9. Research Performance and Industry Relevance


The University of Waikato’s position as an innovative research institution with a strong focus on industry and community applications was demonstrated by the wide range and high value of the research grants received by researchers. In 2015 the University's Research and Development income was $73.478 million or 30.06% of total consolidated revenue.


Light Pollution

In Europe where there are issues with light pollution, scientists have found that native species are deterred by light. University of Waikato doctoral student Bridgette Farnworth’s research is proposing that light could be used in New Zealand to deter nocturnal rodents, mice in particular. Bridgette’s the recipient of a Research Institute doctoral scholarship, worth up to $85,000 for three years to assist her study into non-lethal pest control.

New Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research
The Dean of the Faculty of Science & Engineering was selected for the new role of Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research. Professor Bruce Clarkson, known for his work in urban ecology and ecological restoration, will lead Waikato’s research strategy, research systems and support. His role includes responsibility for growing and promoting research capability within the University and linking that capability and capacity to the wider community by building productive relationships and alliances locally, nationally and internationally.

During 2015, the University boosted its support to researchers, with specific attention being paid to those compiling bids for Marsden, MBIE or Health Research Council grants. The Research and Enterprise Office has provided targeted professional development for those helping write research bids, and staff have worked closely with researchers to translate their ideas for problem-solving into funding. The office has also appointed new research developers and business relationship managers based in Auckland and Wellington and calls on in-house expertise around Vision Mātauranga and providing interdisciplinary approaches.


WaikatoLink
WaikatoLink continued to deliver on its strategic goal of supporting the University across a range of Intellectual Property (IP) commercialisation, research development and industry engagement opportunities in 2015, resolving long-standing legacy issues, and delivering a positive financial result while providing leadership to New Zealand’s commercialisation ecosystem. Further work to integrate the Research Office and WaikatoLink Ltd took place in 2015 under the watch of the new DVC Research to deliver improved research funding and outcomes.

10 million new funding

An Intellectual Property Investment and Advisory Committee reporting to the Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor was established to support a seamless interface between the University and WaikatoLink and to ensure co-ordination of IP management at an institutional level. WaikatoLink continues to lead the KiwiNet consortium with a further three years’ funding secured from MBIE.

The sale of US company Pentaho to Hitachi triggered a significant return for the University. The equity holding, worth $1.1 million, was secured as part of a licensing deal of WEKA software. 11Ants was sold to a joint venture between Air New Zealand and Canadian-listed company Aimia; Aduro Biopolymers is raising capital to scale-up manufacturing capability and is delivering new products for the meat industry; and Ligar polymers, a joint venture between Wintec and WaikatoLink, with investment from Wallace Corporation, is developing new products for companies including Pfizer, Bayer, and Pall, among other blue-chip companies.


Major External Research Grants
Demonstrating the very high level of industry engagement by University of Waikato researchers, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) allocated University researchers nearly $10 million for four research projects that aim to provide solutions to the problems and challenges in the environment and economy.

Postgraduate students

Postgraduate students Nigel Binks and Annie West weren’t big fans of arachnids before they spent 10 weeks on a University of Waikato Summer Research Scholarship analysing spider DNA. Now, it’s a different story. They spent the summer of 2015 catching thousands of spiders and obtaining tissue samples for DNA extraction and sequencing – the first time this type of barcoding has been done in New Zealand.

The long-term and crucial work to clean up the nation’s lakes received another $5.1 million in funding. The original 10-year Outcome Based Investment (OBI) was the only enduring OBI and was funded by MBIE. The OBI concept was created in 2005 when a new approach to research funding sought to better engage researchers with end users. During the Rotorua lakes OBI, researchers at the University of Waikato produced more than 2000 outputs such as creating lake databases, publications and articles, producing new monitoring techniques and hardware for lakes, and creating a database platform and website for lake users. The technology developed throughout the project, led by Professor David Hamilton, is now even used in China to monitor the health of lakes there.

Data on the destinations of students associated with the Lake Ecosystem Restoration New Zealand (LERNZ) programme show that more than 60 graduates are now employed in areas ranging from regional councils or consultancy to research institutes in New Zealand and overseas. In late 2015, the University hosted a function with 120 attendees to mark the conclusion of the project which has contributed to massive improvement in the quality of the lakes’ water.

