NZ to get new multi-million dollar horticulture research institute
Yesterday Science and Innovation Minister Paul Goldsmith announced the Government would provide $8.42 million in funding over five years with additional funding from industry.
Mr Goldsmith said the institute would leverage the Bay of Plenty's strengths in horticulture to accelerate and commercialise research and innovation for the benefit of the region.
"Horticulture is a significant contributor to the Bay of Plenty's economy and by connecting the existing skills, knowledge and resources, this new institute will make an exciting test-bed for research and technology development that could potentially transform the sector," he said.
Zespri was also part of the initiative and its innovation general manager Carol Ward said to compete in the technology space ''our sector needs new capabilities and this regional research institute, located in the 'living lab' of the Bay of Plenty offers an innovative way to grow these capabilities.
''Its research focus on data science and analytics, autonomous devices and mobile decision support has exciting potential to develop innovations that can improve productivity in the kiwifruit industry."
Read more at nzherald.co.nz
