Kiwis could be best in science

BY SIMON EDWARDS

The man who put New Zealand at the forefront of high-temperature superconductor technologies and potential markets worth billions of dollars by the 2020s says we urgently need a co-operative "New Zealand Incorporated" approach to our future.

Eastbourne resident and Industrial Research principal scientist Jeff Tallon says we're "right up there" in entrepreneurial activity, but we need to ditch the competitive funding model that pitches Crown research institutes against universities, rope in industry and "brainstorm" on the best way ahead.

Speaking to the Probus Club of Lower Hutt prior to being announced last week as joint winner, with Dr Bob Buckley, of the inaugural Prime Minister's Science Prize, Dr Tallon said New Zealand is second in the world in at least four areas that underpin innovation.

Only Finland beats us in terms of science literacy levels among secondary school students. We also measure up as the second hardest-working people in the world and we're the second most entrepreneurial nation on the planet, he said.

"Auckland, in terms of new start-ups, is the most entrepreneurial city in the world.

"Where we have a problem is taking those industries and growing them up to be companies with turnovers of $100 million-plus. That's because we lack the investment, and the business skills that will bridge that gap."

Dr Tallon said everyone talks about mineral-rich Australia, but in terms of total resources per capita, New Zealand is second only to Saudi Arabia.

"So in at least four areas, we've got everything going for us. We need to pull together as a nation and go for it."

Speaking to the Hutt News after his speech to Probus, Dr Tallon said while the Government needs to take the lead to get co-ordination going, success is going to require universities, CRIs, industries and a host of other players to forget patch protection. Such co-operation is "starting to happen, but to not nearly sufficient degree".

He likes the example of Shell International. It gathered 25 leading technologists and researchers, including Dr Tallon, from around the world to envisage what the world would be like in 20 years.

"That's what New Zealand's got to do. Brainstorm on what are the big issues, the big new technologies and debate what we need to do to get there, and what obstacles are in the way."

Asked if it was wrong for the Government to cancel Labour's R&D tax breaks, Dr Tallon replied "most researchers would think so".

While he understands National was worried about companies free-riding and getting their accountants to find ways to describe "just about anything as innovation and research", the alternative channels set up by the Government that have the "disciplines" for accountability and reporting nevertheless don't pump in enough money to research  "though what I'm talking about is not just a matter of investing more money".

He considers the appointment of a science adviser to the Prime Minister, Peter Gluckman, as a big step forward.

The last example of a "NZ Inc" approach he can think of was in the 1920s in Petone. The Government got together with local authorities and industry and went offshore to companies such as GE "to lure them in to manufacture refrigerators".

When it learned a key obstacle was power supply, it pushed on with the Mangahau power plant and improved transmission to the foreshore area.

"The result of that joint approach was that a whole lot of new industry was implemented. In the space of five years that became the biggest manufacturing and employment centre in the region.

"It's just everybody getting together and working out a strategy to go forward. I doubt there's been something like that in New Zealand since."

Denmark shows New Zealand a good template for this. Dr Tallon said the Government there saw an opportunity with modern wind turbines, called in the research laboratories, the universities and the manufacturers and developed a strategy.

"That's now a very significant export earner. I think we can learn a lot from Denmark because it came from a very similar economic structure [to us].

"Back in the 1960s we were level-pegging with Denmark in research investment but while we've stayed exactly the same [R&D investment as a percentage of GDP], they've run right away from us."

- Hutt News