Crown Research Institutes

CRI Technology Transfer Case Studies

As part of CCMAU’s analysis of the CRIs’ non-financial performance, the CRIs are required to report annually on their technology transfer (commercialisation) activities.  This reporting includes case studies from each CRI on technologies transferred during the past five years and their impact on New Zealand’s economy, environment, and society.  Technology transfer can take a variety of forms, including licensing deals, seminars and hui, and the creation of joint ventures.

The following are some abbreviated examples of case studies provided by some CRIs on their technology transfer activities during 2006/07. 

AgResearch – pasture quality workshops

The productivity of sheep and beef animals (from which New Zealand derived $6.3 million in export value during 2006) is closely related to the amount and degree of utilisation of the forage that they are fed.  Forage quality, rather than quantity, is a major driver of animal performance and is affected by a range of farming and business management practices including the use of fertilisers, planting of forage crops, re-sowing of pastures, and stocking rates.  Unfortunately, the impacts of forage quality on animal production have been traditionally less well understood than the effects of insufficient pasture quality.

Meat and Wool New Zealand (formerly known as Meat New Zealand) is and always has been a major client for AgResearch.  In 1998, AgResearch and Meat New Zealand identified a need to develop a synthesis of animal and pasture science that would allow farmers to understand the principles that determine forage quality and to implement these on-farm.  For farmers to gain the benefit of that understanding, it was also identified that it would be necessary to incorporate a significant component of adult learning to ensure effective uptake and application of biological knowledge.

Thus, from 1998 to 2004, Meat New Zealand contracted AgResearch to provide a number of services, including the organisation of the ‘Meat New Zealand Pasture Quality Workshops’.  The workshops were delivered to about 2800 attendees.  The workshops built on many decades of pasture and animal science as well as new research on the most effective ways for farmers to understand to make use of that science. 

Each workshop was facilitated by an AgResearch staff member and a consultant from Agriculture New Zealand (a training/consultancy business within PGG Wrightson).  They were held in a rural area with pre-prepared pasture plots so that an outdoor exercise could be held to provide hands-on training in pasture quality and quantity assessment.  It was estimated that workshop attendees represented about 15% of the sheep and beef farms in New Zealand. 

Two surveys of attendees were carried out up to 12 months after they attended a workshop: 86% of respondents reported that the workshop had changed their thinking towards pasture quality and 80% reported that the workshop had improved their confidence in managing pasture quality.  About 42% had been able to use some of the knowledge and skills learned in the workshop.

Based on the survey results that 42% were using knowledge and skills learned in the workshop, it is reasonable to expect these attendees made a change in managing pasture quality that resulted in an improvement in production volume.  Applying the skills learned in the workshop could boost lamb and cattle slaughter weight by 8%, lambing rates by 1.5%, and wool production by 1%.  This could have resulted in a total increase in export value of about $61 million by the end of 2006, at very little cost.  The impact could have been wider, however, as, besides those attending, there was a lot of media attention surrounding the workshops, which could have conveyed some further awareness.  There are also indications that a lot of knowledge transfer is informal and takes place between farmers ‘over the fence’.

Thus, through the workshops, AgResearch passed on knowledge that arose from its research that led to direct benefits for the farming community, and ultimately for New Zealand as a whole in terms of increased export income.

GNS Science – oil and gas exploration

Several firms are currently exploring for oil and gas at the bottom of the South Island.  A commitment in 2007 by New Zealand and overseas exploration licence-holders to invest over $1 billion in exploring for oil and gas equates to a doubling of the investment of exploration in New Zealand.  A major discovery in the Great South Basin would transform the New Zealand economy. 

GNS Science’s hydrocarbons exploration consulting group is the largest in New Zealand.  The group contributes to the discovery and development of oil and gas fields in New Zealand and the Pacific region. 

GNS Science has played an important part in promoting interest and increasing awareness of potential oil and gas reserves in the Great South Basin.  GNS Science’s involvement with this region goes back many years.  In 1999, the company published a study which synthesised three decades of government and industry research.  In 2002, the company produced a comprehensive review that provides workstation-ready data and analysis needed by the petroleum exploration industry to evaluative prospectivity.  This Great South Basin Regional Review covers a number of features including all exploration to date, an analysis of well failures from the 1970s and 1980s, estimated oil and gas volumes, and a discussion of the main exploration risk factors.  A number of exploration companies have described it as the most useful and best produced prospectivity product which they have seen.  In 2006, GNS Science processed and interpreted 3100km of seismic data, which indicates a good chance of petroleum reserves.  The company has also run workshops and field trips for companies looking at exploring in the area.  Funding for these activities has come mostly from contracts from the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology, augmented by specific commercial projects. 

