Science, Science and Society, Technology

MoBIE announces 2012 investment round results

The newly formed ‘Ministry of Everything’ - more formally called the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment - has announced the results of the first tranche of investment round funding.

 

Apparently, $133m will be invested, over the next 6 years ($32.8m of that this year alone), with 47 research projects being supported.

The split:

Biological Industries Research Fund: 18 projects, including ‘Mammalian pheromone lures’ and ‘Immune technologies for anti-allergy ingredients’ (as a sufferer of the itchies, that last makes me very excited).

Hazards and Infrastructure Research Fund: 8 projects, including ‘Future streets’ and ‘Network infrastructure - connecting Christchurch and New Zealand to the world’.

Energy and Minerals Research Fund: 6 projects, including ‘Energy cultures 2′ and ‘Grid energy storage’.

Environment Research Fund: 7 projects, including ‘Network infrastructure - connecting Christchurch and New Zealand to the world’ and ‘Next generation biodiversity assessment*’.

Health and Society Fund: 8 projects, including ‘Living in the colour-coded city: understanding and building community resilience’ and ‘The participation of older people: independence, contribution, connection’.

For the full results, see here. There’s certainly a wide spread of work, and I’ll be most curious to see how the projects come along over the years! And I’m particularly happy to see that projects around aging and communities are being funded :)

I’m also keen to see the results of the next tranche, in September,  in which funding for high-value manufacturing and services projects will be announced…

* Talking of biodiversity - if you’re interested in said subject, and data, you should be coming along to the Living Data - Biodiversity Data Systems Conference and Workshop conference next week.