey bees

Contracting Organisation: Victoria University of Wellington
Science Leader(s): Phil Lester
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Honey bees contribute an estimated $5 billion to NZ’s primary industries. One of the greatest threats to the honey bee industry, here and internationally, is the parasitic varroa mite and the viral disease it spreads called Deformed wing virus (DWV). Together, varroa and DWV are the leading cause of death to honey bees worldwide. The current approach to controlling varroa and this virus is a chemical pesticide that is becoming ineffective.
Our research will develop a safe, effective and commercially viable method to control DWV and mitigate the effects of the varroa. Our method uses immunotherapy for bees. Immunoglobulin (IgY) antibodies have previously been developed to treat infections including influenza. The antibodies are cheap to produce and can be stored for long periods. This method of pest control also leaves no synthetic chemical residues in honey, so it has no ill effects for humans or bees. Our preliminary research indicates these antibodies have considerable promise.
We will develop a IgY antibody treatment and test its effects on the varroa parasite’s reproduction and fitness. Our treatment will be in a form that can be easily fed to bees by beekeepers. During field trials we will confirm that the antibody treatment is safe for bees and enhances their productivity.
Once our research is complete, we will work with the Ministry for Primary Industries and Environment Protection Agency to authorise the legal use of the treatment by beekeepers. We will then develop a pathway to commercially produce the new treatment.
Our goal is to develop an environmentally safe method to control this pest and disease in honey bees. However, this approach could become a model way to control many other pest species.

Application of cold-plasma, hyperspectral-imaging and machine-learning to advance NZ’s cell-based protein industries

Contracting Organisation: AgResearch Limited
Science Leader(s): Gale Brightwell
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

While it’s an exciting time for cellular agriculture there are still major challenges to overcome. The biggest barriers are the cost of large-scale manufacture including the use of food-grade growth media, loss of cell lines due to biological contamination and high requirements for food safety testing. To date, no large-scale cost-effective technology is available to maintain sterility for cell-based protein manufacture nor an on-line monitoring system to detect changes in quality and safety.
Our research proposes to plasma activate cell cultures and/or media used during the manufacture of cell-based protein foods, thus removing any requirement for antibiotics to maintain sterility. Further, we will develop a real-time sterility monitoring system based on hyperspectral imaging and machine learning to rapidly identify microbes either directly or indirectly via changes in media composition associated with biological contamination. The science challenge will be to; (i) understand the cold plasma chemistry required to inactivate microbes while maintaining cell line integrity and (ii) unravel subtle changes in media composition during the initial stages of microbial growth within complex hyperspectral datasets. This will enable rapid detection and response to contamination in real-time.
The research will result in the development of new knowledge, IP, and technologies that can significantly enhance the sustainability, safety, and ethical appeal of emerging NZ cellular agricultural companies. Furthermore, the research will generate new insights into cold plasma chemistries that are essential for the inactivation of microbes, with potential applications in the food, veterinary, and health industries, where microbial disinfection is crucial. Additionally, the improved algorithms, digital data pipelines, and supporting languages for data processing, and modelling will have a significant impact on the adoption of hyperspectral imaging monitoring systems in diverse applications.

Applying a functional evidence approach to prioritise lake restoration initiatives

Contracting Organisation: The Cawthron Institute Trust Board T/A The Cawthron Institute
Science Leader(s): John Pearman
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Lakes in Aotearoa-New Zealand are in crisis, with recent research showing that approximately 45% are in poor health. This poor health is directly linked to human-induced factors including nutrient and sediment run off, chemical pollutants, habitat modification and the non-native species introductions. With resources to restore and prevent further decline being limited, it is essential efforts are effectively targeted. However, current methods for assessing lake health are time-consuming, costly, and often only focus on water quality without an understanding of the wider lake system.
This project will enhance lake restoration by developing a DNA-based approach to rapidly identify the most harmful impacts while also detecting culturally significant organisms. Our new approach targets the lake sediments. All inputs into lakes and the DNA from organisms living in lakes eventually sink and combine to form sediment on the lakebed. Using cutting-edge molecular techniques, we will explore not only what lives in a lake but also how these organisms are functioning. This information will provide new insights into the pressures impacting a lake and will help guide effective lake restoration.
Our vision is to support better lake restoration outcomes by making it easy for the people to identify the causes of lake degradation with limited sampling and analysis effort. We want to create a user-friendly dashboard that distils complex data into helpful and practical insights that guide restoration, protection and management efforts. Our new approach will be developed in partnership with iwi and regional councils and central government to ensure it if fit-for-purpose. This new tool will position Aotearoa-New Zealand as a global leader in lake management and restoration and will support the reversal of our current lake health crisis.

Avoiding carbon lock-in: Understanding the long-term consequences of low-carbon pathways for buildings

Contracting Organisation: University of Otago
Science Leader(s): Dr Michael Jack
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Buildings are directly and indirectly responsible for up to 20% of NZ’s greenhouse gas emissions. They are also the main cause of winter electricity demand peaks which are a key barrier to the achievement of high levels of renewable electricity supply – a critical component on NZ’s overall decarbonisation strategy.
New low-carbon options, such as nearly-zero or net-zero energy (that self-generate renewable energy) buildings have the potential to significantly reduce operational emissions, but they could also increase embodied carbon in construction materials and have negative or positive impacts on the electricity grid.
To avoid “lock-in” of carbon emissions in long-lived buildings and electricity grid infrastructure, there is an urgent need to identify the most effective low-carbon pathways for buildings in NZ.
Current modelling tools are either focused on single buildings or extrapolate from current national heating demand and are unable to explore large-scale uptake of transformative low-carbon options.
Leveraging synergies between the team’s recent research, we will overcome limitations in current modelling tools to create the world’s first national building scenario modelling tool for assessing the impact of nearly-zero or net-zero energy buildings on the regional and national electricity system and exploring the trade-off between operational and embodied energy/carbon.
The insights from our research will transform NZ building standards for new and retrofitted buildings, inform government and industry strategies aimed at decarbonizing NZ’s energy system and help catalyze the creation of low-carbon, future-proof buildings by the building sector.
This research will yield a permanent reduction in greenhouse emissions from buildings and significantly reduce the costs of decarbonization for NZ. It will also result in significant co-benefits in health and energy costs and poverty reduction.

Beekeeping outside the box: developing innovative colony handling and hive architecture

Contracting Organisation: The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Dr Ashley Mortensen
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 2 years

Public Statement

Beekeeping practices were developed to support honey production and have remained relatively unchanged since the advent of the ‘modern’ beehive in the 1850s. In contrast, there have been tremendous changes during that time in how the crops that honeybees pollinate are managed. This has led to tensions for beekeepers and growers, as beekeepers have to decide if they will dedicate their colonies to honey production or pollination each year.
We believe we have discovered a management strategy that will allow beekeepers to retain their large, mature colonies for honey production and still produce specialised pollination colonies. This strategy intends to increase productivity, reduce operating costs, and enable strategic decision-making for beekeepers, leading to increased availability of honeybees for crop pollination.
We aim to understand how to initiate and maintain the time point in the honeybee colony’s life cycle when they are focused on establishing a new nest. We believe that during this time more worker bees focus on foraging for nectar and pollen rather than other jobs that they may otherwise do inside the hive. Our resulting ‘bee’spoke pollination colonies will be lightweight and allow for better placement of bees in orchards, to further improve pollination of fruits and seeds.
We are collaborating with international experts at Texas A&M University, and partnering with iwi and Māori-owned businesses to weave mātauranga Māori and Western
science together for results that are accessible and beneficial for all Aotearoa and of interest globally.

Better runoff and hazard predictions through national-scale snowmelt forecasting

Contracting Organisation: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Jono Conway
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

We will develop a state-of-the-art snowmelt forecast system to enable more accurate and confident forecasts of river flow and alpine hazards across New Zealand. Forecast outputs will provide both national-scale context and local-scale detail, along with full quantification of uncertainty in the rate, volume and timing of snowmelt. Robust snowmelt forecasts will enable end-users in hazard, energy, agriculture, and tourism domains to better respond to rain-on-snow impacts on river flows and alpine hazards.
Snowmelt forecast will be generated through physics-based ensemble snow modelling that will assimilate newly developed satellite remote sensing products to quantify initial snow cover and depth. Cutting-edge ensemble numerical weather forecast data will be used as snow model input to provide robust uncertainty estimates. Hydrometeorological and snow data from high-elevation weather stations will be used to test the system, ensuring extreme snowmelt rates observed in historical records are well simulated. Given the sparse observation network and large area of New Zealand’s alpine domain, our system is ideally placed to provide a step-change in forecasting snowmelt processes with fine detail at a national scale.
The system will be implemented in NIWA’s operational multi-hazard forecasting system, ensuring forecasts are readily available to end-users and easily ingested into river flow and flood inundation models. The project will include case study catchments where we will test the methods and benefits of integrating snowmelt forecasts with existing river flow forecasts.
The project brings together a team of specialists from NIWA and Otago University supported by international experts in snow modelling and observation. A Project Advisory Group consisting of industry, Māori and government representatives will guide the research and ensure forecast outputs enable better end-user decision-making across New Zealand.

Boosting crop growth and yield by improving nitrogen uptake and use

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Dr Paul Harris
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Nitrogen (N) is an important nutrient found in all living things, including plants and healthy soils. In plants, nitrogen is essential for growth. Agricultural productivity is improved by the application of nitrogen as a fertiliser, however even the best-bred crops fail to capture 50-70% of added nitrogen, yet don’t benefit from excess N. This wasted nitrogen causes huge ecological and environmental damage e.g. higher greenhouse gas emissions and pollution of waterways.
Globally, there is an urgent need for nitrogen fertiliser to be used more efficiently while maintaining or increasing food production. This can be achieved by a new method for boosting nitrogen uptake and absorption by plants. we have discovered biostimulants that increase the uptake and use of nitrogen in plants. These are plants’ “hunger signals” for nitrogen. Our research has shown that these peptides can be effectively applied to plants to boost growth.
Our research will develop and deliver potent peptides that mimic peptide coding genes (called peptide analogues) that can efficiently activate the uptake and use of nitrogen in plants, thus increasing growth and yield. The aim is to develop effective, safe, affordable agrochemicals that can be applied to boost crop productivity.
This research programme will deliver significant benefits to New Zealand agriculture and the environment – a win-win situation. Improved nitrogen use efficiency will boost crop and pasture productivity while decreasing nitrogen leaching from soil and into waterways. There will be huge demand for our innovative peptide analogue as the issue of food security and nitrogen leaching into the environment is global.

Boosting shellfish resilience to diseases: vaccination as a novel approach

Contracting Organisation: The Cawthron Institute Trust Board T/A The Cawthron Institute
Science Leader(s): Lizenn Delisle, Julien Vignier
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Shellfish aquaculture production is rapidly growing worldwide and has been identified as one of the most environmentally sustainable sources of animal protein. Infectious diseases cost the global aquaculture industry more than NZ$10 billion every year and affect livelihoods. Climate change exacerbates disease outbreaks which are becoming more frequent and intense, constraining the expansion of shellfish production worldwide. A striking example is the Pacific oyster mortality syndrome driven by a virus that devastated the Pacific oyster industry globally, including in New Zealand where production was halved in 2010. With no therapeutic treatments the shellfish industry relies on selective breeding to mitigate disease. Despite being effective this approach may be slow to implement and hard to access. Recent research breakthroughs reveal the shellfish immune system can provide memory, opening the door to the use of vaccination, previously thought not to be possible in shellfish.
We will develop a vaccine to protect shellfish against diseases. Using the Pacific oyster and its virus as a model, we will propose a safe and cost-effective technology to protect young Pacific oysters on farms. The vaccine will be prepared using the classical protocol of virus inactivation. The research will examine the efficacy of a range of vaccines, administration routes, and immunisation on different oyster life stages will be performed. Co-designed with end-users, the experimental approach will test the best candidate vaccines in the lab and will be implemented rapidly under 'real life' conditions on farms.
Transferable to other species, the proposed technology will:
1. improve economic and social outcomes for NZ’s oyster aquaculture industry
2. open new perspectives for disease mitigation strategies to global shellfish aquaculture
3. greatly improve NZ preparedness for the next disease outbreak.

Cable bacteria biofilm reactor for low-cost, zero-emissions removal of nitrate from wastewater

Contracting Organisation: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Dr Alvin Nugraha Setiawan
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Excessive nitrate levels in our waterways is a nationwide problem. It causes environmental degradation to waterways and coastal areas from eutrophication, affecting values we hold dear (economic, cultural, environmental, health, well-being). Widespread concern over nitrate is a major contributor to broader water quality being consistently the top environmental concern for NZ since at least 2010. However, no current technology is available for widespread use in NZ. Conventional technologies to remove nitrate from wastewater are electricity-intensive, utilise non-renewable-carbon sources to feed conventional denitrifying microbes, and unintentionally generate significant GHG emissions (e.g., CO2, N2O). Municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) produce 258 kt of CO2-e annually (approximately 0.3% of national emissions) and are a key source of N2O, necessitating emissions reductions in alignment with the Zero Carbon Act. 
Our proposed research will address the challenge of developing an energy-efficient, net-zero-emission process for wastewater nitrate removal, requiring minimal capital investment to incorporate into existing/future WWTPs and other water denitrification applications. This will be achieved with through a world-first combination of two types of bacteria with synergistic features: one that is able to denitrify with zero CO2 and minimal N2O across a biofilm surface, and another that can boost the denitrification efficiency by effectively creating an additional surface layer. This technology will enable wide implementation of net-zero carbon wastewater denitrification to potentially remove the majority of point-source nitrates; to improve the health of our waterways and the wellbeing of New Zealanders.

Carbon Footprints Underwater

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Simon Thrush
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

This project allows us to explore new opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint, with substantial co-benefits to marine conservation and biodiversity restoration.
New Zealand’s Zero Carbon Act seeks to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. If we are to meet this obligation, we need to implement as many options as possible and recognise there is no one solution to the climate crisis. Advice from the New Zealand Climate Commission (April 2023) shows that are current practices are not sufficient. The seafloor is the largest sore of carbon in the world and New Zealand have an extensive marine estate. Recent research has indicated at the balance of processes that support carbon storage on the seafloor is broken by trawl and dredge fisheries – potentially equating to same carbon footprint as the worlds aviation industry.
This project will work with our largest Māori fishing company who have a strong interest in defining their carbon footprint and identifying ways to lighten their impact. It will also work with kaitiaki Māori to explore the potential of protecting seafloor from disturbance to enhance carbon storage. This collaborative and interdisciplinary project will be integrated with inputs from international researchers from Europe and the USA. The project will empower the development of new solutions to the climate crisis and highlight how marine science and mātauranga can work together. A series of engagements with Government agencies and the New Zealand Climate Commission will draw attention to the opportunities provided by marine ecosystems in climate change and to foster policy and management actions that support our climate and biodiversity responsibilities.

Cell free synthetic exosomes incorporated nanomatrix for the treatment of ischaemic diabetic ulcer

Contracting Organisation: University of Otago
Science Leader(s): Associate Professor Rajesh Katare
Funding (GST excl): $999,996
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Chronic non-healing ulcers represent a relevant clinical and socioeconomic burden. Diabetic patients with foot ulcers associated with narrowing of blood vessels in the limb manifest the worst outcome with the highest amputation and mortality rates. Although the efficacy of topical gel formulation of various growth factors is currently in clinical use, they are not effective in chronic diabetic ulcers. Our project will explore the novel therapeutic option for chronic diabetic ulcers using molecular modulators. We will develop an innovative combinatorial approach of incorporation of the molecular modulators with biopolymeric nanomatrix to increase the efficacy and stability after topical application on the ulcer. This will be the world-first off-the-shelf product bringing direct economy and training for high skilled force in New Zealand. Further, reducing the amputation rates will have a marked improvement on the quality of these patients, thereby reducing the burden on the health sector.