This enduring effort and the breath of its knowledge and expertise make GNS Science the first port of call for companies assessing the Great South Basin and a catalyst for exploration of the region.  The finding of oil and gas deposits would have several significant impacts, including helping to reduce New Zealand’s reliance on imported oil, replenishing our natural gas reserves, boosting the Southland economy, generating export earnings, and providing cash that can be used to research and develop other energy alternatives for New Zealand. 

HortResearch – development of the JAZZ apple

JAZZ is a well known New Zealand product recognised worldwide as an outstanding innovation that provides New Zealand’s pipfruit industry with a valuable product and point of difference in an increasingly competitive international marketplace.

JAZZ is the brand name under which ENZA markets the fruit of the ‘Scifresh’ apple cultivar.  ‘Scifresh’ was bred by researchers at HortResearch in a process that began in 1984 with the crossing of two cultivars.  ‘Scifresh’ was released to the market 20 years later.  Research was funded by FRST, grower levies, and HortResearch’s internal investment.  The rights to grow and market ‘Scifresh’ were passed to ENZA in exchange for an ongoing royalty.  The superior eating qualities of JAZZ have combined with its high-yield potential to create what is now a sought-after apple variety in global markets.  This means that ENZA is able to achieve a price premium for JAZZ, which is a benefit for New Zealand growers.

JAZZ has proved to be a successful new commercial apple cultivar grown and sold globally by a New Zealand company.  JAZZ now represents 6.1% of New Zealand’s apple orchards, with export production in 2006 of 4,400 tonnes.  Besides initial breeding of the new variety, HortResearch’s involvement continues.  HortResearch scientists meet annually with ENZA technical staff and JAZZ grower panels to review issues relating to the management of the variety, including ongoing R&D needs.  This includes reduction in soft scald (a tissue disorder which affects product quality) and ‘blind wood’ which affects bud development and, hence, tree productivity.

The development of the JAZZ apple has provided a number of benefits.  It underpins profitability for New Zealand apple growers, the ability to enter new markets with a new product, export income for New Zealand, and a new source of food for consumers across the world.

Scion – addressing the issue of leaky homes

Houses are the largest single asset for most New Zealanders.  In 2000, many New Zealanders’ confidence was affected by the ‘leaky house syndrome’ which hit the press.  Over 15,000 homes were believed to be affected by repair bills which, by December 2006, were estimated to be in the range of $5 billion to $10 billion.  With building activity at an all-time high, the issue had the potential to escalate out of control. 

With 30 years’ experience in timber treatment and light timber frame construction, Scion was engaged to find a solution before the damage to New Zealand’s housing industry and timber framing market became irreparable.

The research challenge given to Scion was to develop accelerated testing protocols that allowed treated systems to be evaluated in short time frames.  The outcomes could then inform the wood processing and wood treatment industries and form the base of new standards for New Zealand.  Funding came from the wood treatment industry and the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology and the research programme was initiated in mid-2000. 

Scion developed a standardised technique that could compare numerous treatments in a period of 25 weeks, which was a substantial reduction from the typical test periods in excess of 12 months.  The technique involved developing a procedure for infecting timber simultaneously with two types of decay fungi and exposing the infected and wet wall structure to high temperatures and humidity.  Using these methods, Scion was able to test seven timber treatment options in a relatively short time to determine which conferred framing timber resistance before, during, and after construction. 

As a result of Scion’s testing protocols, new treating requirements and standards were introduced.  Thus, the building industry received guidance as to what type of timber product to use.  The industry could then provide home owners with greater certainty in the use of building products.

With up to 25,000 new homes being built in New Zealand each year and a very large structural lumber industry (with sales of about $1 billion per annum), any delayed solution would have created a cost to New Zealand of several hundreds of millions of dollars.  Timber continues to be the framing material of choice and building practice has now improved to provide New Zealanders with security about the integrity and value of their largest single asset.