(Ironically, the business case appeared a couple of hours after
As a some people commented, it wasn’t much different from CI’s
But, delving among the entrails is the first new, rather than inherited, scheme put up by theCrown Agency.
A repayable grants programme. (As described in their own words on page nine of the document itis):
Repayable Grants Programme: provides grants to technology-focused incubatorsin order to create and nurture new businesses based on promising areas of technology. This newprogramme will ramp up to providing 24 grants annually of $450,000. These grants must be repaidonce the new businesses begin generating revenues.
Israel (among a number of exemplar countries) has had this model for a number of years, asmentioned in the fourth paragraph of a
From what I gather, the main advantage of such a repayable loan is it recognises that manytechnology focused ventures are risky; a punt.
That being the fact, if they succeed, the money’s paid back. If not, ‘deems da breaks’.
It is also relatively simple to administer – and much less influenced by a bureaucrat’s whim(apparently).
So, a bit of a thumbs up for Callaghan Innovation…some innovation of its own.
We’ll look forward to seeing how the RGP is going to work in actuality, as Callaghan Innovationworks towards its stated ideal of being a small R and big D in New Zealand’s R&D (research anddevelopment) landscape.