Combining Physics and Artificial Intelligence—A hybrid model for actionable climate projections

Contracting Organisation: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Neelesh Rampal
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

The Problem
Understanding how New Zealand’s climate will continue to change across the 21st century critically depends on sophisticated physics-based climate models. Regional Climate Models are used to enhance the spatial resolution of Global Climate Models, simulate extreme events and enhance the overall relevance for societal decision- making. However, the extreme computational expense of Regional Climate Models presents a major bottleneck for running the required simulations at very high spatial resolution.
Our Solution
To overcome this major scientific challenge, we will construct the first hybrid Regional Climate Model emulator, driven by Artificial Intelligence and informed by physics. This approach will drastically reduce compute times of Regional Climate Models, enabling the first large ensemble (30 models) of very high-resolution (2.2km) nation- wide climate projections. Not previously attempted before, our application of physics-informed AI to regional climate modelling will require significant scientific stretch and involve training petabyte-scale AI models on climate simulations. Despite this challenging goal, preliminary work by our team indicates the potential for a 1000-fold computational speedup compared to current Regional Climate Models.
The Benefits
Our research outputs have the potential to substantially improve decision-making for climate adaptation and support resilience for extreme events. The uptake of this research will also provide substantial benefits to Māori by increasing localized climate resilience and providing opportunities for more strategic investments that enable higher-value products and services.

Controlling the synthesis of microalgal polyphosphates to develop wastewater phosphorus upcycling technologies

Contracting Organisation: Massey University
Science Leader(s): Maxence Plouviez, Benoit Guieysse
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

The mining of phosphorus to produce fertiliser simultaneously depletes geostrategic reserves and costs billions to the economies relying on its import for agriculture. In addition, phosphorus must continuously be added to soils as it is lost via leaching and in the food chain. Phosphorus discharge causes excess microalgae growth in many aquatic environments. We propose an innovative and environmentally-friendly solution: using the same microalgae that causes eutrophication to recover and recycle phosphorus as high-value polyphosphates.
Dr Plouviez (Massey University) and his group have recently achieved considerable advances in understanding which genes are involved in polyphosphate synthesis in microalgae. These genes are involved in coding the enzymes that catalyse the conversion of phosphate into polyphosphate, however we still know very little about the enzymes themselves. This proposal will take advantage of our collaborations bridging knowledge on the genetics of polyphosphate and the expertise in molecular biology and biochemistry, to investigate the polyphosphate-related enzymes and their structural differences in microalgae specialised for different ecological niches. We will incorporate this new knowledge into innovative technologies that recover phosphorus from aquatic ecosystems, testing them under real-world conditions at the internationally-renowned NIWA microalgae-based wastewater treatment facility.

Creating Soilless Precision Farming via Ultraclean Water Production: Invention of Weather-adapting Green-tech

Contracting Organisation: University of Canterbury
Science Leader(s): Alex Yip
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Soilless hydroponic farming shields vulnerable produce from the mounting effects of changing weather patterns, rising surface temperatures, natural disasters, etc. It enables growing food closer to large population centres and reduces the “food miles” associated with distribution, reducing the carbon footprint (low emissions).
However, a critical determinative factor in hydroponics cultivation is water quality. The recirculated hydroponics water must be treated for emerging micropollutants that, besides root exudates, may also contain pesticides, endocrine-disrupting chemicals (e.g., plastics leaching) and fluorinated substances from continuous accumulation.
This project will invent a new photoelectrochemical water-treatment GreenTech that removes micropollutants effectively. The weather-adapting feature of the technology allows water to be recirculated sustainably or safely discharged. By protecting clean water as taonga (treasure), our GreenTech enables safe and sustainable soilless farming, providing climate-resilient economic growth, e.g., off-season cultivation of high-value produce or microgreens, etc.
Once developed, the water-treatment device will serve as a general platform for the continuous development of photoelectrochemical systems for other energy and environmental applications, including hydrogen generation, CO2 and nitrate removal, etc.
Our project team is comprised of national and internationally leading researchers in the area of micro/mesoporous materials, photocatalysis, electrochemistry, electronic
devices, hydroponics, and Mātauranga Māori. Our industry partners include agri-device manufacturers, NZ water supply advisors and demonstration end-users.

Detecting aneuploidy from embryo secretions

Contracting Organisation: Victoria University of Wellington
Science Leader(s): Janet Pitman
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

The recent finding that cells package genetic material into membrane-bound microvesicles for secretion has initiated a new era of biomarker discovery. This discovery has led to novel methods of disease detection that are either minimally- or non-invasive.
The embryo is no exception and microvesicles packed with genetic material and secreted into their surrounding environment provide a snap-shot of their genetic make- up. Our research will use this phenomenon to address a significant problem for the human fertility industry.
Half of human embryos generated by in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in fertility clinics have an incorrect number of chromosomes (aneuploid). The transfer of aneuploid embryos into the uterus results in embryo loss, which is emotionally and financially devastating to the recipients. Whilst an aneuploidy test is available which extracts cells from the embryo, it is invasive, risky to low quality embryos, expensive and has a long result turn-around time. These limitations mean very few people choose to get their embryos tested.
We will assess the microvesicle-encapsulated genetic material secreted from IVF-embryos to determine if they accurately indicate their chromosomal numbers. During this work, we will identify secreted biomarkers of specific aneuploidies for the first time and develop a simple, rapid and cheap test for their detection. The revolutionary advantage of this test is that it only tests the medium in which the embryos are cultured in, leaving the embryo undisturbed.
Such a test is highly desirable to the international fertility industry and we will work with industry partners and commercial genetic testing companies to develop a commercially-available test. The down-stream benefits of this non-invasive test is that more people will choose to get their embryos tested leading to an improved IVF success rate.

Developing a minimally invasive species identification protocol for taonga tūturu

Contracting Organisation: University of Otago
Science Leader(s): Monica Tromp
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

This project will create a minimally invasive and inexpensive sampling technique to identify the animals used in manufacturing taonga tūturu, precious objects created by Māori artisans. This will substantially enhance the capabilities of the museum and heritage sector to find and engage meaningfully with the custodians of these taonga.
Taonga tūturu have whakapapa (genealogies) that connect them to Te Ao Māori (the Māori world), but through the process of colonisation, the provenance of many of these objects in museums is unknown. Species identification of many taonga tūturu materials is impossible visually, and currently available destructive sampling impacts the mauri (life force) of taonga tūturu.
Collagen peptide mass fingerprinting (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry or ZooMS) allows for inexpensive and rapid taxonomic identification of collagenous materials such as bone, skin, and hair, but traditionally requires a piece of an object to be cut off and destroyed.
We aim to develop MIMS (Minimally Invasive Molecular Story) – using a small piece of fine grit polishing film - to collect a small sample for analysis, allowing the mauri (life force) and visible appearance of an object to remain intact while enabling identification of the material. This means taonga tūturu can be cared for in accordance with tikanga and, where appropriate, repatriated.
Beyond taonga tūturu, the optimisation of this technique has exciting applications for contemporary biodiversity and conservation science. It would enable taonga and other species to be readily and inexpensively identified, especially where decomposition or utilisation of the species has made morphological or DNA identification unlikely. Contexts for its use include cetacean and other marine mammal strandings, and applications at the border to identify incoming animal materials and enable compliance with CITES.

Developing a pheromone tool for the eradication of Australian redback spiders

Contracting Organisation: The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Andrew Twidle
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Our proof-of-concept Smart Idea will provide a novel, species-specific solution to the redback spider problem. Invasive Australian redback spiders pose a serious health risk to humans and an extinction threat to native fauna in Aotearoa-NZ. Current manual-based control tools are not working and precious taonga, such as the critically endangered Cromwell chafer beetle, will soon be lost to redback spiders unless something is done.
We will identify the long-range sex pheromone of the redback spiders, then develop a dispenser and trapping system to ‘lure and kill’ them. Very few spider pheromones have been identified worldwide and their use as pest management tools has not been reported, so this ambitious project will be a world first. The ‘lure and kill’ technique will be particularly effective since redback males can only mate once because of their ritualised suicide during copulation (the female eats them), hence every male attracted to the trap represents a potential batch of spiderlings prevented. Preliminary work by our team and others has shown that the pheromone compounds are likely a mixture of volatile degradation products from compounds on the virgin female silk.
To achieve these results will require the combined skills of Aotearoa-NZ’s leading invertebrate pheromone laboratory working in conjunction with Aotearoa-NZ’s eminent spider authority, in collaboration with Ngāi Tahu and DOC. Using a multidisciplinary approach comprising microchemical analysis, chemical synthesis, behavioural bioassays, dispenser/trap design and field trapping trials, our team will develop a tool that will selectively remove redback spiders from a complex, fragile environment containing critically endangered taonga. This research will save precious taonga from extinction, increase science capability in Aotearoa-NZ and provide a new control technology to support future invasive spider eradications here and overseas.

Developing Biodegradable Quaternary Ammonium Biocides for Sustainable NZ Marine Biosecurity

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Alan Cameron
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Invasive marine pests and diseases have a history of devastating harm to NZ’s maritime industries and environment. Biosecurity is critical for economic resilience and growth of NZ. We are targeting the critical gap in marine biosecurity response systems – the lack of suitable and effective tools for marine pest and disease control. In this project we will develop the first biocides specifically for management and eradication of marine pests (e.g., the current incursion of ‘killer algae’ at Aotea) and diseases (e.g. Bonamia ostrea which ceased flat oyster farming in NZ and threatens the iconic Bluff oyster fishery), to enable effective and responsible biosecurity responses. The biocides developed herein will be prepared by harnessing a novel ‘green chemistry’ method of preparation and provides opportunity for environmentally responsible manufacturing, including the use of climate-friendly CO2 consuming processes. Leveraging this new manufacturing platform, our biocides will harness readily biodegradable motifs, allowing their effective break down to inactivated species that significantly reduces the collateral harm, environmental accumulation and damage to delicate ecosystems and microbial communities (e.g. in soil/sediment) that is known to occur with many of the currently available mainstay biocides. We will develop our biodegradable biocides and methods of application in partnership with multiple stakeholders in NZ, including Iwi, to ensure the ultimate outcome for NZ. The potential impact of our new technology will be far reaching and not only has implications for biosecurity internationally, but will be highly applicable to a range of sectors including: agriculture/dairy industry, hospitality, cosmetics, clinical disinfection and personal hygiene, the latter two of which have become increasingly relevant in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Primary contact: Dr Alan Cameron, email: alan.cameron@auckland.ac.nz

Developing insulin signalling inhibitors for rapid weight loss

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Dr Troy Merry
Funding (GST excl): $999,998
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 2 years

Public Statement

Having excess fat mass is associated with an increased risk of numerous diseases including heart disease, diabetes and cancer. However, loosing and maintaining lost weight through diet and exercise is very difficult, and the very few pharmaceutical options help have uncomfortable side effects, low effectiveness in the long-term or need to be injected. In this project we will develop a new class of weight loss pills to assist with the long-term maintenance of a healthy body weight.
We have recently discovered that a drug that is already used clinically to inhibit an enzyme called PI3K can cause rapid and sustained loss of fat in in obese mice. We have developed our own versions of this drug that are more specific and therefore should have less side effects. In this application we will determine the safety and efficacy of these drugs, and optimise the dosing in to determine if they are viable drugs to aid in weight loss. One of the ways through which these dugs act to support weight loss is by reducing the ability of the body to used sugar, leading to high blood sugar. While long-term high blood sugar can be of clinical concern we have designed new co- treatments to avoid this and therefore improve the safety of these drugs.
The weight loss industry has a annual revenue in the hundards of millions, and a large proportion of the global population are currently trying to lose weight.
Therefore obese, developing, testing and producing a new effective weight loss pill locally here in New Zealand will have considerable economic and health benefits for the country.

Efficient spintronic terahertz emitter for beyond-the-lab applications of terahertz spectroscopy

Contracting Organisation: Victoria University of Wellington
Science Leader(s): Dr Simon Granville
Funding (GST excl): $999,911
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

The Terahertz (THz) frequency range of the electromagnetic spectrum, sitting between infrared light and microwaves, has vast untapped potential for scientific, industrial and environmental uses - from detecting the evolution of galaxies to high bandwidth telecommunications and monitoring concentrations of atmospheric gases affected by climate change. The ability of THz waves to penetrate biomolecules and probe them without causing damage also makes them ideal for many areas critical to New Zealand such as agriculture, food production and biomedical imaging. However existing technologies for generating THz waves are severely limited in the range of frequencies they can produce and the instruments for doing so are bulky, expensive and little used outside of research labs. For that reason, this part of the spectrum has long been known as the 'THz gap', waiting for the technological advances that will finally open this underutilised region to its myriad beneficial uses.
We will develop a source of THz waves that covers the full range of frequencies in this spectrum, using a novel technique of generating THz from magnetic materials. Our new technology will overcome the limitations of existing sources and will lead to THz technologies that are affordable and suitable for use in industrial settings. We aim to stimulate the growth of an entirely new high-value and high-productivity industry in New Zealand based on the manufacture and use of THz technologies. Our goal is for New Zealand to become a global hub for THz technology R&D, manufacturing and services for current and future industries.

Empathic Characters for Cognitive Rehabilitation

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Professor Mark Billinghurst
Funding (GST excl): $999,979
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

This research explores the creation of Empathic Virtual Characters (EVCs) for enhancing VR therapy. This will be the first time that EVCs have been used in VR for cognitive therapy, and could transform the rehabilitation industry, adding value to NZ’s knowledge intensive industry.
EVCs combine physiological sensors (EEG, GSR, heart rate, eye- and face tracking) with AI to measure the patient’s emotional and cognitive state. This provides valuable feedback to patient and clinician, especially compared to current practice of self-reported measures, and could be used to adapt the VR therapy. The aim is to provide customised therapy for the patient in a simulated social situation and understand how patients respond. The EVC can adapt to the client, such as being represented as Māori and speaking in Te Reo. The EVCs can be used in a collaborative VR setting to support remote real therapists, enhancing access to rehabilitation services.
The initial focus will be on therapy for people with post traumatic brain injury (TBI), with cognitive fatigue; a long term lack of mental energy. During their rehabilitation, people with TBI work closely with health care providers, often for many months in a time consuming process, which is difficult in remote regions with limited access to therapists.
We will involve user groups, including people with lived experience (using the Burwood Academy consultation network) and clinicians from Laura Fergusson Brain Injury Trust, and will commercialise the research through game company CerebralFix. We include Māori perspective through engagement with kaupapa Māori organization’s Iwi United Engaged Limited and He Waka Tapu. The outcome will be a tool that could transform therapeutic healthcare, enabling patients to receive support wherever they are and whenever they need it.

Enhanced rock weathering for large-scale capture of carbon dioxide in Aotearoa

Contracting Organisation: University of Waikato
Science Leader(s): Dr Terry Isson
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) removal (CDR) over the next century is required to avoid devastating climate impacts in Aotearoa New Zealand and globally. Yet, few tenable large-scale CDR applications exist, and the lack of significant point CO2 emission sources has thus far limited CDR in Aotearoa. Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) has been proposed as a viable strategy for global scale carbon capture, with recent modelling estimating net 0.5-5 Gt CO2 yr^-1 potential. Yet, there is currently little to no field data to support the rates of capture deemed possible. Aotearoa plays host to warm, wet climates, and ideal volcanic rock type such as basalt and dunite (high capture-capacity-to-weight-ratio), making for an ideal locality to constrain the true potential of ERW for carbon capture. Through this project, we will conduct the first ever large-scale ERW field trial in collaboration with Ngāti Pūkenga and Ngāi Tahu, to determine the potential of ERW to take us one step closer to achieving carbon neutrality—before it is too late.

