re
:
think
Winter 2014
8
emissions of sulphur dioxide are the largest
by weight according to the register, it is in
fact oxides of nitrogen that pose a bigger
risk, followed by chromium compounds
(often used in tanning) and then
sulphur dioxide.
“The toxicity weighting system will
enable community and investors to have
accurate and reasonable knowledge of
what is happening in their surroundings
which is consistent with the concept
of a Community Right to Know,” says
Professor Scrimgeour.
UNIVERSITIES have many roles to play in society.
Gone are the days of universities being exclusive
and somewhat irrelevant to the world of business
and commerce. Alongside research and teaching,
universities are expected to forecast what jobs will be
in demand in coming years and prepare students for
the workplace.
Universities are also leaders in product innovation
and development and assist in commercialisation to
get products to market.
During my academic career in mechanical
engineering, I developed a particular expertise in the
manufacturing methods for plastic parts. For a decade,
I was Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director
of the School of Mechanical and Process Engineering
at the Queens University Belfast but this was not
a purely academic role. I was also responsible for
establishing the Polymer Processing Research Centre
at Queens University and my team of researchers led
the world in regard to developments for the rotational
moulding of plastics. We designed and patented
process control equipment for rotational moulding
and set up a company to manufacture equipment
that became the industry standard around the world.
Eventually our university spin-out company was sold
to a large machine manufacturer in the USA.
WaikatoLink Limited is the commercialisation
and technology transfer company of the University
of Waikato. As a commercialisation company,
WaikatoLink identifies new ideas and technologies
that can add value to society.
To that end, it is necessary to work with a range
of experts from inside and outside the university,
including researchers, inventors, small business
operators and entrepreneurs, all focussed on taking
emerging research and innovative technologies to the
global marketplace.
It is often a slow process because there are a lot
of steps and stages to go through, usually starting
from a single idea that requires nurturing through to a
viable commercial product.
Initially there is usually science involved, and
technology, and then there is market analysis
to be done, product development and testing,
patent, licensing and IP issues to deal with and,
of course, funding needs to be sought on the
basis of a sound business case.
Perhaps WaikatoLink’s most well-known
spin-out company is Endace. Established in
2001, Endace was the result of research from
the University ofWaikato.
The company designs, develops, sells and
supports high-speed network monitoring and
recording technologies, and is now selling products in
more than 30 countries.
At
the
University
of Waikato
we
continue to assist the establishment of business
in the information technology space, and
have helped form new companies in the
health and medical sector, biotechnology, and
materials and engineering. Other universities
are working with businesses in similar ways.
Universities have a wealth of knowledge and
expertise and often own expensive and essential
equipment – they are a huge resource in
a community.
NEW ZEALAND’S economy is underpinned by
the agricultural sector, where global issues relating to
animal health, antibiotic use and dairy cattle health
can have significant effects on productivity. University
of Waikato-born company, Aldera Ltd, is continuing
to cement its position as a solutions provider for these
global issues and many others.
Aldera was established as a partnership between
WaikatoLink, which is the University of Waikato’s
commercialisation arm, KiwiNet – a national
consortium of research organisations, and local
entrepreneur Bill te Brake. The company is developing
novel products for previously unmet needs in the
animal health sector.
“We’ve developed a mastitis diagnostic tool and
we’re close to signing a development and distribution
agreement with an animal health multinational,” says
Mr te Brake, who believes that the key to success is
identifying where industry needs lie, then pulling
together the research and skills required to develop a
viable solution. Critical to this, he says, is maintaining
a finger on the pulse of the animal health sector, as well
as strong local and international connectivity within
commercial and research streams.
“The US, and Kansas in particular, dominates in
the global animal health market,” says Mr te Brake,
who spends about three months of the year in Kansas
to build partnerships and negotiate contracts with
major animal health companies. “It doesn’t happen
quickly but the opportunities and results have proven
to be significant.”
