Covid offers the chance to reset the NZ economy with innovation
As New Zealand’s ‘team of 5 million’ works to secure relatively successful management of COVID-19, the government is also focused squarely on the mammoth task of navigating the post pandemic recovery.
The economic reset needed post COVID-19 offers an unparalleled opportunity to transform the economy. It is a chance to address New Zealand’s longstanding challenges of low productivity and comparatively low levels of innovation; both of which will be central to realising the government’s long-term goal of a just transition to a zero-carbon economy.
Critically, the innovation and research capabilities of New Zealand universities will be pivotal in achieving this new future. Research and innovation are not the exclusive domain of universities. Indeed, it is increasingly through partnerships with industry, government, community and iwi (the Maori word for nation) groups that the greatest impact is possible.
Collaboration between universities and industry is considered fundamental to fostering the innovative, frontier research urgently needed to drive the transformation of our economy and solve some of society’s biggest challenges. By engaging with industry, universities gain a more nuanced understanding of real-world problems and pathways to application of research, thereby ensuring maximum relevance and impact.
Closer links aid quicker and more effective diffusion of new ideas and encourage a start-up culture within universities that can generate entirely new industries. Industry benefits from cutting-edge research leading to significant improvements in products and services. Transformative and future focused partnerships are critical to fast-tracking our ability to achieve ambitious global emissions targets and meet our commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Technological advances are also driving new skills requirements. Closer university-industry collaboration offers the opportunity to feed into curriculum design and work-integrated learning, ensuring that graduates are work-ready and have the right balance between technical and soft skills, mirroring the requirements of the industrial sector.
Against the backdrop of global societal challenges of unprecedented scale and the uncertain future of work, the imperative to maximise the benefits of closer university-industry links has never been greater.
However, New Zealand’s level of university-industry collaboration lags well behind other small advanced economies. The dominance of SMEs and lack of knowledge intensive sectors and industries limits absorptive capacity and feeds a persistent productivity deficit relative to our competitors.
This must change. Government has an important role to play in encouraging and supporting stronger university-industry collaboration through policy solutions that reduce barriers and provide incentives.
If government is serious about stepping up industry and university partnerships, it has a range of policy interventions and incentives at its disposal that have been tried and tested internationally. For example, at the postgraduate level, providing an additional 12 months funding to PhD students would enable certain disciplines to build in an experiential and broader skills component, encouraging industry ready graduates and greater knowledge exchange.
Similarly, a commercialisation post doctorate or internship scheme could incentivise industry to co-fund a PhD graduate to spend six months working on the commercialisation of an idea in collaboration with an industry partner. The government could also address the challenge associated with getting start-ups to scale by reviewing the “valley of death” support it provides start-ups and industry.
In addition, government could also support the establishment of innovation hubs that connect universities, industry and public sector organisations to advance social innovations. For example, scaling up a medtech innovation hub, would bring together the Ministry of Health, universities and district health boards, generating new high value industries and creating a joined up, revitalised healthcare system.
Government could take the lead by promoting a true university hospital precinct. Such an initiative would drive economic growth in an area where NZ has clear strengths, boost wellbeing, address inequities and strengthen world leading university expertise in areas such as medical and health sciences, medical technology, data science and artificial intelligence.
Traditional models of university-industry collaboration and their associated benefits are well-known. However, the current disruption forces us to question what future university-industry collaborations will look like.
To address the major challenges facing society, the nature of university-industry collaboration must become deeper and boundaries will become increasingly blurred. The enormous disruption caused by COVID-19 is also an opportunity to embrace and advance new and creative ways of collaboration and partnership.
The role of government will be critical. Brave and bold decision making is required to stimulate the strong university-industry partnerships urgently needed to transform our economy and tackle some of society’s biggest challenges.
Dawn Freshwater is vice-chancellor of the University of Auckland.
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