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World's Best Brains On Hand To Help North Shore Companies
Picture this: You’re a go ahead company with a winning product or a technology, but you’ve hit a stumbling block that requires urgent solution, as it’s holding up development or the manufacturing process. What do you do?
From this month, you can get help from a world class expert – who may well be on the other side of the world – someone you probably know absolutely nothing about. Just call Enterprise North Shore and ask about the new Global Technology Partnership programme offered by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. Qualified Technology Partners That Can Help Global Technology Partnership identifies qualified technology partners with specific knowledge and skills to solve problems, via a network of 20,000 experts from leading universities, research institutions and corporations around the world. It’s new, confidential, fast and it works. It’s also relatively inexpensive. North Shore businesses are among the first to be offered this service, with Enterprise North Shore providing the initial point of contact. “Companies on the North Shore are very innovative, but when faced with challenging technical problems, it can be hard to find the right experts to identify the solutions,” says Barry Moss, Business Facilitator with Enterprise North Shore. “If a problem arises during development of a product or service, or with a manufacturing system and a company is unable to solve that problem themselves, it’s quite likely that someone, somewhere around the world can help and that’s where we can assist with the Global Technology Partnership service.” Gateway to a Range of Programmes Enterprise North Shore is a gateway to a range of programmes offered by the Foundation and they’ll discuss your needs and work out exactly what you require. If the Global Technology Partnership is deemed the right tool, you’ll be put in touch with the team specialising in that service. Andreas Baptist, Global Technology Partnership Programme Manager, says speed and low cost are key features of the service. There’s a standard fee of $2750 plus GST, yet no time-consuming paperwork is required, just a briefing with a team member to identify the problem. Then specialists with experience in that area search worldwide for the right people to solve the problem, reporting back within 10 working days. “It has to be that fast because most problems we’re called upon to help solve are urgent and the client needs a rapid response,” says Mr Baptist. International Partnership Provides the Contacts The Foundation has partnered with the Danish Technological Institute, which has access to experts from leading organisations, such as MIT and Berkeley in the US, Cranfield (UK) Fraunhofer (Germany) and the Beijing University of Technology (China). Up to four or five experts are selected and clients review their credentials and decide whether they want to work with them or not. All information and contact is treated with strictest confidence and there is no obligation for New Zealand companies to take up the expert offer. “Once we have made the match, we pull back and let the two sides get on with it – we are simply there to match-make,” says Mr Baptist, adding that follow-ups are made at three and six monthly intervals to check on progress. Mr Baptist says businesses that could benefit include manufacturing, agriculture-bio, IT and food processing. But service companies or other organisations that use technology may also find a need. Other Foundation programmes may be useful, too, such as SmartStart, which can provide funding to help a company investigate barriers to technology innovation and R&D research; Grants for Private Sector Research and Development (GPSRD) programme, to support technological or technical development of new products, processes and services in small/medium sized firms, and Technology for Business Growth (TBG), aimed at projects that move companies towards high added-value, high-margin, technology-based products. More Information For further information, contact Barry Moss See: Global Technology Partnership |