Enhancing the sustainability of dairy farming using advanced methane biofiltration

Contracting Organisation: University of Canterbury
Science Leader(s): Peter Gostomski
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Methane’s global warming potential is much more powerful than CO2 and represents 40% of NZ’s carbon footprint (primarily from dairy). NZ’s Paris Accord commitments and the Zero Carbon Act require a 10% reduction in methane emissions by 2030. Currently, there is no solution to address methane beyond herd reduction. This project will develop enhanced biofiltration technology to convert a significant fraction of the methane exhaled by cows to CO2.
Converting methane to CO2 eliminates the problem, as atmospheric CO2 is extracted by the grass fed to the cows (photosynthesis). Therefore, this CO2 release is carbon-neutral, with zero net-impact on global warming, as compared to fossil fuel CO2 releases.
To treat the methane, it must be captured and treated. Traditional dairy barns are not widely used in NZ; however, regulatory changes for nitrate will shift cows off the paddock (especially in winter) into shelters, with the additional benefit of improving animal welfare. This transformational shift to shelters offers an opportunity for biofilters to solve the dairy CH4 problem. Methane-contaminated air flows through the biofilter and natural microorganisms convert it to CO2. Biofiltration is common in NZ but not for methane removal, because the removal rates are too slow. This project will implement several key science developments to significantly improve the removal rates of methane.
Beyond contributing to the required 10% reduction in methane emissions, success will offset the industry’s commitments to the emission trading scheme, which agriculture must join by 2025. Biofiltration could provide ~30-50% of NZ’s required methane reduction. Success would also have international impact because methane emissions are a world-wide problem from many sources (landfills, coalmines, wastewater).

Enlisting Kākahi: developing a model system to protect Māui dolphins from toxoplasmosis

Contracting Organisation: Massey University
Science Leader(s): Wendi Roe
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Toxoplasma, a parasite carried by cats and shed in their faeces, has been identified as a major risk factor threatening the critically endangered Māui dolphin. We have found that one particular strain of this parasite is responsible for Māui and Hector’s dolphin deaths, as well as for deaths of native birds. A crucial challenge in managing this risk is to work out when and where the parasite gets into our waterways - there may be specific habitats or cat populations that produce this virulent strain. From these sites, Toxoplasma organisms are washed into waterways (rivers and lakes) and ultimately to harbours and estuaries (Māui dolphin feeding grounds). Marine mussels have been shown to concentrate Toxoplasma in their haemolymph (the shellfish equivalent of blood), and we believe that kākahi (native freshwater mussels) will do the same, and can be used at a local scale to determine hotspots of Toxoplasma waterway contamination. Our study will use molecular methods to test kākahi haemolymph for Toxoplasma organisms, and to work out whether the virulent strain is associated with particular cat habitats. Using information on landuse, weather conditions and cat host population, we will get a clearer picture of the parasite’s transmission pathways from land to sea, and create a machine learning model that can predict exposure hotspots. The knowledge we gain from this study can be used to target disease management at the most relevant areas, with an ultimate aim of decreasing the amount of Toxoplasma entering our waters, and preventing Māui dolphin deaths.

Extending the Boundaries of Digital Signal Processing: AI-powered Fourier Transformation Alternative

Contracting Organisation: University of Canterbury
Science Leader(s): Sylwia Kolenderska
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Advancements in the digital realm have revolutionised nearly every aspect of human life. One such life-changing invention, the computer, granted us access to unprecedented data creation/processing capabilities. The profound implications of this innovation can be experienced across multiple levels, from instant photo processing for maximum impact to global video connectivity. The remarkable computing power enabled by digital machines has also significantly enhanced scientific endeavours, yielding truly spectacular results. While magnified images can be obtained using a light source and a lens, one can only explore the boundaries of light-based imaging—and push them further—through specialised detail-revealing processing. Similarly, chemical detection is done by measuring light reflected from a substance, but only advanced processing of output signals can improve the precision of that detection.
Now, a new digital "invention" has emerged, heading towards the most significant impact yet: artificial intelligence (AI). Representing an evolutionary leap for computers, neural networks operate on abstract levels that were previously unattainable using traditional algorithms. This exceptional characteristic forms the basis for novel research aimed at developing a neural network performing Fourier transformation—an algorithm dominating the digital landscape—without its inherent limitations. As this algorithm plays a crucial role in device accuracy, its advanced and high-performing version will unlock technological advancements across numerous fields. The methods using Fourier transformation to generate images (Optical Coherence Tomography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging) will output dramatically improved detail, with visualisation capabilities pushed to the virtual limits. The chemical detection based on Fourier-transform spectrometry will be ultra-precise, impacting drug discovery. This AI-powered Fourier transformation will potentially pave the way for research into upgrading/perfecting other fundamental blocks of modern techniques.

Forecasting future megaquakes on New Zealand’s biggest fault: The Hikurangi subduction zone

Contracting Organisation: University of Otago
Science Leader(s): Associate Professor Ting Wang
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Subduction zones, where one tectonic plate is forced underneath another, produce the world’s deadliest and most destructive earthquakes and tsunamis, as demonstrated by the 2011 Magnitude 9 Tohoku-Oki earthquake in Japan. In New Zealand, geological records reveal that great subduction earthquakes (magnitude>=8) have occurred regularly along the Hikurangi Subduction Zone beneath the eastern North Island, where the Pacific tectonic plate thrusts beneath the Australian plate.
Recent overseas research has shown that major subduction zone earthquakes are sometimes preceded by phenomena known as slow slip events (SSEs, essentially earthquakes in slow motion). Following the 2016 magnitude 7.8 Kaikōura earthquake, SSEs were immediately triggered along the full length of the Hikurangi Subduction Zone, sparking demand from central government for scientists to determine the likelihood of a great earthquake in central New Zealand following on from the SSEs.
This project aims to develop statistical models to clarify the relationship between SSEs and earthquake occurrence, and the impact of SSEs on near-term great earthquake forecasts. We will analyse existing geodetic and seismic data to obtain new catalogues of SSEs and seismic swarms along the Hikurangi Subduction Zone, and develop tools to forecast SSEs and great earthquakes.
Being able to forecast when great earthquakes will next occur is of profound importance for providing critical early warnings that will ensure the preservation of our workforce, infrastructure, and economic. The ability to better forecast future Hikurangi Subduction Zone earthquakes will place New Zealand at the forefront of subduction zone forecasting worldwide, and enable the country to better anticipate and reduce potential disruption, damage and casualties. This will enhance our ability to undertake critical early warnings for damaging earthquakes, and inform decision-making for risk mitigation.

High-capacity, responsive thermal storage for coupling mismatched energy supply and demand

Contracting Organisation: University of Waikato
Science Leader(s): Fei Yang, Murray McCurdy
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 2 years

Public Statement

This research aims to develop a new thermal energy storage technology to couple renewable heat sources, such as geothermal, biomass and solar, to heat demand in process heat and electricity generation.
This will reduce the need for fossil fuels in our primary processing sectors and electricity supply, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid carbon charges that would otherwise increase the cost of electricity and food products. The technology will also reduce the size of heat plants, save on the capital cost of new zero-emissions heat plants and hasten the decarbonisation of process heat. The global market for this technology is substantial and could lead to development of a large advanced manufacturing sector.

High-efficiency Gallium Oxide Power Electronics for New Zealand’s Zero Net Emissions Future

Contracting Organisation: University of Canterbury
Science Leader(s): Martin Allen
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

New Zealand's transition to a 100% renewable energy economy requires new power electronic devices that are faster, cheaper, and more efficient at handling our precious wind, solar, geothermal, and hydro electricity resources. More efficient and faster power electronic devices are needed to reduce the costs and energy losses so that as little as possible is wasted. A multidisciplinary expert team of scientists and electrical engineers from around the world will work on the development of an exciting new power electronic semiconductor material called gallium oxide.
This work has the potential to significantly improve the costs and efficiency of generating, distributing, and using renewable electricity for all our energy needs. This will create high value jobs In New Zealand and will be a big step towards meeting the New Zealand Government's targets of 100% renewable energy by 2035 and net zero emissions by 2050. Success in this endeavour represents a huge commercial opportunity as the world switches to renewable electrical energy, with the power electronics industry projected to grow to US$ 44.2 billion by 2025.

High-energy-density Rechargeable Seawater Batteries for Marine Renewable Energy Storage

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Dr Shanghai Wei
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Aotearoa New Zealand’s marine and aquaculture industries aim to grow to a $3Billion industry by 2030. These industries are also aiming to minimize their carbon footprint. Harnessing marine renewable energy (MRE), i.e. energy collected from wind, tides, salinity gradients and sunlight over the surface of the ocean is essential for decarbonisation of the marine and aquaculture sectors. This is especially important for Aotearoa New Zealand, which has an Exclusive Economic Zone approximately 15 times larger than its land area.
Efficient storage of MRE is essential for meeting the energy needs of the growing marine and aquaculture sectors. Currently, lead-acid batteries (LABs), and lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are used in these sectors, providing a power source to a wide range of underwater robots, sensors and inspection systems, as well as offering micro-grid scale energy storage. These battery technologies have limitations due to low energy density (LABs) and non-recyclability (LIBs), making them less than ideal for MRE storage and improving the sustainability/resilience of our aquaculture and marine industries.
This project aims to design and develop rechargeable seawater batteries (SWBs), a new battery technology that uses seawater as an active battery component. SWBs are considered very promising storage systems for marine renewable energy (MRE) storage. Our approach will combine the advantages of metal-air batteries and magnesium-ion rechargeable battery technologies. Novel alloys will be fabricated and applied as battery electrode materials, and hybrid rechargeable seawater batteries will be constructed.
The proposed work builds on our current fundamental battery research and will exploit unique methods to design and develop rechargeable batteries for MRE storage, sustainable aquaculture and the marine industry. This research will deliver environmentally friendly batteries with high-energy-density, low-cost and 100% recyclability.

How do native super-producers of organic matter mitigate aquatic metal mixture toxicity?

Contracting Organisation: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Jennifer Gadd
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Copper and zinc are essential metals for life, but when concentrations become too high they can be toxic to aquatic organisms. Although naturally occurring, these metals are also incorporated into products widely used in our urban landscape, such as brake pads, tyres, piping and roofing. During heavy rain, worn debris from these are washed into our waterways, resulting in metal concentrations which often exceed water quality guidelines.
Contamination of our freshwaters is increasing as urbanization, mining, agriculture, forestry and climate change effects increase. Toxicity from these metals is contributing to reduced ecosystem health, degrading urban streams with reduced biodiversity and decreased mauri.
Can our native trees come to the rescue? Natural dissolved organic matter (DOM) originating from plants can reduce the toxicity of these metals by binding with them, decreasing their bioavailability. Preliminary research has shown DOM from pōhutukawa and mānuka leaves are highly effective at mitigating copper and zinc toxicity to some aquatic organisms. These are two of natures ‘organic carbon super-producers’, but are there others?
With the objective of avoiding retrofitting urban areas with costly hard engineering to minimise metal inputs to streams, this research is seeking to increase ecosystem health protection by proactively optimising DOM in waterways — using ‘super-producers' in streamside plantings and Green Infrastructure to reduce metal toxicity.
This research will screen plant materials (for example, leaves, bark and woodchips) characterising the DOM and developing relationships with toxicity mitigation to select high affinity and high DOM producing native species. Ecosystem protection will be verified using toxicity tests with selected taonga species (for example, kōura, kākahi or īnanga), generating data for water quality guidelines and the development of guidance for optimal plant selection in riparian and Green Infrastructure applications.

How many flowers? Sugars, hormones and dioecy

Contracting Organisation: The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Dr Simona Nardozza
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Crop yields rely on flower numbers and quality, and these historically have been shown to vary according to climate. With predicted climate change, this will be exacerbated: flower numbers will be more inconsistent between seasons and current mitigation techniques (e.g. labour and chemicals) will become increasingly unsustainable, making profitable and sustainable crop yields a challenge for growers. Using our unique kiwifruit model system to study flower abortion/retention, we will identify unknown regulators of flower number and corresponding metabolic pathways that could be used to ensure high crop yields. We will develop novel tools to select new cultivars with the desired flower number and yield in kiwifruit, and these could then be translated to other perennial crops, such as avocado, citrus, grape and apple. Our science team includes experts in flower biology, plant signalling and metabolism, including leading scientists from three international labs and local students. Our advisory group will engage with the horticulture industry, including Māori growers, to set the path for future development and uptake of this knowledge.

Image-guided photonics probe, a medical device for accurate real-time prostate cancer detection

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Claude Aguergaray
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

The technology developed thanks to this Smart Idea funding will allow identification of the locality and severity of prostate cancer with unprecedented accuracy and give clinicians and surgeons real-time information to diagnose prostate cancer or remove it in surgery – an international first. Our technology uses artificial intelligence to interpret MRI images (this is used to accurately localise the cancer), and photonic probes (sensors that use light) to identify healthy and cancerous tissue.
Prostate cancer is the second most common male cancer worldwide, with growing incidence. It is the most diagnosed cancer, and among the top 4 causes of death (600 deaths/year), for men in New Zealand. Māori men have significantly worse prostate cancer outcomes, being less likely to be screened and diagnosed. There is currently no method to diagnose prostate cancer rapidly and accurately. Current methods have an accuracy of 20-80% and rely on invasive biopsies with well-known side effects. ~50% of prostate biopsies are unnecessary, being of benign tissue, while 38% of cancer surgeries leave positive (cancerous) margins. Loss of life and economic impact on New Zealand exceeds $100m p.a.
Our device will revolutionise the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer, building on our team’s skills in photonics, AI, medical device development, prostate cancer diagnosis and surgery, and MedTech device commercialisation. A new company will seek investment in the technology to drive manufacturing in and export from New Zealand.
The global prostate cancer diagnostics market was worth USD$3.2billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD$8,2billion by 2028. The high-tech New Zealand company established to commercialise our next-generation diagnostic devices will provide new job opportunities in the fast-growing New Zealand’s Healthtech sector.

Implanted sensors monitoring tree health and carbon capture efficiency

Contracting Organisation: New Zealand Forest Research Institute Limited
Science Leader(s): Dr Yi Chen
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Forests are hosting significant biodiversity, they are key to climate change mitigation and play an important role in NZ’s economy.
Traditionally the forest management sector perceives large forestry blocks as uniform entities. Remote sensing uses a new generation of tools (satellites and drones) to monitor forests ecosystem global fluctuations. While very powerful, these techniques can be expensive to implement, require a large dataset to be analysed and often need ground-truthing validation. Precision forestry is an emerging branch of forest management aimed at enhancing the potential of forests and future-proofing their resilience to climate change. To implement this practice new devices able to continuously monitor the physiological processes of individual trees in real-time need to be developed.
This work aims at adapting and creating low-cost, implantable bioelectronics sensors able to holistically measure tree’s nutritional status, vitality and microbiome fitness. This will be achieved by measuring the concentrations of potassium cations in xylem, sucrose in phloem and under-bark methane. For this, we will use organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) sensor technology. To allow the rapid transfer of information the generated data will be transmitted via a wireless network meshed with Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
The data fusion between remote sensing and physiological sensors will allow foresters, and forest managers to quickly implement best management practices. The wealth of data will empower scientists to decipher fundamental aspects of tree biology and use these tools to select the cultivars best suited for future climate change. The implementation of sensors in forests will be also used as an early diagnosis system again pathogens.
We also believe that this technology will create opportunities for engaging citizens and forest managers in this new generation of forest monitoring.

Information measurement for explainable artificial intelligence

Contracting Organisation: The Research Trust of Victoria University of Wellington
Science Leader(s): Paul Teal
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the personal and professional lives of everyone in NZ.
Most of the important advances in AI use a technique called deep learning (DL). DL systems improve productivity and safety in manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, finance, government, and research.
The main impediment to the uptake of AI is lack of transparency. DL systems are notorious for being 'black boxes', i.e., the way that a decision is made is not transparent to the user. Users are right to be wary of decisions that are not explained. Governments have legislated the right to “meaningful information about the logic involved” for people affected by an AI decision but cannot provide it.
The active research area of explainable AI (XAI) attempts to provide this transparency. Many XAI approaches attempt to “look inside” the black box. These approaches cannot leverage the power of DL.
We have prototyped a different concept which uses repeated querying of generative models to reveal and measure the information that most impacts the decisions. This project aims to develop the concept into practical applications. The research will:
improve its speed
adapt it to the generative models applicable in particular use-cases
prove its competitiveness and effectiveness in terms of the reliability of the outputs, and the quality of the explanations provided.
The research will focus on a concrete use-case, namely disinformation in social media, in partnership with the New Zealand Social Media Study (NZSMS). The NZSMS promotes an informed public by publishing findings of disinformation in political party social media. NZSMS currently uses manual text analysis and use of this technique will ensure more efficient, rapid, and explainable analysis.