With research input from the University of
Waikato and the appointment of Dr Nichola
Harcourt as chief scientist, Aldera is pioneering the
application of naturally-derived phytochemicals and
extracts to veterinary health, following world-wide
trends towards natural products for human health.
Just over two years since its establishment, Aldera
has formed a partnership with San Francisco-based
biotech company Prosetta Antiviral. Together they
have formed PA Therapeutics to develop therapies
for animal, plant and aquaculture health. A recent
achievement for PA Therapeutics has been securing
a multi-million dollar development contract with a
global animal health company to develop a series of
antiviral animal health therapies. Each therapy is
expected to provide a significant opportunity for global
impact, with flow-on effects to wider human health
issues such as rabies, which kills thousands of people
each year. A pipeline of additional products is currently
under negotiation with various global companies.
Mr te Brake says Aldera is embodied by the key
purpose of driving innovation by linking publicly
funded research with industry and entrepreneurs to
solve global problems, and credits much of its success
to a strong foundation of partnerships. “It helps to be
strategically connected. WaikatoLink and KiwiNet
facilitated the connections to entrepreneurs, research
capability, and local and global industry in agritech.
Aldera wouldn’t have happened without the broad-
based investment by the University of Waikato and
WaikatoLink.”
Starting as a co-founder, WaikatoLink’s majority
shareholding has subsequently been on-sold. “This
is an exemplar of how the New Zealand innovation
system should work,” says WaikatoLink’s CEO
Duncan Mackintosh, a former vet and co-founder of
Aldera. “We’ve seeded this, helped connect it with New
Zealand intellectual grunt and now we need to back off
and let it realise its full global potential.”
University and business developing new products
Measuring Aussie air
DRIVING
INNOVATION:
Bill te Brake has
several products in
development with
global potential.
A UNIVERSITY of Waikato economist
working with Finance Department
colleagues is helping the Australians report
their chemical emissions.
Professor Frank Scrimgeour and
PhD student Noor Muhammad have
analysed the usage of toxicity ratings
for chemicals listed in the Australian
Pollutant Release and Transfer Register.
This university-initiated project is part of
a larger project to improve the quality and
usefulness
of
environmental
and
sustainability reporting.
Professor Scrimgeour believes giving
chemicals weightings is a more appropriate
way to report chemical emissions, and
he says this approach has far-reaching
advantages for corporate managers, policy
makers and external analysts.
The weighting may be used to prepare
corporate environmental and sustainability
performance measures. Rather than just
measuring volume of waste emitted, the
toxicity index allows for weighting of
individual substances.
“There’s
evidence
from
some
research that despite reducing the mass
of chemical emissions to air and water,
toxicity from chemical emissions may be
increasing through waste transfers,” says
Professor Scrimgeour. For instance, while
New Law and
Management building
FLETCHER Construction has won
the contract to build the University
of
Waikato’s
new
Law
and
Management building.
The announcement was made
at a function to commemorate the
50th anniversary of the University of
Waikato in March attended by the Prime
Minister John Key, Chancellor Jim Bolger,
Hamilton Mayor Julie Hardaker and
other guests.
Work on the $20 million-plus
building, which was designed by Opus
International Consultants, began mid-
April and construction is scheduled to
take 16-18 months. The new building
will house Te Piringa – Faculty of Law and
Waikato Management School's Centre for
Corporate and Executive Education, as
well as student services.
The energy-efficient Law and
Management building will have a five-
storey office tower and rooms at a
below-ground level that will feature a
"living lawn" roof. The tower will have
vertical sunshade vanes to symbolise
the tukutuku reed panels of a traditional
meeting house, natural ventilation, and
glazed corridor walls for natural lighting.
University of Waikato-born company Aldera
Ltd is developing products for the animal
health sector, while University of Waikato
Vice-Chancellor
Professor Roy Crawford
talks
about the roles tertiary institutions can play
in commercialisation.
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