News and releases

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is celebrating 25 years of investment in excellent, science through the Marsden Fund, New Zealand’s premier fund for investigator-led research.

In late 2018 we issued a Call for Proposals for a Data Science Research Platform. After careful consideration we did not continue with this investment approach, but remain committed to an investment in data science.

Existing spectrum rights in the 2100 MHz and 1800 MHz bands will be mostly renewed to ensure mobile network operators can continue to provide 3G and 4G phone services, while freeing up some spectrum for other uses, the Government has announced.

About half of New Zealand homes and businesses have connected to faster, more reliable broadband across the 121 centres where ultra-fast broadband (UFB) is available, according to the latest government report.

The first allocation of 5G spectrum will be the 3.5 GHz band, with national rights to this portion of the spectrum expected to be auctioned early in 2020.

A public consultation has begun on proposals to modernise telecommunications services for people who are Deaf, deafblind or have hearing or speech impairments.

The anticipated review of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) is now underway, and will run until 2020.

The Government has announced significant additional rural broadband and mobile coverage will be deployed around the country over the next four years due to the expansion of the Rural Broadband Initiative phase two (RBI2) and the Mobile Black Spot Fund (MBSF) programme.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has signed a $49 million investment contract with Antarctica New Zealand to deliver underpinning, longer-term Antarctic science with critical benefits for New Zealand.

A funding increase of $13.75 million over three years has been announced for research to combat kauri dieback and myrtle rust.