University of Canterbury

In a recent evaluation, New Zealand’s Tertiary Education Commission found the University of Canterbury (UC) to be the country’s research leader in Engineering and Technology; Rehabilitation Therapies; Foreign Languages; and Linguistics, among others. The university also boasts strengths in fields such as Chemistry; Philosophy; Molecular, Cellular and Whole Organism Biology; and Earth Sciences. These fields of research are encompassed within UC’s six colleges: Arts; Business and Economics; Education; Engineering; Science; and the School of Law. Canterprise Limited is the commercialisation and knowledge-transfer company of the University of Canterbury and works to capture and commercialise the university’s Intellectual Property.

The facilities for science at UC are world-class. The field stations, from Kaikoura in the north to Antarctica in the south, are unique in New Zealand. The College also operates the country’s leading observatory at Mount John and is home to the Nanostructure Engineering Science and Technology group (NEST), a key partner in the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. Researchers at UC also have access to the only IMB Blue Gene supercomputer (BlueFernTM) in the Southern Hemisphere.

In addition, UC is home to a number of excellent Research Centres, including (but not limited to) the National ICT Innovation Institute (NZi3); Human Interface Technology Laboratory of NZ (HITLabNZ); Gateway Antarctica; the Biomolecular Interaction Centre (BIC); the Centre for Bioengineering; the Centre of Excellence for Aquaculture and Marine Ecology; and the National Centre for Research on Europe (NCRE).

For more information about the University of Canterbury, or to visit its recently launched UC Research Profile, please see http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/.

University of Auckland

The University of Auckland is ranked among the world’s top 100 universities by the Times Higher Education QS World University Rankings. The New Zealand Government’s latest Performance-Based Review Fund (PBRF) report states that Auckland is also New Zealand’s pre-eminent research-led institution with the largest number and highest concentration of top-ranked researchers.

The University of Auckland’s research efforts are divided between the eight faculties of Arts; Business; the National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries (NICAI); Education; Engineering; Law; Medical and Health Sciences and Science. The University also hosts a School of Theology and two large-scale research institutes – the Auckland Bioengineering Institute and the Liggins Institute. In addition, the University’s research company, UniServices Ltd, is the largest organisation of its kind in Australasia and generates more than NZ$80 million each year through the commercialisation of expertise and research.

For more information about the University of Auckland, please visit http://www.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/.

Auckland University of Technology (AUT)

One of the defining characteristics of AUT stems from its history of engagement with industry, trades and professions.             Industry Advisory Groups have traditionally contributed to the university’s education and training programmes and this is replicated by some of AUT’s most innovative research programmes in which partnerships have been forged with agencies in both the public and private sectors, and with leading research and commercialisation groups in New Zealand and overseas.

This innovative approach to research and commercialisation is exemplified by AUT’s Technology Park which is a premier environment for tech start-ups to grow rapidly, for researchers to work on cutting edge commercialisation projects, and for established businesses to thrive in this fully serviced environment.

AUT faculty research provides a dynamic foundation for research in business and industry; the arts and humanities; health and environmental sciences and design and creative technologies. In addition, the University has established AUT Research Institutes which are funded by the University and whose resources are concentrated in areas of AUT priorities and capabilities.

For more information about AUT, please visit http://www.aut.ac.nz/. 

University of Waikato

The University of Waikato is a research-led university. Approximately 25% of the national research and development effort takes place in the Waikato region. Research at the university in particular encompasses Arts and Social Science; Computing and Mathematical Sciences; Education; Law; Management; Maori and Pacific Development and Science and Engineering.

In addition, there are a number of specialised research groups, centres and projects operating at the University of Waikato, including (but not limited to) the Antarctic Research Unit; the Centre for Biodiversity and Ecology Research; The CLIMPACTS Programme; the Radiocarbon Database and the Thermophile and Microbial Biochemistry and Biotechnology Unit. 

The university also owns WaikatoLink Limited, the commercialisation and technology transfer company of the University of Waikato, which looks to maximise the economic potential of the university’s Intellectual Property and strengthen the bonds between academic research and the realisation of technology potential.

For more information about the University of Waikato, please visit http://www.waikato.ac.nz/home.shtml.

