As Engagement Adviser, Nina's role is to champion entrepreneurship within the University and to strengthen and uphold the University's external image as hub for entrepreneurship and innovation. She promotes the award-winning, free programmes on offer to students and staff of all faculties through CIE, and writes articles about our community of students, staff and alumni. In short: you can see her work in our newsletters, on our website and across our socials.

It’s been a fruitful (pun intended) few years for agritech entrepreneur Matty Blomfield. Momentum continues to build at pace for Hectre, the orchard management software company he founded with Menilik Dyer and Nico Gabarra in 2017; over the last few years the start-up has rapidly grown into what Blomfield describes as “an AI company for the fresh produce industry”, developing a suite of innovative new products, expanding its reach across the globe and winning its categories for three years running at the annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards.

Opinion: The latest Global Innovation Index shows how New Zealand needs to close the gap between its innovation inputs and outputs, writes Professor Rod McNaughton – Academic Director of the University of Auckland Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

New Zealand’s ranking of 27th in the Global Innovation Index 2023 is a significant marker of our nation’s capabilities and potential areas for growth. While showcasing our robust education and governance systems, this position underscores the urgent need to elevate our technological prowess and market development.

The team behind engineering venture Tectonus, which emerged from Velocity, the entrepreneurship development programme organised by the University of Auckland Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), was moved by the impact of the Christchurch earthquakes, prompting them to innovate a better damping connection. Their invention automatically readjusts buildings post-quake, providing seismic resilience for both new and existing structures without needing post-event maintenance, offering cost and space efficiency.

Bhuvana Kannan has held a range of roles within New Zealand’s deep-tech community for over a decade. Her professional journey has included roles in project management and research commercialisation in everything from nanotech to biotech, developing innovations utilising novel materials including fish skins and recombinant bee DNA.

During her time at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland, she completed a Master’s degree in commercialisation and entrepreneurship, which complemented her PhD in Chemistry.

Bspkl is New Zealand’s pioneering hydrogen deep-tech start-up, bringing the world one step closer to making hydrogen production more sustainable for a range of applications for everything from manufacturing to transport. Their technology aims to reduce the amount of precious metals required to produce a catalyst coated membrane by a factor of up to 25 times.

Artificial Intelligence is set to significantly impact every facet of modern life, including tertiary education. In this Op Ed, Professor Rod McNaughton, Academic Director of the University of Auckland Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) asks – is 2024 the year lectures die?

Bachelor of Commerce/Bachelor of Laws student, Izilah (Izzy) Mohammed is this year’s CEO of the Velocity entrepreneurship development programme. Izzy is responsible for leading a committee of student volunteers who organise a year-long programme of competitions, inspirational seminars and workshops for the benefit of hundreds of University of Auckland students and staff.

The Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship's (CIE) Velocity programme thrived this year. Not only did the initiative see record number of applications this year for its $100k Challenge start-up planning competition, but it was also named the Academic Initiative of the Year at the 2023 Global Entrepreneurship Network New Zealand Awards. A significant milestone as the programme celebrates 20 years.

It took four students, one lecturer, and a light nudge in the right direction from the Velocity $100k judges for the software company ecoPortal to be founded. Today, ecoPortal has grown into the leading health, safety, environmental and risk management software for enterprise clients in Australasia. “Today, we've got 70 staff across Australia and New Zealand and other parts of the world. We have a really strong foundation from which to become a global organisation and the best health, safety and risk management platform in the world”, CEO Dr Manuel Seidel explains.