Innovating climate risk assessment: A system-wide, geospatial approach for councils and communities

Contracting Organisation: University of Canterbury
Science Leader(s): Tom Logan
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Governments worldwide are ill-equipped to understand their risk from climate change, partly due to existing limitations in risk science. We propose to address these limitations and fundamentally shift how risk analysis is conducted, enabling local governments globally to understand and adapt to their risks. In NZ, the Zero Carbon Act (2019) requires local authorities to assess their climate risks - likely needed for the 2026 national climate change risk assessment.
The NZ government considers risks using the following interdependent value domains: Natural environment, Built environment, Human, Economic, and Governance. This interdependence means that an impact on one will incur consequences to others. However, while existing risk assessments and governmental guidance documents have recognised this interdependence (critical from Te Ao Māori perspectives), none successfully manage these complexities. Additionally, existing assessments and guidance fail to sufficiently address the changing risk over time; consider the risk spatially (essential for evaluating adaptation options); evaluate impacts from compounding and cascading hazards; and address the inherent uncertainty. These limitations are not confined to NZ; a worldwide review of climate adaptation plans concluded they are "unlikely to be effective" (Olazabal & Ruiz De Gopegui, 2021), indicating a global shortage of adequate guidance.
We propose a Knowledge Hub for Climate Risk Analysis Innovation to address these limitations. This work will set the global standard for assessing climate risk to maximise societal benefits for communities worldwide.

Innovative wastewater treatment intensification for stringent nitrogen and N2O control

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Naresh Singhal
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 2 years

Public Statement

New Zealand's Essential Freshwater package aims to protect and improve the country's freshwater quality within five years. However, a significant number of wastewater treatment systems (145 out of 321) currently discharge excessive nitrogen, surpassing the limits set by the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management. To meet these standards, extensive upgrades to all wastewater treatment systems in the country would be required, involving significant investments and operational costs. However, improving nitrogen removal in these systems can lead to increased emissions of N2O, a potent greenhouse gas.
Under the Net Zero Carbon Act, New Zealand seeks to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions. As there are no domestic measurements for N2O emissions from wastewater treatment systems, utilities estimate their emissions using guidelines provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The revised 2019 IPCC emission factor for N2O in wastewater treatment was substantially increased, making the wastewater treatment contribution 37%-50% of a council's total emissions.
Currently, no solutions are available to simultaneously reduce N2O emissions and improve nitrogen removal in wastewater treatment systems. In this project, we will create a new technology that offers a unique capability to activate enzymes in the microbial nitrogen cycle, effectively reducing N2O emissions while enhancing nitrogen removal. Additionally, we will create an easy approach to accurately estimating N2O emissions during wastewater treatment to identify the major emission sources and implement targeted reduction measures.

Ion Pipette Aspiration Chips for Soft Colloidal Micromechanics

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Geoff Willmott
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Many types of microparticle are soft: they can deform and even flow when they are squashed and squeezed. The mechanical (or more fully, rheological) behaviour of these particles turns out to be very important for very many research fields. To name just a few, there are open research questions about the mechanics of the cells that make up our bodies, eggs used for in vitro fertilization, colloids that make up food and beverages, the zoospores of Kauri Dieback, and the liposomes that carry medical payloads such as the new RNA vaccines.
The problem is that the researchers, clinicians and technicians working with these soft particles do not have the equipment to easily measure their mechanical properties. Particles can be counted by flow cytometers, and their chemistry can be determined by spectroscopy, but applying a force to them and properly analysing the result is actually trickier.
This project will solve that problem by developing a new technology that can carry out mechanical measurements quickly, accurately and effectively. This new technology will also be portable, adaptable, and able to be deployed in many types of laboratories, so that it will be useful for most projects and problems. It will be developed in collaboration with a network of experts across many research disciplines, who have many global connections.
Our goal is to create a product that can be assembled and exported, meeting the fast-growing global demand for such research instruments. This development will bring economic benefits and enhance the scientific and technical capability of New Zealanders. The collaborative studies in this project could also generate benefits in areas such as healthcare, environmental management, and for companies who work with soft microparticles.

Kōwhaiwhai pūtoi koiora - Kōwhaiwhai based biomaterial packaging

Contracting Organisation: Massey University
Science Leader(s): Professor John Bronlund

Robert Jahnke
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 2 years

Public Statement

Kōwhaiwhai is a non-figurative design system, comprised of a series of patterns, aligned with unfurling shoots of the fern frond, the flowering beak-shaped ngutu kākā shrub and the dynamic rhythm of ocean tides. The patterns, inspired by nature, can typically be found painted or carved in meeting houses, storehouses, canoes and paddles. Kōwhaiwhai are not just decorative but impart an important cultural narrative.
We have observed similarities between kōwhaiwhai and auxetic patterns. While regular materials thin laterally when stretched, auxetic materials thicken, providing unique functionality such as enhanced shock and vibration energy absorption, and flexibility to stiff materials. These features produce 3D-shapes and properties from 2D- sheeted materials. These new materials can add value and protect foods as innovative food packaging. Exports from the NZ primary sector total around $37b/yr with a growth target of $64b/yr by 2025. Every product uses packaging to protect it from physical damage and spoilage, making packaging one of NZ's major export products by volume.
Through an exciting research collaboration between Toioho ki Āpiti (Maori art section, School of Art) and Food Packaging Engineering at Massey University, together with materials expertise from Scion and Callaghan Innovation, we will develop novel packaging applications of kōwhaiwhai that are consistent with its use, while positively promoting and embracing Māori culture. We will associate kōwhaiwhai within contexts consistent with Māori values of kaitiakitanga (guardianship of the land) by adopting biomaterials such as paper and fibreboard instead of plastics. This research will deliver novel science-based methodologies to design kōwhaiwhai-based materials with:
unique and tailored inherent mechanical functionality
* the ability to embed an underlying narrative
* universally recognisable NZ Aotearoa provenance
* made from environmentally sustainable materials
* protectable under Trademark and Copyright Acts.

Large landslides as ground motion calibrators in the Hikurangi margin

Contracting Organisation: GNS Science
Science Leader(s): Robert Langridge
Funding (GST excl): $999,954
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

The Hikurangi subduction zone (HSZ) off the eastern North Island is capable of generating magnitude >8 earthquakes resulting in severe impacts for the people, infrastructure, economy, and landscape of Aotearoa-New Zealand. The southern HSZ alone poses a 26% probability of rupture within the next 50 years. However, we have not experienced a 'great' HSZ earthquake for at least two centuries. This means that seismic hazard scientists have very limited data from which to model the effects of 'great' HSZ earthquakes. So, what indicators are out there that can help understand future HSZ shaking scenarios?
Large earthquake-induced landslides (LEILs) provide information to unravel the past history of landscape damage. The 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikōura earthquake provided many important insights for understanding LEILs in Aotearoa-New Zealand that will enable us to distinguish between HSZ-derived landslides and upper-plate fault or weather- derived landslides in the Wairarapa region. Our MBIE Smart Idea brings a novel, proof-of-concept approach to landslide and fault source research. We will create a Wairarapa landslide database using state-of-the-art LiDAR to assess LEIL distributions; undertake geologic studies to date historical (1855, 1942) and pre-historical landslides; and utilise ShakeMaps and probabilistic maps of co-seismic landscape damage to help define the source process. We will work with Rangitāne o Wairarapa iwi to explore mātauranga related to deaths resulting from the notable 1855 earthquake in this area.
Results will inform the national seismic hazard model so that informed planning can be made towards natural hazard events. Outreach with existing programs in the Wellington/Wairarapa region (WREMO, It's Our Fault) will allow us to disseminate our results to a wide set of end-users, and importantly the Aotearoa-New Zealand public.

Leveraging neuropharmacology to target trap-shy and bait-shy vertebrate pests

Contracting Organisation: Landcare Research
Science Leader(s): Mr Graham Hickling
Funding (GST excl): $850,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Our past research has shown that bait-shy animals continue to feed cautiously on small amounts of non-toxic ‘pre-feed’ bait. Our Smart Idea is that adding neuropharmacologically active compounds to pre-feed can restore these shy pests’ drive to enter traps or consume toxic bait.
Vertebrate pest eradication programmes fail, in part, because control efforts usually generate some bait-shy and trap-shy survivors that are wary of subsequent control attempts. These animals quickly breed to restore the previous population. As a result, the Department of Conservation, regional councils and community conservation groups struggle to reduce populations of rats, possums and other pests on the New Zealand mainland. These groups are urgently seeking new tools to improve their pest control success.
For possums and ship rats we will use neuropharmacological methods to identify chemical compounds that provide a much greater stimulus to the reward circuitry of these animals’ brains than they experience from normal foods or traditional baits.
By combining these methods with our understanding of vertebrate pest behaviour, we will:
Determine the influence of a range of additives on dopamine release in the brain of possums and ship rats
measure the change in bait-seeking behaviour generated by that dopamine release.
We will use these steps to identify compounds that can be incorporated into baits to enhance the trappability of ship rats and possums.
By increasing target species’ drive to seek out and interact with traps and baits – thereby removing pests that were previously difficult to control – our approach will greatly improve the cost-effectiveness of many current pest control methods, including matauranga Maori techniques.

Leveraging te reo Māori natural language processing for collaborative climate change action

Contracting Organisation: Te Reo Irirangi o Te Hiku o Te Ika trading as Te Hiku Media
Science Leader(s): Keoni Mahelona
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 2 years

Public Statement

As communities around Aotearoa come to grips with the impacts of climate change and adverse weather conditions, they look to researchers, community leaders and decision-makers for guidance to help them move towards climate resilience. Some communities also look to ancestral knowledge, mātauranga Māori, for guidance and the right path forward. For researchers that seek to bring those two knowledge systems together, there is no technology available to support them.
The work Te Hiku Media proposes will be to explore a collaborative platform that will synthesise and analyse data in te reo Māori and NZ English using natural language processing (NLP) tools to support research, policy and strategy development for climate action. The project will leverage existing tools, including an accurate bilingual automatic speech transcription for te reo Māori and NZ English, and build new tools that will make working with te reo Māori data and mātauranga Māori easier and more effective. The project will focus on creating and finetuning language tools for climate change research and mātauranga Māori.
Leaders across our communities are being asked to make critical decisions with their teams of people expected to provide the best evidence to support those decisions. A platform that makes domain specific NLP tools and the resulting output accessible for those decision-makers in the community will be explored, getting the data and evidence into the hands of those that need it. Importantly, this project will remove barriers for the community to engage in research using te reo Māori ensuring that Māori knowledge and perspectives can be included.
For more information about the project, email info@tehiku.co.nz

Lightweight compliant mechanism robotic grippers for fruit harvesting

Contracting Organisation: University of Waikato
Science Leader(s): Ajit Pal Singh
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

This Smart Idea will produce a new generation of light, inexpensive, efficient and reliable harvesting grippers using advanced design and manufacturing techniques. Current harvesting grippers transfer motion and force through mechanisms that consist of multiple rigid parts connected by movable joints. These joints, when used repeatedly, suffer from friction and wear-induced failure. They are also heavy, expensive and require assembly, lubrication, and regular maintenance, especially in the harsh outdoor environment in which they mostly operate. Our novel approach to address these issues will combine the complementary strengths of compliant mechanisms, generative design, and additive manufacturing to create a cost-effective and robust robotic harvesting gripper that cannot be produced by any other means.
The key aspect will be to integrate an advanced algorithm-driven generative design approach with a complex compliant mechanism node geometry creation process. This will be achieved by identifying critical interfaces between the flexure-joint segments (nodes) and potential areas where generative algorithms are applicable. With successful development of computational generative models, a fully optimized additive manufacturing processing route to fabricate complex organic-shaped compliant gripper structures will be established. Additionally, techniques to verify the functionality of the 3D-printed prototypes and to validate fatigue performance will also be developed.
Success will provide significant advances in the field of robotic grippers, bridging the gap between innovative design and advanced manufacturing of compliant mechanisms. The new robotic gripper technology will provide benefits to many New Zealand companies (including Robotics Plus, Axis7) through our existing and future partnerships. Furthermore, it will create opportunities to upskill fruit picking workforce into higher value jobs (incl. Māori orchardists) and help solve New Zealand’s horticulture labour issues and provide opportunities for high-value exports in a rapidly growing sector.

Long-lived, high-performance organic batteries for a greener rechargeable world

Contracting Organisation: University of Canterbury
Science Leader(s): Deborah Crittenden
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Imagine having a battery that lasted just as long after 5, 10 or even 20 years of use as the day it was new. This is the promise of redox-flow batteries, which store energy using liquid electrolytes rather than solid electrodes that degrade over time. Unfortunately, they won't be coming to a mobile phone or computer near you any time soon, partly because consumer electronics and liquids don't mix but - more seriously - because they can't store nearly enough energy in a small enough volume for many practical applications. Our research aims to solve this problem by inventing new materials known as ionic liquids that are a lot more energy dense than the materials currently used in redox-flow batteries.
If we're successful, they still won't replace your phone or computer battery but they may replace lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles (imagine being able to refill your tank with charged battery fluid rather than having to wait at a charging station!), will be a really good, cost-effective and environmentally-conscious replacement for the lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries commonly used for storing electricity generated by rooftop solar panels, and will also be able to play this role on a much grander scale; storing all energy generated from the variable and intermittent renewable supply (for example, wind, solar, tidal) across the grid network. These batteries will play a critical role in helping New Zealand reach its climate change goals of 100% renewable electricity generation by 2035 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

Low-carbon and seismically resilient solutions for 3D concrete printed homes

Contracting Organisation: University of Canterbury
Science Leader(s): Giuseppe Loporcaro
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

New Zealand (NZ) has an ongoing housing crisis. The strong demand and supply chain issues have made housing an unsustainable problem with construction delays and an increase in material costs. Also, the construction industry has lacked innovation and it is moving at a slow pace compared to other industries. In addition, the global construction industry is responsible for 37% of CO2 emissions.
Digital fabrication in construction is a promising technology that could disrupt the current industry by producing high-quality, fast and integrated new design and construction processes. Research shows that digital fabrication and 3D printing of concrete could build 75% faster, emit 40% less CO2 and produce 70% less waste than traditional construction methods. The 3D-concrete printing technologies developed overseas cannot be immediately implemented in NZ because of the unique seismicity of the country.
This research aims to develop a 3D-concrete printing technology for residential houses that are low-carbon and seismic resilient. The new technology created would reduce the CO2 emissions of homes in two ways: 1) by developing 3D-printable mixes that use locally-sourced waste materials such as mussel shells and paper sludge ash and low- CO2 producing magnesium-based concrete; 2) by developing earthquake-resilient 3D printed structural configurations that are optimised to reduce materials usage and waste while improving structural efficiency.
We aim to develop design and construction guidelines for 3D-concrete printed houses. The guidelines will enable a new approach to construction in NZ which is cheaper and faster and can help to address the current housing crisis. We aim to provide a pathway to utilise waste products aligned with a circular and sustainable economy that also meets targets to address climate change.

