Category Archives: Innovation

National Science Challenge winners underwhelm


There’s only one word really to describe the winners of the National Science Challenge – ‘wow’ writ small. Or, perhaps it is just me that is completely underwhelmed by the announcement of 10 research areas that can comfortably be binned … Continue reading

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Problemsourcing initiative gets the academic once-over


Open innovation and crowdsourcing are two relatively recent ways of finding solutions to (often) technical challenges experienced by companies. There’s particular issues which need resolving when using the power of the crowd; along with the hope that someone has a … Continue reading

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The Power of Un-Location gets an airing


Toby Ruckert of Unified Inbox had an interesting blog recently – demonstrating what he has called the Power of Un-Location. (sticK had a blog on an earlier version of Unified Inbox here.) For a brief period while in Shanghai, he … Continue reading

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Lightning Labs shows off its first flowers of startup blooming


Lightning Labs, a lean startup hub of selected neophyte companies located for three months on Wellington’s The Terrace, gave a ‘where we’re at, what we’ve learned’ quickfire talks recently. The fullhouse (dozens on the waiting list), heard how the nine … Continue reading

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Adding a hole lot of value to a piece of pine


We all know that we’d prefer to export more than just a log of pine to overseas markets. At the same time, the NZ Inc desire to add value to our raw commodities such as trees is almost tiresome through … Continue reading

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Dyed in the wool innovation partners up to go global


The time it takes to convert a good idea into something that another person’s willing to buy is almost invariably longer than you think. A couple of years ago, sticK reported on BGI Developments’ winning the right to commercialise AgResearch’s … Continue reading

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Kickstarting a San Fran Bay school science rap promotion


You obviously can’t keep a science rapper down. Tom McFadden, a Californian and Stanford biology lecturer among other things, completed a Masters in Science Communication at Otago University last year. Under a Fullbright Scholarship and the moniker ‘Rhymebsome’ he toured … Continue reading

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Little school thinks bearly big


“And the prize for the best use of social media and punching well above its weight goes to,”….drum roll….”Koputoroa Primary School”. This 170 pupil country school, seven kilometres north of Levin on the Kapiti Coast deserves heaps of praise, alongside … Continue reading

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Creating a deep infrastructure tool and asset for Christchurch – a (relatively) cheap idea well worth NZ Inc considering


Here’s an idea, so time topical it deserves much more thinking about by Christchurch, government and NZ Inc. The Cement & Concrete Association of NZ’s (CCANZ) education and development manager Joe Gamman spoke at the recent Multicore World 2013 conference … Continue reading

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A solution to our lack of shared purpose around a science-innovation strategy


OK, now we have Callaghan Innovation gestating its way into life – with no indication of how long the process will take, or even what it is we’re trying to bring to fruition. At the same time we have the … Continue reading

Posted in Development, Early stage science, Entrepreneur, high tech, Innovation, SciBlogs, Science, Science policy, start-up | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments