In New Zealand, the Research, Science and Technology Minister Wayne Mapp announced in January the membership of the two new boards that will decide funding for science and innovation.
The Science Board and the Innovation Board will be associated with the new Ministry of Science and Innovation. The Science Board will allocate science funding to research organizations. The Innovation Board will make funding decisions related to business-facing programs.
“These boards will be key players in the government’s reforms to improve the science and innovation system,” Mapp said. “They will help ensure that New Zealand businesses are innovative, internationally competitive, and contributing to economic growth. They will fund the high-quality research needed to increase productivity and raise our standard of living.”
Mapp has also appointed three new members to the Marsden Fund Council, which oversees New Zealand’s premier fund for basic research.
Members to both boards and the coun-cil represent various science fields, including the physical sciences. Specifically in the materials research field is inventor and entrepreneur Grant Ryan, who has founded a number of companies, including YikeBike, GlobalBrain.net, SLI Systems, RealContacts, and Eurekster. Ryan has a degree in mechanical engineering and a PhD degree in ecological economics from the University of Canterbury. He was appointed to the Innovation Board.
Richard Blaikie of the University of Canterbury is director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. He has been appointed to the Science Board.
David Williams, convenor of the Physics, Chemistry and Biochemistry panel for the Marsden Fund Council, is Professor of Electrochemistry at the University of Auckland. His research interests are in medical diagnostic tools, surface chemistry of oxides, electrochemistry sensors, and imaging electrochemical reactions.