Massey University

Massey University is New Zealand’s largest university, integrated across three campuses in Auckland, Palmerston North and Wellington. The university also provides a comprehensive extramural programme.

Research at Massey falls within the university’s five-college structure and encompasses Business; Creative Arts; Education; Humanities and Social Sciences and Sciences. Each college also hosts a number of excellent Research Centres focusing upon varied subfields of research.

In science, Massey is a major research partner for business, agriculture and the government and a leader in the field of food technology research. In addition, Massey hosts the only university-level aviation school, as well as the only veterinary teaching hospital and school, in New Zealand. The Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Sciences (IVABS) is a world leader in the advancement and dissemination of knowledge in the fields of animal health, animal welfare, biosecurity, conservation and sustainable pastoral activity.

For more information about Massey University, please visit http://www.massey.ac.nz/.

Victoria University of Wellington

Victoria University is considered one of New Zealand’s most significant research institutions. The university demonstrates particular excellence in the fields of Bioscience; Earth and its People; Materials Science; Logic and Computation; Built Environments, Business and Law; Creative Research and Policy, Governance and Society. These fields of research are housed within Victoria University’s seven faculties: Architecture and Design; Humanities and Social Sciences; Law; Science; Engineering; Education and Commerce and Administration.

The university collaborates with a number of New Zealand’s Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) and approximately forty Research Centres also contribute to Victoria’s teaching and research programmes and projects. One such Research Centre is the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, hosted at Victoria in association with the University of Canterbury. The MacDiarmid Institute is a government-funded Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) and New Zealand’s premier research organisation focused upon high quality research and research education in materials science and nanotechnology. Victoria University also collaborates with, and hosts on campus, the country’s leading independent biomedical research centre – the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research.

For more information about Victoria University of Wellington, please visit http://www.victoria.ac.nz/home/.

Lincoln University

Lincoln University offers a wide range of excellent academic programmes, with research at the university paying particular attention to land-based disciplines and their associated industries. Agriculture; horticulture; viticulture; bio-technology; environmental science; environmental management; tourism; landscape architecture; and commerce are amongst the university’s strengths in research. Teaching and research is split between the university’s four divisions of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Bio-Protection and Ecology; Commerce; and Environment, Society and Design.

Lincoln University demonstrates national and international research leadership in a variety of areas, such as the Agribusiness and Economics Unit (AERU); the Centre for Advanced Computational Solutions (CfACS); the Tourism, Recreation Research and Education Centre (TRREC); the Centre for Soil and Environmental Quality; and the Isaac Centre for Nature Conservation.

The university also hosts the National Centre for Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies, another of New Zealand’s seven CoREs. The Centre is at the forefront of research in New Zealand in the field of bio-protection and is a collaboration between Lincoln and Massey universities and AgResearch and Plant and Food Research, two of the country’s eight CRIs.

For more information about Lincoln University, please visit http://www.lincoln.ac.nz/.

University of Otago

The University of Otago’s standing as a top research-led university has been confirmed by independent assessments which have judged it as New Zealand’s most research-intensive university, and the country’s top-ranked university for research quality.

Amongst its broad range of programmes, spread across the four academic divisions of the School of Business; the Division of Health Sciences; the Division of Humanities; and the Division of Sciences, Otago provides specialist areas of teaching, including New Zealand’s first and largest faculty of medicine, New Zealand’s only schools of dentistry and surveying, and schools and faculties of education, law, pharmacy, physiotherapy, and physical education. Complementing the university’s strengths in the medical, biomedical, biological and natural sciences, the liberal arts and law, Otago possesses specialist campus facilities in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Invercargill.

Otago also hosts a large number of Research Centres and Units, including (but not limited to) the Otago Genomics Facility; the Cancer Genetics Laboratory; the Cardioendocrine Research Centre; the Virus Research Unit; the Edgar National Centre for Diabetes Research; the National Energy Research Institute; Oceans and Climate Change; and the New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities.

The University of Otago utilises its wholly owned subsidiary, Otago Innovation Limited, as a vehicle for the commercialisation of research and its Centre for Innovation as a commercialisation hub. The university’s website also hosts an Expertise Database, which provides a searchable guide to specialised knowledge at Otago.

For more information about the University of Otago, please visit http://www.otago.ac.nz/.