Wellington
The analogy of
That and a type of ennui as the 14-months-in-existence Crown Agent struggles to come intolife.
Firstly, rumour has it (from a number of well-informed people) that minister of everything StevenJoyce is sitting on CI’s business plan.
Such a business plan was meant to be delivered not long after (but never really defined)
So six months later all we still have is a generic SOI of what Callaghan Innovation will do.
How, (the hard part) is still to be revealed through this business plan. Which, by inferencemeans Steven’s just a bit wary (and one suspects weary) of it.
But wait, there’s more.
In the meantime, there’s been an
As the press release says:
“This panel of experts will support the CallaghanInnovation Governance Board to deliver fresh thinking, and offer a diversity of perspective andexperience that will help grow New Zealand’s economy through science andinnovation.”
The CallaghanInnovation board was announced in January .
Just what has it, and more particularly its chair Sue Suckling been up to since then?
And, with the advisory board on-board as well, who is going to be responsible for what?
sticK always argued that the
While building the plane while you fly it may be OK for bootstrapping startups, doing the samewith 400 or so scientists and engineers already employed is a much less validated process.
You have to suspect that Steven Joyce wishes he’d backed the well-planned potential morphing ofIRL into an Advanced Technology Institute model, similar to say
The other exemplar that has been touted is the Danish TechnologyInstitute . Callaghan representatives (and dozens of other NZ science people have visited thisover the past decade).
Both ITRI and DTI are applied science/engineering-heavy entities that work hand-in-glove withindustry and academia to turn prototypes and concepts into sellable commercial products.
Both have a well-defined mandate; they know their role.
Which, for all the commercialisation-speak of the embryonic Callaghan Innovation; it is still along way off defining.
Quite where and how the new CI stakeholder advisory board will ‘advise’ Callaghan Innovationwill be fascinating.
But, if the advisory board chairman AndrewCoy (magnetic resonance equipment-maker Magritek chief executive) wanted to help the country and his own company’s growth, he could do much worsethan suggest dusting off the ATI model.
It could be just the thing to bring to a Mad Tea Party.