Creating impact
Introduction
Governments worldwide increasingly require that public investments in research demonstrate tangible impacts that benefit the economy, society or environment beyond a contribution to knowledge or skills in research organisations. To do this, publicly funded researchers in New Zealand are asked to maintain a ‘line-of-sight to impact’. This is intended to help them understand their part in the bigger picture – how their activities have or could contribute to improving the wellbeing of New Zealanders.
Impacts are unpredictable and some may only become apparent in retrospect. Many factors beyond the research system affect impacts, which makes them challenging to measure. For this reason, data-driven impact analysis often stops at outputs (research products such as papers and presentations that can be measured easily). Case studies, however, can provide insight into the successful uptake of research and scientific expertise in the absence of comprehensive data. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is working to extend measurement to actual impacts by linking datasets and qualitative approaches.
Impact to the economy results from research being commercialised and new products and services entering the market. Non-commercialised research can also have an impact. The modelling of COVID-19 in New Zealand that informed government decisions around lockdowns for example, is likely to have had a significant social impact.
Patents are the intellectual property right used to protect inventions. For a patent application to be granted, an invention must be new, useful and not obvious. Patents are often used as a metric for innovation that has commercial potential. There are also other approaches to commercialisation that do not involve patents.
This chapter uses patent data granted to resident inventors and foreign-oriented patent family applications as a basic gauge of how New Zealand is performing relative to other countries.
Ngā miramira wāhangaChapter highlights
Data to measure the impact of research, science and innovation activities on organisations and people is limited.
Patent information can be used as an indication of commercial innovation. New Zealand has a low number of patents granted to resident inventors and a low number of foreign-oriented patent family applications relative to other small advanced economies and Australia.
6.1 — Te whakaarumoni i te R&D
Commercialisation of R&D
Patents granted to resident inventors
The number of patents granted in New Zealand to residents of this country has declined by 79 per cent since 2009 and totalled 94 in 2019. This is low compared with other small advanced economies and Australia.
Foreign-oriented patent families
Patent applications by New Zealand inventors in foreign jurisdictions peaked in 2014 with 504 applications, and has since declined. Patenting activity by New Zealand inventors is low compared to other small advanced economies.
Patent families are a set of related patent applications filed in one or more countries to protect the same or a similar invention. A foreign-oriented patent family refers to a patent family having at least one filing office that is different from the office of the applicant’s origin. Inventors tend to apply for patents in foreign jurisdictions when they see potential financial returns or other advantages from protecting their invention in these markets.
COVID-19 vaccine strategy
Ensuring access to a safe and effective vaccine as early as possible
This strategy aimed to ensure New Zealand had detailed knowledge of international research efforts and could assess promising vaccine candidates as they emerged. New Zealand also advocated for a COVID-19 vaccine being distributed equitably, with a particular focus on our Pacific Island partners.
The government allocated funding to support:
- vaccine research in New Zealand
- potential manufacturing capability in this country
- international research collaborations including those managed by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations
- the vaccine alliance Gavi, which distributes vaccines to developing countries.
Boosting Māori data capability for a better future
A joint initiative between Callaghan Innovation and Figure.NZ created an online platform aimed at boosting data capability for the Māori economy.
Pātaka Raraunga is a website that brings together data, tools and reports on te ao Māori. Its aim is to make data for and about Māori accessible in order to inform decision-making in Māori businesses. The site also provides digital resources to teach data literacy and hosts Māori data webinars.
Data on the platform is constantly being updated and new datasets added. Users can also request the addition of data that may not be present. Since the site was launched in October 2020, more than 10,000 people who are Māori or work to support Māori have engaged with its data.
Pātaka Raraunga has helped individual organisations and businesses achieve success and researchers have reported time savings from easier access to reputable data. It has also encouraged leaders of Pasifika and disabilities communities to design similar sites to meet their needs.
Whakakitenga: using virtual reality technology to support Māori storytelling
Whakakitenga is the first virtual reality film made in te reo Māori. It explores the historical world of Te Rangihaeata, a Ngāti Toa Rangatira warrior, poet, gardener and carver. It was written and directed by Wiremu Grace and co-directed by Miriam Ross and Paul Wolffram.
The project was a collaboration between Ngāti Toa Rangatira and Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka. It began with the aim of using new audiovisual technologies to explore the ongoing impacts of colonisation. Whakakitenga was designed and made with the intention of building capacity for Māori to engage with the storytelling power of virtual reality.
