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Editor Ron suggested I write something of an update on FLAIR equine nasal strips, but I advised him we have very few racing fans in the club, since Rex Jensen passed away. However, I will give you a quick update. For the past three years both the Harness Horse of the Year & Thoroughbred of the Year have raced wearing FLAIR strips. Last year’s winner was Probabeel, raced by Sistema founders Brendon & Jo Lindsay. I had the privilege of visiting their Cambridge Stud-Karaka farm recently to see Probabeel who has been retired. They had planned to send her to Royal Ascot but she was injured in Australia & retired to stud. She won $5Mi mainly in Australia and will be a valuable broodmare for the Lindsay’s at Cambridge Stud. The farm at Karaka is magnificent with all the best facilities imaginable for looking after horses. So, I thought members would be more interested in learning about some of the exciting stuff I am involved in with the Product Accelerator (PA)-www.nzproductaccelerator.co.nz.The PA is a Government funded programme which is a collaboration of all NZ’s Universities & GNS Science. Our role is to help NZ companies tap into the capability in our network and work with them to solve pain points and develop new products. We call it “Pull Science” -industry led. The Product Accelerator was formed in 2013 funded by MBIE and in Budget 2019 we received funding under “Industry Futures”. To get separate recognition in the budget was a great endorsement of our model for our contribution to NZ industry and a first for any such programme.
I get involved in a great variety of exciting projects with some of NZ’s leading companies such as Fisher & Paykel Appliances, The Comfort Group (Sleepyhead) and Sanford to SMEs to start ups. One of the best examples of a start up is Inhibit Coatings, spun out of Victoria University by Karori Rotarian Professor Jim Johnston (Jim was a regular RCON attendee during Zoom lock downs). The PA funded a PhD for Dr Eldon Tate, now CEO, and they have a range of anti-microbial & anti-viral coatings that can be used in dairy factories & hospitals for example. Recent testing in the US proved it was highly effective at killing Covid on surfaces.
Projects such as extracting anti-oxidants from seaweed & algae, mussel buoys that are transmitting data on wave height using IOT devices (Internet of Things), green hydrogen, extracting silica from geothermal fields, recycling concrete & plastics, bio-degradable pest traps, underwater drones & ROV’s, robots for remote power station monitoring, sleeping posture, etc, etc -the variety is amazing.
The PA has an Advisory Board, chaired now by Sir Ian Taylor and it has been stimulating working with him on a couple of projects. One of these, which I am driving is Bio-Forest Products. Plastics, adhesives, sugars, nutraceuticals, fine chemicals can be manufactured from a pine tree. We have a working group comprising 3 industry players NZ Bio-Forests Ltd, Futurity Group & Oji Fibre Solutions as well as Government organisation such as NZTE, MPI & the NZ Forest Service. We believe this sector has the potential to be a new primary industry worth around $30Bi. Sir Ian’s vision is “Let’s not export a log by 2035”.
The Advisory Board has a focus on “Tomorrow’s Economy”-developing NZ centric sticky industries such as the Bio-Forest Products opportunity and decarbonisation of NZ industries is also a focus. A recent project involved working with a major global company with a NZ operation to establish a Carbon-Net Zero Smart Home Institute.
How did I get involved? At a Rotary luncheon Professor Ralph Cooney asked me what I was going to do when I stepped out of corporate life. That was 2007 and the PA is the 3rd programme I have helped with business connections.
In summary lots of stuff to keep me off the streets!!