IRL recently announced it would help nine New Zealand firms get products to market faster and with much lower development costs through the IRL Co-Investment Programme.
The nine companies are: Klein Medical, Group3 Technology, Nova Mechanical Design, Fonterra, Nutriventures, TracMap, Im-Able, Virtual Measurement Systems and Antipodean Pharmaceuticals.
Under the programme, qualifying companies will get the opportunity to develop their ideas into prototypes and proofs of concept utilising IRL’s world-leading science and engineering expertise.
The firms will contribute 50% of the total project funding with IRL matching their contributions dollar for dollar. The total value of the fund, including the qualifying contributions of the successful firms is $750,000.
IRL Chief Executive Shaun Coffey says he hopes the IRL Co-Investment Programme will enable many new ideas to leap off the drawing board and in due course secure further investment before successfully entering the market.
The funded projects are representative of the diversity of New Zealand’s high-tech manufacturing sector, ranging from those involving novel nutraceutical processing techniques to drug development, medical devices and complex measurement systems.
“I believe the world-leading science and technology solutions IRL will be providing for these innovative companies will give them the opportunity to develop products that will be market leaders in New Zealand and offshore,” says Shaun Coffey.
The scheme follows on from IRL’s successful $1 million R&D competition, What’s Your Problem New Zealand?, which concluded in 2009 and attracted more than 100 entries.
“After running the competition we realised that New Zealand firms were very keen on utilising R&D to create innovative products but they needed some assistance. If this fund achieves its aims we will endeavour to extend it,” says Shaun Coffey.
-- Source: Industrial Research website