Machine learning and CRISPR technologies to understand rumen methanogen interactions

Contracting Organisation: AgResearch Limited
Science Leader(s): Dr Sandeep Gupta
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Methane produced by farmed animals is a major source of greenhouse gas and a leading contributor to global warming from human activity. In Aotearoa NZ, methane produced by farmed animals accounts for 86% of all greenhouse gas production from the agriculture sector. Methanogens that live in the rumen (stomach) of the livestock are responsible for methane production but are also vital to the animals’ digestion and nutrition. The development of a vaccine and/or chemical inhibitors to mitigate this methane production by methanogens in livestock is now a primary objective for scientists, industry, and the government in Aotearoa NZ. But lack of knowledge about the methanogen genes that are involved in methane production has hindered development of these tools. We will combine Machine Learning algorithms and CRISPR gene-editing technologies to identify the genes of rumen methanogens that are responsible for methane production. We will develop new Machine Learning algorithms to predict gene function in the rumen methanogens and develop a new way to deliver gene editing technology into methanogens in order to study the function of any key genes of interest. This information will provide much needed scientific knowledge on a novel set of effective vaccine or chemical inhibitor targets to mitigate methane production by rumen methanogens, thereby reducing methane emissions in ruminant animals such as cows and sheep. Collectively, these approaches will help in developing effective strategies to reduce methane emissions from ruminant livestock, enabling Aotearoa NZ to meet its greenhouse gas emissions targets, ensuring the agriculture sector retains social and environmental licence-to-operate and improving sustainable animal production in Aotearoa NZ.

Machine Learning for Emergency Medical Dispatch: A Data Driven Approach

Contracting Organisation: The Research Trust of Victoria University of Wellington
Science Leader(s): Yi Mei
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

In 2019, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission estimated that improving the average ambulance response time by sixty seconds would save 10,120 lives per year, each valued at US$9.1 million. We infer that such an improvement projected to New Zealand could save up to 150 lives per year, each valued at $4.46 million by the Ministry of Transport.
The problem faced by ambulance services changes daily: they do not know how many emergencies of which urgency will occur when or where. New Zealand services act with a limited set of resources and struggle to meet the response time targets set by Government. While an increase in infrastructure funding would improve the total volume of available resources (staff and vehicles), efficient resource utilisation is critical to emergency service performance.
Using novel machine learning techniques, this project aims to develop methods that can more efficiently manage ambulance resources than human dispatchers. In collaboration with Wellington Free Ambulance, we learn from existing dispatcher expertise and years of historical dispatch data to improve response times to patients. In addition to response time, we learn dispatch policies which maximise paramedic break length, provide equitable service across the Wellington region, and are understandable to audit staff at Wellington Free Ambulance

Manipulation of fungi-associated bacterial communities to combat plant fungal disease

Contracting Organisation: Lincoln Agritech Limited
Science Leader(s): Jin-Hua Li
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 2 years

Public Statement

We will develop a new way of protecting plants against fungal disease, by exposing plants to the inactivated variants of the disease-causing fungi. Fungal diseases can cause huge damage to crops, for example, in 2022 80% of New Zealand’s passionfruit crops was lost. The most common method of protecting crops against fungi is use of synthetic chemical sprays. However, legislation and consumers are increasingly demanding reductions in chemical residues and fungi are becoming resistant to synthetic fungicides, driving a search for more sustainable solutions.
Our novel approach will make fungi unable to cause disease by changing the bacteria that are associated with the fungi. We have discovered that the degree of disease which a fungus will cause in a plant is related to the bacteria living with the fungus. If you change the bacteria, it seems that you change whether a fungus can make a plant sick. We will test this concept by removing and changing the bacteria in a fungus that infects brassica plants, for example, broccoli, cabbage. We will coat seeds with the altered fungus, then try to infect the seedlings with the original fungus to see whether our new products have protected the plant from infection.
Our team from LAL, Scion, Utrecht University and the Foundation for Arable Research are experts in plant pathology, microbiology, next-generation sequencing, microscopy, mātauranga Māori and commercialisation of new horticultural products. We will trial our products in the field with horticulturalists and work with the agricultural products industry to commercialise our new approach. Such fungal bioprotectants will help protect NZ growers and also provide export revenue from an ongoing stream of new products designed to protect plants against disease-causing fungi.

Matatuhi: Unlocking the forecasting potential of environmental tohu via ensemble systems models

Contracting Organisation: Massey University
Science Leader(s): Melody Whitehead
Funding (GST excl): $999,909
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Our world is changing faster and in ever more diverse ways – global records are being broken from droughts to floods, and in Aotearoa we have seen cataclysmic flooding, catastrophic volcanic eruptions, and the Canterbury earthquakes. An essential task in managing and adapting to our future is being able to forecast it. Science is trying to keep up with these changes, but current forecasting models require large amounts of information, and tend to focus only on one small part of a system (for example, the waterways, or the fault network). Environmental forecasts lack both sufficient data and knowledge to build reliable models. We, as scientists, are stuck.
We believe that the way out is by taking an all-inclusive approach, looking at the system as a whole, with parts intricately woven together. Such an approach is intrinsic to Mātauranga Maori which, moreover, provides for an alternative lens on what can be considered data, beyond instrumental readings. We know that adding more voices with alternate understandings leads to better, more transparent forecasts with accurate descriptions of uncertainty.
Our project provides robust forecasts of the future by combining adaptable statistical tools with the intrinsic Mātauranga of iwi. We start with a proof-of concept region – the Central Volcanic Plateau, and will build location-specific tools that will be realised with iwi that whakapapa to this region. Once proven, our methodologies can be directly transplanted to other localities within Aotearoa.
This research will build robust forecasts of our environmental future, and shift the conversation in Aotearoa away from “How can Mātauranga Māori be fitted into science?” and towards “What can science do to support Mātauranga Māori?”

Microgravity injury modulation device

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Anthony Phillips
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Wound healing is a complex and coordinated set of events that usually proceeds without major issue. However factors such as the environment or human variables such as age, underlying diseases and medications can delay or derail this healing process. Here we propose for eventual commercialization, the development of a new type of wound healing intervention that is designed to augment healing processes in many settings. The proposed smart idea is particularly relevant to deployment in unusual and remote environments such as low gravity (for example, space station or future moon and Mars colony locations) or oxygen deprived situations (for example, high altitude), where injury healing may be impaired and complicated. 

Microwave Brain Scanner for Early Alzheimer’s Disease Detection

Contracting Organisation: University of Waikato
Science Leader(s): Yifan Chen
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Dementia is currently the seventh leading cause of death among all diseases and a major cause of disability and dependency worldwide. Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is its most common form and may contribute to 60-70% of cases. The current gold standard of diagnosing and monitoring AD heavily relies on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) β-Amyloid (Aβ) protein detection and CT/MRI/PET scans. However, the use of these methods presents several challenges: CSF analysis is invasive, CT and PET scans involve ionizing radiation, CT and MRI scans do not detect AD-related pathology, and PET scans are expensive and have limited availability.
This project will develop a new microwave AD scanner (MAS) that is safe, cost-effective, non-invasive, pathologically specific, and portable, differentiating it from currently available imaging equipment and driving uptake in point-of-care applications, where patients can be tested outside an imaging suite or even in the individual’s home. Currently, ultrasound is the only truly portable imaging modality as required for point-of-care testing; however, ultrasound has difficulty in penetrating the human skull and therefore is not suitable for brain imaging. Our new approach will provide improved capability for rapidly diagnosing and monitoring AD, while providing direct measurement of AD-related pathology.
Our scanner will be made possible through our understanding of the imaging potential of chirality (handedness) of Aβ protein. This project will generate new knowledge about how we can make use of signal polarization deflection properties correlated with Aβ chirality to detect and locate Aβ in the human brain. Our research will drive new manufacturing capability in New Zealand for the MAS and its IP-rich hardware system.
Contact: yifan.chen@waikato.ac.nz

Mitigating Indoor Agricultural Ammonia Emissions with Wool Composite

Contracting Organisation: University of Otago
Science Leader(s): Eng Tan
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

This project will develop an innovative technology for absorbing excess ammonia using sheep’s wool to mitigate the adverse effects of ammonia pollution from indoor agricultural operations.
Excess ammonia in the environment is a public concern as it is toxic to both humans and animals, promotes unwanted algal growth in waterways, and causes air pollution through the formation of small airborne particles. Current ammonia scrubbing systems involve the use of harsh toxic chemicals that require complex storage, handling, and disposal protocols, and the associated health-and-safety and compliance considerations. We envisage that the use of a natural under-valued material that is relatively abundant in NZ (course sheep's wool) that does not require specialised handling, will have environmental and economic benefits as well as ease-of-uptake and use.
We have recently discovered that appropriately treated sheep’s wool can reduce ammonia concentration in an air-flow. We will study this unique phenomenon through surface studies of the treated wool fibre to create a product that can be used to sequester ammonia in the air. We plan to investigate the regeneration of the treated wool product for repeated use, and harvesting of the captured ammonia for productive applications.
Our team consists of academic and industrial scientists, and industry partners, who can make use of the deep wool expertise in NZ. Although agricultural applications will serve as a demonstration, we can see the use of this technology in other applications to create other products, from personal protection equipment (PPE) to alternative-fuel production.

Moriori, Music and Manawa: Engaging Multisensory Experiences for Indigenous Cultural Revitalisation

Contracting Organisation: University of Otago
Science Leader(s): Dr Gianna Savoie
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 2 years

Public Statement

Aotearoa shines as gem of cultural richness, but one facet of its history has yet to be illuminated – the story of our indigenous Moriori. Cultural health is interlaced with national health and when one erodes, so does the other. It is often forgotten that New Zealand has not one, but two native peoples, and few have suffered such persistent and damaging myths and misinformation about their cultural heritage as the Moriori of Rēkohu (Chatham Islands). False narratives perpetuated for generations have misrepresented them as a people who were conquered, cast away and ultimately driven to extinction.
The truth is that Moriori are very much a living indigenous community with a history steeped in connection to the natural world – the land, the wind, the sea. Highly adapted to their island environment and bounty of natural resources, they developed their own specialised culture, traditions, language and music – all now at risk of being lost or forgotten.
In a marriage of indigenous knowledge and cutting-edge technology, this groundbreaking project, co-designed with and directed by the Hokotehi Moriori Trust, serves to revitalise Moriori culture through a multisensory, cross-cultural approach. Employing a range of multimedia replication technologies including acoustic sampling, 3D printing, extended reality (XR) and 360^o filmmaking, our international team of contributors will co-design and create an immersive experience to be shared with the global public. It is research that embraces totohunga (heart) by engaging the public in a project that amplifies the Moriori story while creating a scalable model for advancing cultural understanding everywhere.

New Zealand seaweed - a tissue engineering opportunity

Contracting Organisation: University of Otago
Science Leader(s): Lyn Wise
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 2 years

Public Statement

Our goal is to create a new, high-value line of products from New Zealand seaweed (rimurimu) through use of an environmentally-friendly technology (pulsed electric field or ‘PEF’) to generate supporting material for tissue engineering.
Tissue engineering enables creation of functional tissues outside or within their animal host and is used for repair of human organs (regenerative medicine) and ethical production of cell-based meat and seafood (cellular agriculture). The supporting materials used must be safe for cells to grow on and provide physical and biological cues that encourage tissue formation. There is an unmet demand for natural materials produced in a sustainable and ethical manner that does not harm the environment.
We propose processing of seaweed can deliver all the requirements for supporting materials and that sustainable production is possible without harsh chemicals or wastage. Our Smart Idea will pioneer the application of PEF to intact seaweed to isolate its cellulose and other active constituents, then establishing their utility for engineering of skin and muscle.
Our internationally recognised team of scientists from University of Otago, Plant and Food Research and Victoria University of Wellington, in partnership with Māori whānau-owned business AgriSea NZ Seaweed, are poised to develop the knowledge, tools and pathways needed to integrate manufacturing of tissue engineering products into a sustainable seaweed sector.
In our Māori-centric approach, we will explore rimurimu whakapapa and seek kawa and tikanga relating to the gathering, storage, traditional use, and protection of rimurimu. This will enable us to seamlessly merge Māori knowledge and perspectives with high-end technology to underpin development of an industry where remote coastal communities will supply seaweed for manufacturing of high-value products for export to tissue engineering industries.

Next generation condensing heat exchanger technology: design, development and demonstration

Contracting Organisation: University of Otago
Science Leader(s): Sam Lowrey
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Heating, Ventilating, Air-conditioning, and Refrigeration equipment is estimated to account for around 20% of global electricity use and around 8% of global emissions.
Unfortunately, this equipment suffers from a build-up of water films that reduces their efficiency.
If a means could be found to manage this water and stop the films forming, it is estimated that the equipment’s efficiency could be lifted by 30% to 40%. This would have a major positive impact on the demand for electricity and GHG emissions.
Our Smart Idea addresses this problem by using micro patterned surfaces in the heat exchangers (HX) to remove droplets of water before they collapse into films.
There are 2 major problems standing in the way of this solution. Developing and reproducing the necessary patterns at a mm2 scale and being able to design heat exchanger surfaces to give this desired overall performance.
We will use our team’s skills in:
Microfabrication, microfluids, computational fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, and high-speed motion capture to design the necessary patterns and reproduce them using 3D printing
Machine learning and generative AI to develop tools to design the micro patterns based on the performance required of the exchanger surface. The latter is not possible using traditional software because there are simply too many options to allow more traditional approaches to optimisation.
The team will be advised by a range of companies in the HX manufacturing and AI software areas; organisations involved with appliance efficiency and its impact on emissions; and those involved in the development of Manufacturing 4.0 in NZ that this project will contribute to.

Novel multisensory push-pull insect pest control system: combining ultrasound repellents and pheromone/kairomone attractants

Contracting Organisation: The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Flore Mas, Adriana Najar-Rodriguez
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Our novel idea is to deter insect pests from eating crops by combining predatory bat ultrasounds to ‘push’ insects away from crops (putting speakers in fields), with smells that insects find attractive to ‘pull’ them away from crops (putting the scents adjacent to fields). In a world first, we will decipher how insects make decisions when faced with deterrents and attractants at the same time. This new knowledge will be useful beyond the project, in helping develop new ways of managing insect pests.
Our team from Plant & Food Research, Otago University, Japan, Australia and New Caledonia brings together skills in bioacoustics to study ultrasounds, neurophysiology to study insect brain responses, chemical ecology to understand insect attractants, technology to broadcast bat calls, and access to insects and sites for field trials. The Department of Conservation will work with our team and ensure our technology is deployed only in areas where endemic bats are not present. Opportunity is provided for 2 Māori students to develop their research skills and contribute towards securing cultural and social licence for our project.
The benefits from our new approach will be a reduction in agrichemical use to control insect pests, reduction of crop losses, and maintenance of markets for our primary products in the face of growing concerns about agrichemical usage. Our novel platform to decipher insects’ sensory perceptions will facilitate the screening and future development of tools to control present and future threats, protecting Aotearoa-NZ from insects that can harm our economy and the environment.

Octopus a Novel High Value Species for NZ Aquaculture

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Dr Andrew Jeffs
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

This research will develop novel larval culture technology to provide a source of juvenile octopus for ongrowing that will underpin the emergence of a globally unique octopus aquaculture industry in New Zealand, while also driving greater sustainability in the seafood sector. A team of leading octopus aquaculture researchers from Japan, Australia and New Zealand will collaborate to build on recent significant local advances in culturing New Zealand octopus species. These recent
advances include the development of new captive breeding techniques, artificial egg incubation and extended hatching technologies, and feeding octopus larvae with formulated feed. Further advances from this research will deliver the technology to supply juvenile octopus that can be grown rapidly to market size in aquaculture, reaching over 1.5 kg in less than a year. The advanced technologies for culturing marine larvae will also have ongoing benefits for the further diversification of New Zealand's aquaculture industry. Octopus aquaculture will leverage off the capacity of the existing Greenshell™ mussel industry, utilising expertise, excess farm space, and more than 5,000 tonnes of waste mussels a year will be converted to octopus food. The advent of this new industry will serve to diversify New Zealand's aquaculture sector by producing and supplying high-value octopus products into a global market that is characterised by ever increasing prices and demand, and constrained supply from wild octopus fisheries. The emergence of a new octopus aquaculture industry in New Zealand will provide new opportunities for Māori participants in the sector with the potential for rapid growth to over $100M within a decade, making an important contribution toward the sector achieving its growth target of becoming a $3 billion industry by 2035.

