NEC collaborates with NZi3 for research

NEC New Zealand Ltd (“NEC New Zealand”) announces today its collaboration for research as a Research Sponsor with the New Zealand ICT[1] Innovation Institute (NZi3) based at the University of Canterbury, the first of such an engagement at this level for NZi3. Initial collaboration between the two institutes will focus on energy and ecology solutions to help rebuild the City of Christchurch after the massive earthquakes, as well as human interaction solutions such as biometrics and robotics.

NZi3 is a ‘hothouse’ of strategic ICT research and aims to be a globally-recognized innovation centre that transforms ideas from the lab, across the innovation gap, into industry. NEC New Zealand is the local subsidiary of NEC Corporation in New Zealand, with offices in Wellington and Auckland to provide the latest technologies and total solutions to the New Zealand market. This collaboration aims to unite world-class researchers and research students from the University of Canterbury with industry experts from NEC, to co-develop new and innovative technologies and solutions and transform these ideas into relevant applications for the market.

As part of this collaboration, NEC New Zealand will provide a sponsorship of NZ$90,000 over three years, in addition to the equipment and other in-kind support worth more than NZ$30,000 during the same period. This sponsorship also includes the funding of two full-time postgraduate research students whose thesis research will be guided and supervised by NEC and based in NZi3. Furthermore, NEC will promote and feature the collaborative demonstrations with NZi3 at its Innovation Centre showroom.

Rod Carr, Vice Chancellor of the University of Canterbury says, “We are delighted to be establishing this new partnership with NEC and NZi3. Innovation is at the forefront of our practice as a University and building industry relationships such as this is vital to our future.”

Hamish House, Director of NZi3 says, “NZi3 is incredibly excited to be working with NEC in this new and exhilarating partnership. By bringing together a multinational company with over 100 years of expertise in technological innovation with the University’s world class expertise in ICT research and academia, bright, young and talented post-graduate students are given the opportunity to work with one of the world’s best companies. Students and researchers will be working side by side in collaboration to co-develop new and ground-breaking innovative technologies and solutions and transform these ideas into relevant applications for the global market place. We look forward to the first three years of this partnership delivering exciting new developments and value for NZi3, the University and NEC.”

Leonard Dench, General Manager at NEC New Zealand says, “NEC New Zealand is thrilled to work with NZi3, a leading ICT research institute in New Zealand and this collaboration is part of our corporate strategy to leverage our research and development capabilities. There are abundant research opportunities that could be explored between the two institutes and we hope to bring to market some of our new and exciting developments and technologies soon.”



[1] ICT is an abbreviation for Information and Communications Technology.