The University received $2.5 million to look at the character and origin of sedimentary basins that formed during the Late Cretaceous Period (100-65 Ma). The research, led by Professor Peter Kamp, will provide a regional context and understanding that will help exploration companies find oil and gas prospects.

Seven popular New Zealand surf breaks will be studied to determine how coastal activities such as dredging and marina development threaten them. Associate Professor Karin Bryan will oversee the $1.2 million research contract to collect baseline data, including wind and wave conditions and underwater topography, and use this to assess changes in “surfability”.

Income Research

The University is also running a $1 million study into engineering high value enzymes using forward and reverse evolution. The global enzyme market is now worth approximately $15 billion annually. Professor Vic Arcus’ team has been able to make ancestral enzymes in the lab that are entirely new using a 'reverse evolution' approach. They will combine reverse evolution with more conventional forward evolution and modern enzyme engineering to refine enzymes ready for use in the commercial world.

Waikato also won $1.3 million in Marsden funding including three Fast-Start grants. Associate Professor Holly Thorpe will examine young people’s engagement with informal sports to improve their own and others’ wellbeing in war-torn and postdisaster geographies. Electronic engineer Dr Lee Streeter will re-engineer a new camera that can simultaneously image distances and velocities, to enable real-time accurate measurement of dynamic scenes. He will work with Dr Gordon Wetzstein from Stanford University. And Tauranga-based marine scientist Dr Phil Ross will combine archaeology and molecular ecology with Mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) to look at why toheroa have failed to recover despite the fishery being closed more than 40 years ago.

Research enrolments

Associate Professor Eibe Frank won a Marsden grant of $410,000 to find ways to make “deep” learning in computers more accessible for mainstream use. Techniques from the research will be made available through the open-source software WEKA, which was developed at the University of Waikato.

The Māori Language Commission has funded the University to measure the value of the contribution that Māori language and culture make to the New Zealand economy. The $100,000 contract is led by Associate Professor Sandy Morrison.

In total in 2015, the University won more than 200 new externally funded research contracts, from 120 bodies with a value of $41 million over the life of the contracts.


Funded Professorial Positions
Waikato’s work in areas of national importance was recognised during 2015 with the University receiving external funding to support two targeted professorial positions.

The Ministry for the Environment is jointly funding a Chair in Environmental Economics with the Waikato Management School to which Professor Graeme Doole was appointed in 2015. The position is funded by the Ministry in recognition of the need for Government and communities to make complex decisions about managing fresh water. Professor Doole will help local bodies build capabilities in this area and will also act as an adviser to the Ministry on its Water Programme.

The Dr John Gallagher Chair of Engineering was initiated in 2015 by long-time supporter of the University, Dr John Gallagher. A significant gift from Dr Gallagher and his wife Glenice, for a period of at least five years, will fund the endowed Chair. It will focus on agriculture, especially grassland farming and retaining manufacturing of agricultural products in New Zealand.


Externally-Funded Research Fellowships

Institute Income
A senior Māori academic and director of the Te Kotahi Research Institute, Associate Professor Leonie Pihama, was recognised in 2015 with an inaugural Ngā Pou Senior Fellowship from the Health Research Council. The fellowship was created to advance the work of mid-career to senior-level researchers with a proven track record and prominent level of leadership in an area of Māori health. Dr Pihama’s three-year project will enable her to develop a cultural framework for understanding emotions from a Māori perspective which will be used to help Māori health providers working in the area of family violence prevention and intervention.

Research associate Dr Apo Aporosa received a $230,000 Health Research Council Pacific postdoctoral fellowship to study the effects of the popular Pacific Island drink, kava, on driver ability and road safety.

Professor Neil Boister was granted the New Zealand Law Foundation International Research Fellowship, New Zealand’s premier legal research award, valued at up to $125,000 to undertake research on ‘The simplification of New Zealand’s law of extradition’.


Work Placements

Research Income
A total of 2,275 students took part in work-placement or internships or work experience in 2015, but the University plans to extend that from 2016 through new undergraduate requirements that will see students taking credit-bearing papers relating to cultural competencies, disciplinary foundations and community engagement. These three areas will be important for producing graduates who are able to excel in the workplace and who are distinctively “Waikato” graduates.