Photonic device for Varroa control in NZ beehives and beyond

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Cather Simpson
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

The parasitic mite Varroa destructor is the most significant cause of honeybee health decline in New Zealand and around the world. Through pollination, honeybees make the most valuable contribution to global food production ($US 235-577B annually) and to New Zealand’s $NZ 6.7B horticulture exports. Aotearoa also produces 15-22,000 tonnes of honey per year, worth $NZ 455M (2022). Varroa presents a considerable and growing threat to these industries. Despite >98% of New Zealand colonies being treated for Varroa, the loss of honeybee colonies continues to rise (6.4% in 2022).
This focused, ambitious R&D project will deliver a compact photonic prototype for integration into a beehive that identifies and targets Varroa mites carried by honeybees and laser-eliminates them before they can infest the colony, without chemical pesticides. This is a high-tech, science-stretch solution to a difficult challenge in the primary industries. Success will see better resiliency, food security and sustainability in the primary sector.
The project aims to develop technology that can be manufactured here in New Zealand and exported overseas, mostly to Europe and the Americas. The benefits here in Aotearoa will come through strengthening the honey, horticulture, pastoral and other industries that rely upon vibrant, robust apiculture. Though it is difficult to predict at this early stage, we estimate revenues in the $10’s to $100M’s per annum.
The R&D will be performed by a collaborative team from the University of Auckland’s Photon Factory and Plant & Food Research’s Bee Biology and Productivity Team. Together, we bring extensive laser research experience, commercialisation success and broad and deep connections with New Zealand’s beekeeping industry. Māori are key players in Aotearoa apiculture, and important stakeholders and participants in this project.

Physically plausible record-shattering drought events in a warming Aotearoa

Contracting Organisation: University of Waikato
Science Leader(s): Luke James Harrington
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Recent overseas research has highlighted the potential for record-shattering weather events to occur in the presence of high rates of global warming, rates which are expected to persist over the next several decades irrespective of emission reduction policies. Record-shattering events are those which exceed previous long-standing records by significant margins - they often have substantial social and economic impacts, due to a tendency for systems to adapt to the highest-intensity events experienced during a lifetime but rarely higher.
Building on successful research looking into the already-elevated risks of witnessing extreme meteorological drought events in Aotearoa, this project will combine data from very large regional climate model ensembles with guidance from historical observations and mātauranga Māori to identify physically plausible, record-shattering drought events capable of occurring across the motu within the next three decades. By quantifying locally specific estimates of the upper bound of future drought-related hazards, as well as contextualising how these plausible events relate to past experiences, this project will resolve the adaptation requirements needed for drought-exposed communities to thrive in a warming Aotearoa.

Plant-based bioactives for protecting our crops and ecosystems

Contracting Organisation: Victoria University of Wellington
Science Leader(s): Professor Monica Gerth
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Phytophthora is a genus of microorganisms that cause devastating dieback and root-rot diseases in thousands of plants worldwide. The economic impact of Phytophthora diseases on crops and native ecosystems is billions of dollars per annum, and these impacts are predicted to worsen with climate change. Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, a recently identified species Phytophthora agathidicida is threatening kauri (Agathis australis), which are treasured, long-lived native conifers. Whereas another Phytophthora species (P. cinnamomi) causes root rot in key NZ crops such as avocados.
These pathogens are extremely difficult to control using existing agrichemicals, and the effectiveness of the few available treatments is jeopardized by increasing rates of resistance.
Using a bi-cultural approach, our team has identified naturally occurring compounds from native New Zealand plants that inhibit the growth and survival of Phytophthora pathogens (in the laboratory, at least!). Here, we will build upon this work – and explore how to take these results from the laboratory to the field. Our ultimate goal is to have formulated plant extracts that are safe, effective, and can be used to control Phytophthora diseases in our fields and forests.

Plant-inspired 3D-printed scaffold for tissue culture

Contracting Organisation: New Zealand Forest Research Institute Limited
Science Leader(s): Ms Roya Rezanavaz
Funding (GST excl): $900,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Replicating the microenvironment that cells experience in a natural organism (in vivo) is extremely challenging in the laboratory (in vitro), yet it is the key to successful tissue culture. Tissue culture (TC) is critical in many disciplines of research, commercial applications and bio-based industries, and therefore improvement of this technique can have a large impact in these sectors. In an intact organism, cells experience complex interactions between cell populations and responses to external signals associated with the variable physical structure as well as a multitude of gradients of different phytohormones and nutrients. To further improve success rates of cell regeneration using TC would require a microenvironment with gradients of stiffness, nutrients and hormones embedded, and 3D tissue structures (scaffolds) in the confined environment to better mimic natural tissue conditions. Over the past few decades, various technologies have been developed to replicate such microenvironment for TC. However, they lack the ability to create an optimised microenvironment for a particular cell type and its developmental stages, especially for recalcitrant species. We propose to develop the technology to produce such a system using an adopted multi-vat 3D printer and test it in the context of in vitro plant regeneration via somatic embryogenesis (SE), which is currently being developed to produce trees for the NZ forestry industry.

Predictive tools to enable climate resilience for tītī/muttonbirds across Aotearoa.

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Dr Brendon Dunphy
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

New Zealand is the seabird capital of the world, yet 90% of our seabirds are threatened with extinction. Climate change and El Niño are known threats but their specific impacts on seabird stress and breeding are poorly described. This gap severely hampers our ability to ensure climate resilience in seabird populations.
To improve our ability to support seabird populations, researchers from The University of Auckland, Auckland University of Technology, DOC, Manaaki Whenua/Landcare Research and Tamaki Paenga Hira/Auckland War Memorial Museum are coming together to study tītī/sooty shearwater (Ardenna griseus). This species has immense cultural, economic, and ecological importance, so a project has been codesigned with Māori muttonbirding communities, eager to ensure that the mana and mauri of tītī persists in a warming future.
A key question is how will climate change and El Niño affect tītī stress levels/breeding in a warming future, given that stress reduces breeding success? The team will investigate whether: 1) tītī stress has increased over the last 130 years, 2) El Niño and warmer seas lift tītī stress levels, 3) northern tītī colonies are more stressed than southern.
The team will track migrating/breeding tītī over both hemispheres using the International Space Station. Bird tracks will be matched to satellite data on environmental conditions and bird stress assessed from feathers. We will develop a predictive model of how bird breeding success is affected by ocean conditions. This will provide rapid predictions of ‘bad seasons’ for DOC, kaitiaki and conservation groups, delivering greater agility in seabird management approaches and optimisation of future workplans to cope with climate change.

Preferred intake ryegrass for livestock gain and pasture resilience

Contracting Organisation: Barenburg New Zealand Limited
Science Leader(s): Colin Eady
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Barenbrug has identified an unusual distantly related ryegrass ecotype that exhibits a unique property that may improve livestock gain efficiency and pasture resilience. Over the past 16 years, this character has been bred into elite New Zealand germplasm resulting in plant lines with known genetic structure and a diverse range of this trait in the field. Using state-of-the-art metabolomic and genomic tools, the aim of this project is to identify the chemicals and genetic tags responsible for this character. This knowledge will facilitate the breeding of ryegrass cultivars that will substantially improve livestock gain through improved pasture utilisation. Improved ryegrass utilization will help maintain legumes, herb species, and other more resilient grasses in mixed pastures. The anticipated outcomes include promotion of biological nitrogen fixation, mitigation against nitrogen leaching, and improved management and maintenance of diverse, resilient, productive pastures in alignment with regenerative farming goals.

Printable Chipless RFID Tag Sensor on Biodegradable Materials for Seafood Quality Monitoring

Contracting Organisation: Auckland University of Technology
Science Leader(s): Xuejun Li
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Fresh seafood is notorious for its very short shelf life and spoils quickly. Besides food wastage and associated greenhouse gas emissions, this can also lead to serious food-borne diseases. To protect the worldwide reputation of New Zealand’s seafood sector, uphold seafood quality and further reduce waste, it is important to monitor seafood freshness.
Existing solutions have challenges, for example, sensor integration with thin and flexible packaging materials and end-of-life e-waste/pollution issues. Our research will enable a novel sensor concept to detect volatile amines based on a fully biodegradable chipless RFID tag. Our real-time monitoring system can prevent the consumption of spoiled food, providing information during the early stages of decay and enabling countermeasures to prevent fresh seafood from becoming food waste.
We will design functional polymer composites to sense volatile amines and print a passive chipless RFID tag directly on the polymer composite substrate. The main scientific stretch and the technological challenge is controlling the polymer composite structure to sense volatile amines and then produce a detectable change in electrical properties. This can be translated by a chipless RFID antenna pattern into the shift of resonant frequency, upon receiving the interrogation signal from an RFID reader.
We have identified three industry sectors that will benefit directly from the early adoption of biodegradable chipless RFID tags: food supply-chain management, where the proposed tag can sense vapours from fruits, vegetables, and seafood; toxic gas detection in chemical plants, and oxygen detection for worker safety. Successful execution of our research project will enable a new class of fully biodegradable chipless RFID sensors with the potential to disrupt a multibillion-dollar market.

Probiotic Inoculants for Seaweed Hatcheries and Aquaculture

Contracting Organisation: University of Waikato
Science Leader(s): Marie Magnusson
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Background
This project supports the emerging seaweed aquaculture industry in Aotearoa NZ by providing a proof-of-concept for the development of seaweed probiotics. The probiotics are based on microbial communities naturally associated with seaweed and aim to improve seaweed productivity and quality. To do this we will develop probiotic inoculants for application during the sensitive hatchery stage using a bottom-up approach (i.e constructing probiotic mixtures from single isolated bacteria) guided by bioinformatics and advanced statistical methods, and a novel top-down approach (i.e artificial selection of whole microbiomes) that selects seaweed microbiomes based on seaweed performance indicators. This approach leverages the high evolutionary potential of microbiomes and targets communities of microorganisms, which tend to be more stable to environmental changes due to functional redundancy built into their community structure.
Benefits to NZ
Seaweed probiotics improve growth and product quality, widening business profit margins. Seaweed seedlings are out-planted for grow-out based on size, so any reduction in time required in the hatchery results in significant cost reductions for hatchery management per seeding-event. Integration of other land-based aquaculture or waste-streams with improved seaweed production systems that better remove nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous) will reduce nutrient pollution and protect Aotearoa’s natural capital. New aquaculture technologies will support businesses and job-creation, and thereby growth in financial and physical capital.
Key beneficiaries
Laboratory studies have demonstrated that improvements in host microbiota increase seaweed productivity and quality, providing scope for new business opportunities and intellectual property development. Opportunity therefore exists for significant value-creation from Iwi-held and Pākehā businesses. Te Whānau-ā-Apanui have long-term aspirations to enhance mana through restoration of kaimoana and will benefit first from this project by co-developing and implementing land-based seaweed aquaculture and hatchery operations at Raukokore.

Recovery of high-value, natural flavour compounds from untapped food processing sources

Contracting Organisation: University of Otago
Science Leader(s): Graham Eyres
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Flavour compounds contribute to the sensory properties of a food and to consumer enjoyment - for example, think of the smell of freshly baked bread. For us to smell them, such compounds must be volatile, which means that they can be released into the air and move to the odour receptors in our nose. Many different volatile aroma compounds combine to form a particular flavour. Natural flavours can be expensive to isolate from raw materials and this coupled with their high demand means that they command a premium price. Our idea is to use the waste streams produced by food processing plants as novel sources of raw materials from which to harvest natural volatile compounds, which can subsequently be sold as natural flavours or flavour components. The large size of our milk powder industry gives New Zealand a competitive advantage in mining the waste streams that dairy factories produce as a source of flavour compounds, as no where else in the world is milk processed in such large volumes for export. Not only will this research generate an additional revenue stream from milk, it will lead to the development of high-value knowledge- intensive natural flavour industry. Further, once it has been determined that flavour compounds can be extracted and stabilised from dairy waste streams, the technologies and know-how we develop could be applied to the waste streams generated by other industries.

Redefining the future of forensic drug testing using NMR

Contracting Organisation: University of Canterbury
Science Leader(s): Daniel Holland
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Illicit substances cause approximately $2B worth of harm in New Zealand. Harm is driven by the consumption of unexpected illicit substances, large dose (concentration) variations, and the presence of harmful impurities or additives. Existing technology cannot provide information on these factors. Therefore enforcement and health agencies are requesting new tools to enable a transition to harm reduction practices (SEO200413).
Approximately 50 new illicit or potentially psychoactive chemical species are identified every year. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is one of the few techniques that is sensitive to the subtle structural differences between these samples. Benchtop NMR instruments have become available that make NMR accessible to standard analytical laboratories. However, the analysis of benchtop NMR data is challenging. This project will develop a world-first approach for automatic identification and quantification of illicit substances by frontline agencies, directly on-site at the point-of-use.
Our new approach will exploit a recently developed quantitative model of NMR spectroscopy. We will develop a novel Bayesian framework for this model and integrate that with machine-learning enhanced quantum mechanical simulation tools (SEO220402). This approach will enable automated quantification and structural identification of novel psychoactive substances.
There is a large market for this technology in forensic analysis, with drug checking services providing additional growth opportunities (SEO150499). Furthermore, the methodology developed could be adapted to, for example, the analysis of food and drink, or chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing, indicating substantial future opportunities.
We will also explore the socio-economic impact of our technology by engaging with various end-users including the Ministry of Health, Māori health providers, police, drug checking services, and drug takers.

Redesigning anchoring practices for a more sustainable shipping industry

Contracting Organisation: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Sally Watson
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

With the COVID-19 pandemic came the “port congestion pandemic”, where ships were forced to wait on anchor for weeks for port calls. This highlighted concerns where intense anchorage use becomes the global norm. Shipping is a desirable lower-emissions option for transporting freight, but port congestion is predicted to increase, with seaborne trade expected to quadruple by 2050. We have little understanding of how routine anchoring practices damage the coastal and marine environment, and undermine our climate resilience. We hypothesise that anchoring practices have detrimental impacts beyond their physical footprint, with implications for broader ecosystems, economies and people who rely on the health of the shallow coastal zone.
This project will deliver a complete characterisation of the footprint of ship anchoring by measuring physical, chemical, biological, ecological changes in case study anchorage sites around Aotearoa-NZ. We will document changes compared to control conditions, biodiversity and ecosystem function to calculate thresholds for impacted environments. Case studies will identify key variables that make marine environments more vulnerable to the impacts of anchoring (for example, high proportion of muddy sediment on seabed may result in prolonged resuspension and redistribution of sediments, and higher potential for carbon release). The distribution of key vulnerabilities will be delineated within case study regions and communicated via partners to other national port and harbour authorities. We will work with industry, manawhenua and local government councils in Aotearoa-NZ, with insights and analogues from global experts to co-develop an environmental framework for planning new or expanding anchorage zones to ensure vulnerable coastal regions are conserved. We aim to redesign anchoring practices under current and future port congestion scenarios to reduce anchoring requirements and develop alternative low impact solutions for the shipping industry.

