Auckland has launched an initiative aimed at bringing renowned researchers to the country, with the government providing $25m in funding.
Auckland University has initiated a NZ$35m ($25m) program dubbed Entrepreneurial Universities to bring foreign researchers and their teams to the country and boost the domestic ecosystem, Scoop.co.nz reported yesterday.
The program will be open to all eight universities in the country, with the entire capital having been committed by the New Zealand government.
Universities will enter into an equal partnership to attract international researchers and their teams to their institution for three to five years. The program is expected to support between 15 and 20 researchers and their colleagues, averaging out at approximately NZ$1m per team per year.
The program is a reaction to New Zealand’s realisation that it only makes up around half a percent of the world’s total science budget, making it difficult to convince foreign researchers to relocate to the country. Consequently, it is suffering from a lack of spinout deal flow.
New Zealand also lost some 30,000 jobs in agriculture and some 80,000 in manufacturing over the past two decades, making access to new industries and a vibrant startup ecosystem vital to the country’s continued economic success.
Auckland University has drafted an initial list of potential researchers, several of whom are originally from the country but went abroad to pursue their careers. The initiative will focus solely on researchers with a proven entrepreneurial track record in sectors such as computer sciences, nanotechnology and biotechnology.
The program is expected to continue beyond the initial funding period.
