Why do you think CRIs (Crown Research Institutes) and polytechs do a better job of supporting industry than universities?
Answer
Evidence. Most NZ companies don’t need leading-edge R&D. Much of the time, they just need to solve small, urgent technical problems. Universities are conflicted when it comes to doing industry focused work, since they are not rewarded for it (either via academic promotions or by the Performance Based Research Fund, which prioritise fundamental research, not applied research). Consequently, they don’t put their best brains on it, and they struggle to complete projects in a time-frame that industry finds useful.