Revolutionizing shellfish nursery culture using tidally driven upwelling systems

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Brad Skelton
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

The early stages of Greenshell mussel farming in New Zealand are often extremely inefficient, with the majority of seed mussels, or "spat" often lost from production after only a few months of being seeded onto farms. Each year, we harvest more than 300 billion mussel spat from the wild, but we only produce approximately 1.7 billion adult mussels, meaning more than 99% of the spat we harvest are lost from farms. Research has demonstrated that we can reduce these losses by seeding out with larger spat. However, current approaches to nursery culture (i.e the stage of production involving growing tiny mussel spat to larger sizes) of mussel spat require enormous quantities of live microalgae to be grown for feeding to the growing mussels. The process of growing these microalgae is extremely expensive, and as a result, current approaches to nursery culture are cost-prohibitive. Our research aims to solve this problem by developing tidally driven nursery systems that can be used to grow spat to larger sizes in situ, where they use naturally occurring microalgae found in seawater to help grow the spat. By developing tidally driven nursery systems, we hope to produce a technology capable of greatly reducing spat losses on New Zealand's mussel farms.
For enquiries, contact Dr Brad Skelton Brad.Skelton@auckland.ac.nz

Robotic fish to enable effective coastal kaitiakitanga: information is power

Contracting Organisation: X-craft Enterprises Limited
Science Leader(s): Philip Solaris
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Coastal ecosystems are valuable, ecologically, economically and culturally. However, coastal zones worldwide are under threat from ocean warming, acidification, sedimentation, coastal development, over-fishing, and pollution. This project will develop new engineering technology to create prototype free-swimming (untethered) “robot-fish” that swim using artificial muscles and have video cameras. We intent for these “underwater drones” to ultimately be able to operate automatically for days or months at a time gathering information on coastal habitats, fish and shellfish. This new information will enable coastal kaitiaki to balance wealth creation with stewardship and protection of Aotearoa New Zealand’s precious coastline. The research is led by environmental seacraft company X-Craft, and involves NIWA, and three world-leading NZ research-engineering groups: Biomimetics Laboratory (Auckland University, artificial muscles), the Sustainable Energy Systems team (Victoria University Wellington, high-voltage rechargeable micro-power systems) and Auckland University of Technology (Artificial Intelligence).

Robust volcanic eruption forecasts: leveraging magmatic speedometry into geophysical monitoring

Contracting Organisation: Massey University
Science Leader(s): Professor Georg Zellmer
Funding (GST excl): $999,972
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

During volcanic unrest, the main question asked of a volcano monitoring agency is: “When will the volcano erupt?” This question is very difficult to answer, because the interpretation of monitoring signals requires a comprehensive understanding of the magmatic processes that precede an eruption. Recently, we have taken advantage of the extensive record of these processes preserved in deposits from past Tongariro Volcanic Centre eruptions. These deposits contain crystals that indicate magma ascended from depth, taking between two and four days to reach the surface to erupt, i.e., long enough for effective hazard mitigation if magma ascent is associated with clearly detectable geophysical signals.
The critical next steps require a link between these ascent rate findings to typical volcano monitoring strategies, namely seismicity and deformation. We will utilise a three-staged approach: (i) study historical (digital and analogue) seismic records prior to previous eruptions to characterise the signals; (ii) forward model volcano deformation using various magma volumes and geometries; and (iii) extend magma ascent analysis to eruptions that produce voluminous lava flows, another hazard in the Central Plateau volcanoes.
The goals of our research are: (i) enhance the detection of pre-eruptive magma ascent in real-time seismic monitoring; (ii) compare real-time volcano deformation to a database of simulated deformation models to rapidly identify the geometry of future magma ascent paths and likely eruption sites; and (iii) forecast time-windows between geophysical unrest and eruption for both explosive and effusive eruptions.
This work will unfold its transformational impacts during future episodes of volcanic activity, where it will significantly contribute to saving lives, reducing injuries, protecting livestock and infrastructure, and enhancing environmental remediation, thus providing social, economic and environmental benefits to New Zealand.

Safe, solid-state hydrogen storage technology – Enabling New Zealand’s zero-carbon emissions target

Contracting Organisation: University of Waikato
Science Leader(s): Fei Yang
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

This project will radically advance understanding of solid-state hydrogen storage, using high-entropy alloys, and produce novel, safe, and efficient hydrogen storage materials compatible with fuel-cell technology for widescale green hydrogen applications.
Our ability to design high-entropy alloys with very high hydrogen storage capacities and modest absorption/desorption conditions that match existing fuel-cell technologies for practical applications is constrained by our limited understanding of how the characteristics of high-entropy alloys influence their reversible hydrogen storage capacity, thermodynamics, kinetics, and cycling stability.
This project will deliver optimised high-entropy alloy hydrogen storage materials and technologies that meet weight, volume, thermodynamic, kinetic, and safety requirements. This research will enable the use of hydrogen for transportation and stationary energy storage applications, such as medium-/heavy-duty transportation vehicles, future home appliances, e-bikes, back-up power for data centres, and off-shore intermittent energy storage, helping establish a working low-carbon economy.
Our New Zealand-led multidisciplinary international team has strong track records in materials processing, crystal structure science and compositional analysis, hydrogen storage technology development, and computational simulation. Our team from the Universities of Waikato, Sydney, and Penn State, GNS Science, and Hiringa Energy brings both scientific expertise and strong hydrogen industry relationships.
Contact Fei Yang: fei.yang@waikato.ac.nz

Smart Capacitive Sensing Floors for Smarter Homes

Contracting Organisation: Massey University
Science Leader(s): Dr Fakhrul Alam
Funding (GST excl): $999,991
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Imagine a world where your home knows exactly where you are, ascertains that you are going to the fridge for a midnight snack and turns on the night light. Rescue personnel know exactly how many individuals have evacuated a residence during an emergency, and the HVAC system operates more efficiently by sensing who is where. The floor detects a body lying motionless and instantly alerts hospitals and relatives to a fall. The floor tracks an occupants’ footsteps, calculates that an occupant’s walking pattern has changed and alerts the family doctor to investigate early onset of a disease like Alzheimer’s or progressing frailty increasing the risk of suffering a fall.
Associate Professor Fakhrul Alam of Massey University is teaming up with scientists and engineers from Scion, Resene, and three other NZ universities to make these scenarios possible. Over the next three years the team will develop an innovative Smart Floor capable of making homes and aged-care facilities safer.
The Smart Floor operates by measuring changes in capacitive coupling between the human body and the floor, analogous to how your finger interacts with a touchscreen. Processing the sensed data from the floor using powerful machine learning algorithms allows the data to be used to track movement, interpret body positioning, and even differentiate between people by assigning unique characteristics to each occupant, all in a seamless privacy-maintaining way with no cameras or wearable devices.

Smart Robotic Capsule to Advance Management of Gastrointestinal Diseases

Contracting Organisation: Massey University
Science Leader(s): Ebubekir Avci
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Management of gastrointestinal diseases would be revolutionised if, instead of invasive and embarrassing endoscopy and faecal sampling, we could simply swallow a capsule that travelled along the gastrointestinal track taking images and collecting samples at precise locations.
In this project, a team of engineers, led by Dr Ebubekir Avci from Massey University, will develop a revolutionary smart robotic capsule that is minimally-invasive, remotely deployable, able to access the entire gastrointestinal track, and collect images/samples of luminal content and gut wall. This technology will advance the management of gastrointestinal diseases by enabling early accurate diagnosis, less-invasive ongoing monitoring of treatment efficacy, and lower rates of complications. World-leading microfabrication and biomedical device instrumentation expertise will combine to develop a fit-for-purpose pill-sized capsule with
innovative microactuators and sensors that allow precise positioning and sampling within the gut. The cutting-edge advances in robotics facilitated here have additional exciting applications in the field of small-scale intelligent systems, such as personalised nutrition technologies, environmental remedies, and earthquake search-and- rescue robots.
The exciting interdisciplinary team who will make this vision a reality includes engineers, specialist gastrointestinal clinicians, nutrition and gut physiology experts, biomedical device entrepreneurs, and Maori advisors, representing 3 Universities, 1 CRI, a hospital, and private businesses.

Smart, adaptive grapevine rootstocks for a changing world

Contracting Organisation: The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Ross Bicknell
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

The New Zealand wine industry is a major contributor to our export earnings, a significant regional employer and a flagship industry for our international market image. The ‘Smart, adaptive rootstock project’ is aimed at advancing industry sustainability goals and increasing our collective respect for kaitiakitanga through the innovative use of novel grape rootstock varieties.
New Zealand wine grapes are typically grafted onto a rootstock to provide protection against phylloxera, a root pest which is found in all our grape-growing regions. The rootstocks used for this were developed from breeding efforts in Europe in the 1880s, a time when European viticulturists were facing catastrophic losses because of the arrival of this pest from America. Scientists at Plant & Food Research and the Bragato Research Institute have been researching the role that rootstocks play in controlling other insects as well, in particular sap-sucking insects that transmit damaging viruses throughout the vineyard. They’ve noted that grapes form a range of unique molecules that act as insect feeding-deterrents, and these circulate throughout the plant body. This funded research proposal aims to chemically identify these molecules, establish how and where they are produced and how much is needed in the plant to fully deter sap-sucking insects. The long-term aim is to develop new rootstocks for use in New Zealand that control not only phylloxera infestation, but many other insects and diseases as well. Using rootstocks for this purpose will reduce agricultural spray applications, reduce production costs, and extend the productive life of our commercial vineyards well into the future.

Smart-antigens for ovine antiviral hyperimmune milk production

Contracting Organisation: University of Waikato
Science Leader(s): William Kelton
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Recent viral outbreaks have highlighted the need for products that can provide immediate, short-term protection against infection as a complement to vaccination or when vaccines are not yet available. One potential solution is to use antibodies, immune molecules that bind to and block the function of viruses. Producing sufficient antibodies for population-scale deployment can be difficult but significant quantities are naturally produced in the milk of ruminant species like sheep and cows. The challenge is to efficiently direct these antibody responses against viruses of concern.
Our Smart Idea is to improve antiviral antibody induction in ruminants using a new class of molecular Smart-Antigens. These designer protein molecules fuse elements of the sheep’s own immune system with viral components to massively increase the production of antibodies after immunisation. We will target the viral pathogen norovirus for which no vaccine currently exists, and treatment options are few. This pathogen disproportionately affects both the very young and the elderly in Aotearoa/New Zealand and around the world.
Our final product will be hyperimmune milk powder sachets suitable for reconstitution and personal use. By developing these products, we will create a new biotechnology-focused dairy sector with a focus on high-value and low-volume products rather than commodity supply. We will tap into the substantial market for milk-based supplements which is expected to rapidly grow at over 8.8% each year to over NZD$350 million by 2026. Developing our products will bring value across the dairy chain with benefits for individual producer farms, dairy processors, and exporters alike.

Spatially mapping galaxiid nests with scent detection dogs and unmanned aerial vehicles

Contracting Organisation: University of Waikato
Science Leader(s): Associate Professor Nicholas Ling
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Whitebait were once so plentiful in Aotearoa New Zealand that they were used as fertiliser and canned for export. However, it is widely acknowledged that the whitebait fishery has declined substantially since those early days and that modification and loss of habitat is a key threat. The main whitebait species (īnanga) spawns terrestrially in riparian vegetation during spring high tides, with the eggs hatching one month later on a following spring tide. Finding the nests of īnanga by visual searching is laborious and plagued with error due to potential confusion with eggs of other animals like slugs and snails. We have a well-established programme at the University of Waikato training scent-detection dogs for environmental and medical research. This project will use trained dogs to detect and geolocate the nests of īnanga in riparian vegetation of rivers and estuaries combined with detailed aerial mapping of vegetation and physical habitat using aerial drone photography and other remote sensing data such as digital elevation and satellite data. Our ability to rapidly locate īnanga nests and characterise their associated habitat will provide detailed habitat models that will provide greater prediction of potential spawning habitat and assessment of the usefulness of riparian restoration to protect and enhance whitebait spawning zones. Ultimately, we expect this approach will be designed in collaboration with end-users, including regional councils, iwi and community groups, to restore and protect whitebait spawning and enhance the harvest and sustainability of the whitebait fishery.

Sustainable, intelligent fruit production through novel nozzles for autonomous pollination

Contracting Organisation: The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Dr Paul Martinsen
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Imagine a world without bees. Insect-pollinators contribute to more than one-third of the food we eat, and our dependence on insect-pollinated plants is growing. Meanwhile, wild pollinators are declining, placing strain on managed pollinators to fill the gap. Yet these insect-pollinators face existential threats from disease, over- population and changing climates. We imagine NZ transforming global pollination services, building a diverse agritech export-sector with our research on precision autonomous-pollination providing an intelligent alternative to insect-pollinators. Contact us at Plant and Food Research if you would like to be involved.

Targeting acid ceramidase to prevent irreversible neurological damage in Krabbe disease

Contracting Organisation: The Research Trust of Victoria University of Wellington
Science Leader(s): Farah Lamiable-Oulaidi
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

This programme aims to treat Krabbe disease, an inherited disorder that results from the build-up of a toxic metabolite in the brain. This fatal neurodegenerative disorder, for which there is no treatment, is caused by a defective enzyme. We will use a unique technology known to deliver drugs that are highly efficacious and avoid side effects associated with off-target toxicity. As a result, we aim to deliver a life-saving drug candidate that will prevent irreversible brain and motor damage for children affected by Krabbe disease.

Technology for optimizing precision in Neurosurgery

Contracting Organisation: University of Auckland
Science Leader(s): Hamid Abbasi
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

We are at the big-bang moment of ‘AI in neuro-navigation’ and our team is dedicated to stay at the forefront of this rapidly-evolving field by delivering the next generation of surgical navigation technology.
Brain tumour resection is a complex, crucial, and significantly high-risk task. Our New Zealand team of biomedical engineers, neurosurgeons, researchers, and academics is committed to developing and delivering a ground-breaking neuronavigation technology that integrates cutting-edge artificial intelligence to assist surgeons in making the most precise decisions possible during surgery. Our technology represents a major step forward in the field of neurosurgery and has the potential to revolutionize the way surgeons approach complex brain procedures.
Our offering product harnesses the power of advanced algorithms to provide real-time, high-resolution images that enable surgeons to precisely navigate through the brain, allowing them to make confident decisions when removing tumours to minimize damage to healthy tissues. One of the key advantages of our platform is its ability to adapt to the unique needs of each patient. By combining cutting-edge machine learning techniques with sophisticated MRI imaging technologies, we plan to create a platform that can analyse vast amounts of data in seconds, allowing surgeons to make critical decisions in real-time.
We are confident that our technology has the capacity to revolutionize the field of neurosurgery by enhancing the safety and efficacy of complex procedures, ultimately reducing the risk of complications and improving patient outcomes. We are committed to working closely with neurosurgeons, imaging experts, and other medical professionals to refine our technology and create a tool that is accessible to all.

Tere Tīpako Tio: Rapid Extensive Antarctic Ice Sampling Aotearoa

Contracting Organisation: University of Otago
Science Leader(s): David Prior
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Rapid melting of floating ice shelves is speeding up the flow of ice from Antarctica into the ocean. Planning a climate change resilient New Zealand requires the most realistic ice sheet models possible, to predict future ice loss, consequent sea-level rise and changes in Southern Ocean circulation. Physical properties of the ice, such as its plasticity and elasticity, are critical inputs to the predictive models. Yet we have virtually no ice samples available to study the physical properties, because existing ice sampling approaches are slow, cumbersome and expensive. The models are thus limited in how they represent this critical component.
We propose to build new, portable, low-cost drilling tools for rapid sampling of shallow ice (<200m), combining existing and newly developed technologies. Access holes will be drilled using a small hot water drill, a proven method. After water is pumped from the hole, we will collect small samples from multiple depths using a newly developed sidewall coring tool. Development systems will be designed and built by teams of engineering students, with mentorship from local and international experts. Students will be involved in testing, application and outreach.
To develop and test the technologies, we will collect ice samples at multiple depths from 30 sites across the floating Northern McMurdo ice shelf. Conventional coring would allow sampling of just one or two sites in the same time. Accessing multiple sites in a single field season is important because ice properties are variable and change over time due to ice flow. This will be the first extensive ice sampling across any ice shelf, leading towards better understanding, better models and better prediction of how the Antarctic ice sheet will respond to climate change.

