Wireless-charging roads, clean aviation, super-volcano projects get $41M of MBIE funding

Thursday 14th September 2017

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has allocated $41 million from its Endeavour Fund for five projects run by Victoria University of Wellington and one by the University of Auckland.

In the latest round of funding from the Endeavour Fund, 68 new projects will receive $250 million over the next five years. MBIE received 408 applications for research funding, it said.

The project which received the most funding will investigate detection, diagnostic, prediction and management strategies for New Zealand's aquaculture health. It will be run by the Nelson-based Cawthron institute and get $14.6 million in funding. AgResearch has been given $12.5 million for a project on new dairy product opportunities, while $11.1 million will go to NIWA for research and monitoring of the Ross Sea.

A University of Auckland project investigating wireless charging technology, which would charge electric vehicles as they were driven or parked, will get nearly $12 million. The project has a number of implementation companies in New Zealand involved, including Vector, Downer, and JuicePoint along with public agencies Ministry of Transport, NZTA and Auckland Transport, the university said.

Meanwhile, a project from Victoria's School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences will receive $8.2 million over five years to investigate supervolcano eruptions. The team will develop a framework for estimating the size, timing and impact of future events. The eruption of the Taupo Volcano around 26,500 years ago, which formed Lake Taupo, is considered the world's most recent super-eruption.

A project to improve understanding of rising sea levels, conducted by Victoria's Antarctic Research Centre, will get $7.1 million over five years, while $6.3 million has been allocated to a project at Victoria's Robinson Research Institute to develop a jet plane motor using cleaner technology.

A Victoria Ferrier Research Institute's project has been awarded $6.2 million to develop new materials to accelerate bone and tissue repair, and $1 million has been given to the university's Faculty of Engineering for a three-year project examining lighting in augmented reality.

(BusinessDesk)

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