All Faculties, with the exception of Education, had a growth in placements in 2015. The Faculty of Management in particular has grown strongly, from a base of 32 in 2010 to 233 in 2015. The recent growth stems from the introduction of an Industry Experience paper as an option in the fourth year of the Bachelor of Management Studies, and a significant increase in the numbers of students electing to undertake this option.

Work placements in the Faculty of Science & Engineering as part of the Bachelor of Science (Technology) and the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) degrees usually consist of a three-month placement at the end of the second academic year and a further three- or six-month placement at the end of the third academic year. Cooperative education staff from the Faculty liaise with industry, research institutes and local government organisations to place students in work places relevant to their qualification and interests. Each student undertakes specific University papers to prepare them for the workplace which includes learning skills in professional behaviour, ethics, and communication.



Leading the way in Māori health research

Maori Health

Senior Māori academic and health researcher Associate Professor Leonie Pihama was awarded an inaugural Ngā Pou Senior Fellowship worth $300,000 from the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) to enable her to develop a cultural framework for understanding emotions from a Māori perspective. The information will be used to help Māori health providers working in the area of family violence prevention and intervention.

The Ngā Pou Senior Fellowship is a new HRC award developed to advance the work of mid-career to senior level researchers with a proven track record and prominent level of leadership in an area of Māori health.

Dr Pihama is Director of Te Kotahi Research Institute at the University of Waikato and has more than 20 years’ experience in Māori health research.

“The research component ‘He Kare a Roto’ is a scoping project that is exploring the development of a cultural framework for understanding emotions from a Māori perspective which will inform Māori health providers working in the area of family violence prevention and intervention, and that work is alongside a range of Māori healers, providers and counsellors,” she says.

Dr Pihama is the author and co-author of several publications on indigenous issues and is also an expert in Māori child-rearing. Her research interests cover whānau wellbeing and Māori representation and she is an advocate for Kaupapa Māori theory and research methodologies. She has a long history of involvement with Māori education, including te kohanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori.

She has been a member of the Government-appointed Constitutional Advisory Panel and has received numerous academic awards, including the inaugural Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Maramatanga Scholar Award. She is also coinvestigator on a Ministry of Education commissioned project on transition pathways of tamariki between Māori medium early childhood education and schooling.

Dr Pihama also hosts the He Manawa Whenua Indigenous Research Conference every two years in Hamilton which attracts delegates from around the world.



New Chairs at Waikato will address major issues

Professor Doole

In a bid to help address the national skills shortage in engineering the University of Waikato has steadily been expanding its Engineering offerings.

In 2015, the Glenice and Dr John Gallagher Foundation made a significant gift to allow for the appointment of a new Chair in Engineering at Waikato. It’s the first of its kind at the University Waikato, and the position will be known as the Dr John Gallagher Chair in Engineering in recognition of the Gallaghers' long history of support for the University.

The establishment of the Chair coincided with the University's announcement it would create the new role of Dean of Engineering.

Meanwhile in August, the Government announced that Professor Graeme Doole (pictured) would become the University of Waikato Chair in Environmental Economics – a four-year position jointly funded by the Ministry for the Environment and Waikato Management School.

Professor Doole’s appointment came in the wake of the Government’s new National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management, which requires regional councils to introduce rules for managing freshwater assets by 2025, in consultation with community stakeholders.

Professor Doole will be providing independent economic advice to regional councils across New Zealand as they develop new policies to improve the water quality of rivers, lakes and streams.

“My role is about helping people make more informed decisions about the costs of achieving water quality targets in a specific catchment area, in a way that seeks to balance the competing interests of environmental, social, cultural and economic goals.”

He is tasked with increasing skills capacity across New Zealand by training regional council and central government staff how to conduct high-quality economic analysis of proposed plans for managing water resources.

David Hamilton

Professor David Hamilton, Chief Science Officer for Lake Ecosystem Restoration New Zealand (LERNZ), was awarded a further $5.1 million in government funding to continue research into central North Island lakes’ restoration.



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