The Climate Shift Forecaster – Projecting Temperature- Precipitation Space to Ensure a Climate-Resilient Economy

Contracting Organisation: Climate Prescience Limited
Science Leader(s): Dr Nathanael Melia
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

The physical impacts of climate change will continue to affect us all, from shifting extreme weather events to changes in our seasons. However, understanding climate change information remains challenging and restricts an organisation’s ability to prepare and adapt to climate change.
Traditional climate change assessments can be over 100 pages long, containing maps of average changes to weather variables like temperature and precipitation. We see two disadvantages with this approach:
Traditional climate change assessments only help large organisations that already understand their relationship with climate. For example, it is unclear what an average increase of 1°C or 40mm of rainfall means to Kiwi organisations wishing to build resilience, adapt, and thrive in a changing climate.
We don’t live in an average climate; we experience weather events and an uncertain future; average maps in traditional climate change assessments fail to capture and convey this information.
We will develop a new technique to project the seasonal temperature and precipitation cycles to address these issues. These projections will be available via the Climate Shift Forecaster, an online platform where users can search their local and global locations of interest and determine their climate shift percentages.
Our research will collaborate with leading Aotearoa and UK climate scientists and be stress tested against results from full climate change risk assessments that Climate Prescience routinely produces. To learn more about our research, contact nathanael@climateprescience.com.

Top-down accounting of methane: Protecting farmers from carbon-cost for misattributed wetland methane

Contracting Organisation: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Withheld
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Methane, an important greenhouse gas, is emitted by livestock as well as wetlands. Livestock industries in Aotearoa-New Zealand will soon be subject to carbon pricing for their greenhouse gas emissions under the Emissions Trading Scheme or equivalent pricing. Methane emissions from nearby wetlands could be wrongly attributed to livestock. This would lead to a competitive disadvantage on the national and international markets.
This study will pioneer the use of a chemical marker in atmospheric methane that will allow a clear distinction between methane emitted from wetlands and by livestock. Additional measurements will provide an improved understanding of how large wetland methane fluxes are in various regions of New Zealand and how they vary with time.
Our research will inform wetland management and restoration projects that enhance carbon storage and biodiversity in wetlands.
In combination, the novel marker and reliable knowledge of wetland dynamics will provide an accurate assessment of the separate livestock and wetland emissions from individual farms to the whole country. Farmers will benefit from fair greenhouse gas accounting for the profitability of their business. Emissions reductions on farms from mitigation technologies will be properly recognised, promoting the uptake and export potential for these technologies.
The study will also ensure accurate accounting of national greenhouse gas emissions, which include a major component of agricultural methane. This is a prerequisite to the fulfilment of New Zealand’s international obligations to combat climate change.

Towards accurate quantification of New Zealand’s methane emissions from waste and agriculture

Contracting Organisation: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Peter Sperlich
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

New Zealand is committed to drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. This includes methane (CH4) emissions from waste and agriculture. However, our ability to accurately measure current emissions, as well as to verify emission reductions, is currently not sufficient. We will develop new technology to measure CH4 emissions from waste and agriculture with great accuracy. Our techniques will be deployed at multiple sites across New Zealand, to assess and demonstrate the performance of the new technology. This will inform operators across the waste industry, as well as livestock farmers and industry developing mitigation techniques. Our method will improve our knowledge of local CH4 emissions, for example the localisation of CH4 emission hotspots and leaks. With this knowledge, operators are enabled to make better informed mitigation decisions, and to meet their emissions reduction targets.
Our technology will improve the reporting of local CH4 emissions. For example, we will quantify the CH4 emissions for specific waste treatment plants. This will also inform national reporting practices for greenhouse gas emissions. Our instruments can be equipped with sensors for other greenhouse gases. This will enable us to expand our observation portfolio beyond this project.
Having the capability to directly measure CH4 emissions will provide certainty on our emissions. This will reduce economic risk associated with the emissions trading scheme and it will empower us to manage mitigation.

Transforming coastal monitoring: harnessing microbial communities to disentangle multi-stressor impacts

Contracting Organisation: Cawthron Institute
Science Leader(s): Dr Dana Clark
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Estuaries are dynamic mixing zones between rivers and the ocean supporting some of the most productive ecosystems on Earth. New Zealand has more than 400 estuaries along its coastline, and they are enormously valuable to our economy, environment, and society. However, in New Zealand and worldwide, estuary health is declining at an alarming rate. Estuaries face many environmental threats, ranging from pollution to climate change, and these can combine to create catastrophic tipping points from which it is very difficult to recover.
Current efforts to protect and restore estuaries are failing because we haven’t fully understood how these tipping points are triggered or had monitoring tools that can detect signs of declining estuary health early enough to intervene.
In our project, we will examine whether microbes (e.g., bacteria, microscopic algae) can be used to develop tools that transform the way we monitor our estuaries. Microbes underpin estuary health and preliminary studies have shown that they are sensitive enough to detect subtle changes in ecosystem health, enabling early warning of approaching tipping points.
Many organisations in New Zealand would like to use these tools. However, the tools alone would not enable the kind of transformation in estuary monitoring that we need. We will develop a world-leading holistic framework for estuary monitoring that combines microbial tools with mātauranga Māori and conventional estuary monitoring data to harness the benefits of each approach. This information will be translated into management actions that will have a significant impact on estuary health.
Our project will place Aotearoa New Zealand at the forefront of coastal indicator development worldwide and lead to a step-change in estuary biomonitoring that will enable targeted management before irreversible environmental damage occurs.

Transforming fault detection in the leather industry through deep-learning-based hyperspectral imaging

Contracting Organisation: New Zealand Leather and Shoe Research Association (Inc)
Science Leader(s): Sujay Prabakar, Yash Dixit
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

This innovative project proposal aims to revolutionise fault detection on hides and skins, addressing a pressing issue faced by the New Zealand industry. Current practices result in significant revenue losses of up to $35 million annually due to intrinsic faults and defects in processed hides and skins which cause their downgrading and can only be identified at later stages, leading to increased costs, quality inconsistencies, and additional environmental burdens.
Our project's primary goal is to develop an early-stage fault detection system that can promptly identify faults and defects harnessing our expertise in deep-learning techniques and leather processing, in support of 2 critical advancements:
By analysing their unique spectral signatures in real-time we seek to significantly reduce costs and improve processing efficiency. This classification will enable the production of high-quality leather or valuable proteins for nutraceutical and biomaterial applications. These breakthroughs will provide competitive advantages in both domestic and global markets.
This ground-breaking approach challenges existing limitations, aiming to detect and analyse faults and adverse chemical characteristics in hides and skins prior to processing.
Our project not only addresses economic losses but also emphasises sustainable processing practices. By minimising chemical consumption during early stages and reducing replacements and disposal, we will enhance the industry's environmental footprint. Our commitment to sustainability drives commercial advantages while preserving natural resources.
Through this transformative project, LASRA envisions a NZ hide and skin processing industry that achieves unparalleled efficiency, consistent quality, and global competitiveness. We will collaborate with industry stakeholders, researchers, and technology providers to maximise the project's impact and benefits to shape the future of the hide and skin processing industry; fostering innovation, environmental stewardship and economic growth.

Tunable and stimuli-responsive cellulose-based surfactants – from emulsifiers to defoamers

Contracting Organisation: Auckland University of Technology
Science Leader(s): Mr Jack Chen
Funding (GST excl): $999,972
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Emulsification is an integral part of industrial processes but can become an expensive liability. The surfactants added to stabilise emulsions also cause foaming. Excessive foaming artificially raises the batch volume and can result in product loss, damage to equipment, factory downtime and environmental pollution. Entrapped air from foam that remains in the finished product can cause clouding, voids and compromise the structural integrity of the product. Companies deal with these problems by spending an estimated US $3 billion a year on chemical additives called defoamers. Apart from their high cost, defoamers can contaminate the final product and are often considered environmental pollutants.
We propose an entirely new class of surfactants where the emulsification/foaming properties can be switched on and off on demand. This technology would be particularly useful in cases where emulsification is important in one part of a manufacturing process but becomes problematic further along the process when emulsification and foaming are undesired. Examples include froth flotation apparatus that are in the pulp and paper industry for recycling, in wastewater treatment and in numerous industries for cleaning of the effluent before discharge. The ability to control when emulsions are formed will enhance the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of manufacturing processes and reduce the production of contaminated effluent. Utilising cellulose as a feedstock also provides a unique opportunity to turn low-value products, and waste from our primary industry into a value-added commodity.

Unlocking the potential of microbial bioactive compounds to promote forest health

Contracting Organisation: Lincoln University
Science Leader(s): Artemio Mendoza-Mendoza
Funding (GST excl): $999,669
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

To maintain the NZ$6.25 billion NZ forestry industry, 54 tonnes of copper fungicides are sprayed annually against pine pathogens. In addition to being a significant economic cost at NZ$57 million annually, their use also comes with potential environmental, human health and social costs.
We will investigate the use of microbial bioactive compounds (MBCs) to protect pine forests from filamentous plant pathogens. Can MBCs be used as sustainable and environmentally friendly agents that protect Pinus radiata from Dothistroma needle blight (DNB), red needle cast (RNC) and other diseases, delivering benefits to the NZ forestry economy? We have already identified 2 MBCs that can kill the causal agents of DNB and RNC in vitro and promoted pine growth in glasshouse conditions.
Our multidisciplinary and international team has combined expertise in forestry-based research, including plant pathology and biology, biocontrol product development, microbial bioactive compounds, plant defence, priming and bioinformatics. The programme incorporates strong links to the forestry industry.
Our project will develop products that enhance tree health and offer an alternative to agrichemicals to protect forests, reduce environmental costs and help mitigate climate change. Our products are anticipated to have high export potential with significant financial benefits to NZ.

Using artificial intelligence to improve weather forecasts

Contracting Organisation: Bodeker Scientific Limited
Science Leader(s): Greg Bodeker
Funding (GST excl): $999,880
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 2 years

Public Statement

Bad weather can be far more than just an inconvenience. In NZ, where primary production contributes $22.5B to our economy, bad weather can incur significant economic, environmental and social costs. Mitigating the impacts of severe weather largely depends on the quality and reliability of weather forecasts.
The most highly damaging extreme weather events (e.g. hail or intense rainfall) often occur over small areas, driving a need for higher-spatial-resolution forecasts. By solving the mathematical equations describing atmospheric processes, numerical weather prediction (NWP) models predict how the weather will change - this computationally demanding task requires supercomputers. Increasing the model resolution, so that they resolve local weather events, adds large financial costs.
We will apply artificial intelligence methods to develop a new way of generating weather forecasts, producing high-resolution forecasts at a fraction of current costs. A neural network (NN) will be trained to learn how to generate weather at hyperlocal scales (several 100m) given data from a lower resolution NWP model. While the initial training may be computationally expensive, once trained, the NN can be applied to any NWP forecast to fill in the missing detail inside each grid-cell, at negligible cost. This cost reduction means that we can generate higher resolution forecasts than are currently available, and process many more forecasts to produce probabilistic risk assessments of rare but highly damaging events.
If successful, our fused-NN-NWP model will be incorporated into MetService’s NWP chain, delivering new hyperlocal weather forecasts, enhancing the ability of emergency managers to save lives and protect property, and industries to manage risks and minimise losses. The need for such forecasts will only increase as the frequency and severity of extreme weather events increase under climate change.

Wai-Spy with an artificial eye: now-casting water quality using real-time camera radiometry

Contracting Organisation: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited
Science Leader(s): Rebecca Stott
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2022
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2022
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

New Zealanders want clear, swimmable freshwaters that are safe for recreational and cultural activities (e.g., waka ama, mahinga kai). However, two-thirds of New Zealand rivers contain pollution above acceptable levels and are often unsuitable for recreation and cultural uses. Current advisory systems rely on historical grading or, at best, 1-7 day-old measurements at a few designated swimming sites so are inadequate in providing timely warnings of poor recreational water quality.
This project will develop ‘Wai-Spy’, a cost-effective, real-time warning system for recreational freshwater quality risks. Wai-Spy will use simple camera systems as in-situ radiometers to monitor visual clarity and microbial quality at freshwater swimming sites before people enter rivers. Wai-Spy will provide hourly estimates throughout the day of visual clarity and E.coli concentration – the two health-related variables that most strongly influence freshwater ‘swimmability’. Wai-Spy will be locally calibrated and validated in partnership with citizen scientists, including iwi/hapū at selected swimming sites using smartphone cameras alongside cultural and community-based water monitoring methods.
Successful delivery of ‘now-casts’ using Wai-Spy can potentially transform monitoring and management of freshwater swimming sites in New Zealand and internationally. Timely, accessible, location-specific warnings of swimming suitability and health risks will support safer and more rewarding freshwater recreation and cultural uses, and reduce the incidence of illnesses and associated health care costs currently arising from contact recreation when freshwater quality is poor. Partnering with councils and iwi/communities will build local capacity to monitor water quality and ensure local relevance, assisting effective communication of real-time risks and guiding appropriate management responses (e.g., signage, closures/rāhui). In turn, this will inform higher-level freshwater decision-making via iwi and council environmental management plans, promoting kaitiakitanga and strengthening participation in freshwater co-management.

What controls gas-driven volcanic eruptions? An experimental approach

Contracting Organisation: Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences Limited – Trading as GNS Science
Science Leader(s): Geoff Kilgour
Funding (GST excl): $999,999
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Gas-driven volcanic eruptions are short-lived (seconds to minutes) explosions that occur with little warning. Like a kettle on a stove, when the pressure of the gas overcomes the strength of the lid, or mineral seal, an eruption occurs. These gas-driven events are the most common type and size of eruption globally, yet we have little understanding of the underlying processes that drive them. This is important when we assess volcano monitoring data and seek to forecast the next eruption. In this work, we will use unique laboratory equipment that has been used successfully to test geothermal reservoir evolution, to replicate the high pressures and temperatures beneath Ruapehu. Based on these experiments, we will then be able to constrain the rates of mineral growth in volcanoes. We will be able to assess the effect of mineral growth, failure, and re-growth as a proxy for gas pressure build-up and then violent release. Aligned to the experimental work is a much closer analysis of rocks ejected during past gas-driven eruptions. By using very high-resolution microscopes, we will be able to assess the timescales of seal formation prior to gas-driven eruptions and then compare those results to historical monitoring data.
Knowledge gained through this work will be directly used to develop a new forecasting tool that provides probabilities and uncertainties of an eruption based on monitoring data. By bringing in expertise from the wider volcano science community, we will be able to start to provide quantitative forecasts of the next eruption, significantly building on previous work. The results of our work will provide unprecedented understanding of these highly dangerous eruptions and we hope this work will ultimately save lives and livelihoods.

XNA-based biosensors for low-cost marine toxin screening

Contracting Organisation: The Cawthron Institute Trust Board T/A The Cawthron Institute
Science Leader(s): John Hervey
Funding (GST excl): $1,000,000
Funding Year: 2023
Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023
Term: 3 years

Public Statement

Climate change is driving more frequent harmful algal blooms. These events produce dangerous toxins that accumulate in freshwater and marine environments, adversely affecting shellfish aquaculture industries and community health. Current testing strategies are primarily restricted to industry, as they are expensive and require specialised processing, expertise, and equipment only available in modern laboratories. Places where the infrastructure for such testing is unavailable, for example in many Pacific Islands and Māori communities that traditionally harvest seafood, are most at risk. Sampling frequency, speed, and cost are areas for improvement in food-toxin testing.
We propose to develop a new kind of testing kit that uses biosensor technology (similar to lateral-flow tests) to detect the presence of toxins using a smartphone device. This approach would make seafood safety testing in the field simple and affordable, empowering a wider range of people to become involved in protecting their communities.
These developments will allow community groups, industry, and environmental agencies to increase testing capacity, especially where access to current testing methods is limited, and rapidly respond to toxin events, to avoid adverse health and economic impacts. Additionally, our work expands food testing beyond what is currently possible. For example, it could enable development of remote monitoring instruments for toxin levels in the sea, to be deployed on floating buoys near aquaculture farms to provide real-time data. Additional options include more affordable testing instruments with higher capacity, for Regional Councils and MPI, not only for marine algal-toxins but also for algal and cyanobacterial toxin testing in food, drinking water and recreational waterways. This will transform safeguarding the rapidly-expanding aquaculture industry as well as gatherers of kaimoana and mahinga kai throughout our coastlines and waterways.
Contact jack.hervey@cawthron.org.nz