University of Auckland Smart Ideas funded projects

Microorganisms and diseases, spread by insects such as mosquitoes and ticks, pose significant threats to both farmed animals and wildlife in New Zealand. Climate change can exacerbate this risk by altering the survival, range, and interactions of the insects that carry diseases and their hosts. New Zealand’s unique ecosystems and species, including the critically endangered kākāpō, are particularly vulnerable to introduced diseases. We will catch mosquitoes that have fed on the blood of animals and then use nucleic acid probes to detect diseases in the blood meals of those mosquitoes. This turns mosquitoes into wide-ranging, inexpensive, blood sample collectors. Our research will allow biosecurity agencies to monitor a wide range of species—including those challenging or costly to capture directly—providing an early warning system for diseases that threaten both wildlife and farmed animals. This system will fill a gap in our current surveillance systems which struggle to provide comprehensive coverage in remote or ecologically sensitive areas. Our research will help protect New Zealand’s $36.7 billion meat, dairy, and livestock export sectors, as well as the tourism sector, which rely heavily on New Zealand's unique biodiversity. Despite our strict biosecurity measures, climate change and increased global movement of people and animals heightens the risk of new diseases entering the country. The 2018 detection and eradication of Culex sitiens, a mosquito capable of spreading West Nile Virus and Japanese Encephalitis, highlights both the risks and effectiveness of early detection. By integrating mātauranga Māori into the project in partnership with Ngāti Kuri, our field-ready disease detection platform will strengthen biosecurity by identifying and tracking harmful diseases more effectively, allowing authorities to act swiftly to protect New Zealand’s environment, economy, and cultural heritage.

Pacemakers are tremendous until their wires break. We will deliver leadless pacemakers that make pacemaker surgery easier, and the whole cardiac synchronisation management process reliable. Usually, we need two cardiac pacing sites. Our new technology will deliver synchronised pacing between multiple leadless pacemakers sharing power which provide lifetime operation meaning no need for more surgery because the pacemaker battery is going flat. Our team has experience making active implantable devices for lifetime management of chronic diseases. The power and communication technology at the heart of this proposal will be applicable to many implantable medical devices. We will attract foreign investment from international medical devices companies (large and small) to New Zealand for product development activities creating highly skilled workforce manufacturing high value products.

This project will focus on refining chitosan, derived from inexpensive, unwanted marine waste, such as shells from crustaceans andsea urchins (like kina) to develop self-charging membranes. Materials that carry charge are capable of killing bacteria and fungi, and inactivate viruses. By making materials that continuously create charge through movement, we will develop membranes that continuously replenish their antimicrobial activity. These membranes have broad potential for a range of uses, and will initially be used to create next-generation residential air filters. The high-value products that will be produced will lead to downstream benefits to New Zealand in export revenue, reduced environmental pollution and better health outcomes.

Using te reo Māori correctly is key to building relationships with Māori clients, stakeholders, and communities. However, many learners of te reo Māori face challenges with pronunciation, which can affect their confidence and fluency. Pronouncing sounds correctly involves creating the right mouth shape and positioning the tongue correctly—skills that current te reo Māori learning apps fail to address effectively. This Smart Ideas project introduces the first-ever AI-based pronunciation coach for te reo Māori. Unlike existing apps that only offer "correct" or "incorrect" feedback. The AI-based pronunciation coach, developed for this project, will provide detailed, personalised guidance to help learners articulate Māori sounds correctly. In collaboration with language revitalization experts, we will define the acceptable range of pronunciation for te reo Māori sounds. The AI-based te reo Māori pronunciation coach will guide learners to adjust their mouth shape and tongue position to pronounce sounds within the acceptable range. Whether you are learning to pronounce te reo Māori names, place names, or everyday words, this AI-based pronunciation coach will help you get it right. Designed to serve one million users in five years, the scalable AI-based pronunciation coach will address the growing demand for te reo Māori learning, which saw a 31% increase in uptake between 2021 and 2023. Beyond individual learning, this project contributes to the revitalisation of te reo Māori, supporting the goal for one million te reo Māori speakers by 2040. Aligning with international efforts, such as the United Nations Decade of Indigenous Languages, this project will provide a process for developing similar language learning apps globally. Therefore this project supports respectful relationship building between peoples and cultures.

We will improve spatial reasoning skills (the capacity to think about objects in three dimensions) in rangatahi, and thus improve students’ participation and performance in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). New Zealand students’ achievements in mathematics and science have fallen over the last decade with the percentage of low performers increasing. Previous research shows a clear correlation between spatial reasoning skills and success in STEM subjects and improving them can significantly improve academic performance and achievements in many professions such as in medicine, engineering, sports, and architecture. We will develop software for spatial skills training which increases engagement and participation through gamification and incorporation of cultural content. In partnership with Māori game designers (Metia Interactive) and education experts, Metia’s game “Guardian Maia” will be adapted to study how spatial reasoning is supported by an engaging, immersive, culturally competent, spiritual context. We will utilise unique Māori ways of expressing spatial concepts, e.g., for navigating the game environment, and map traditional Māori martial arts weapons and movements into interactions improving spatial reasoning skills. We will develop novel algorithms for cognitive load measurement and use them to automatically adjust the difficulty of learning tasks to the user’s abilities. Our research will address accessibility and digital inclusion by evaluating different platforms for delivering the learning software. By 10 years post programme, we anticipate 25% of NZ primary schools and kura will use our tools to upskill their learners in spatial reasoning. Our research will benefit NZ students' learning and future workplace performance and will have international appeal, creating potential to export education products derived from our findings. The project is led by Dr. Burkhard Wuensche from the University of Auckland burkhard@cs.auckland.ac.nz

This project will jumpstart coastal restoration through the construction and out-planting of artificial horse mussel/toretore beds. Whilst artificial shells will not accrue all the benefits of live animal restoration, they will mimic the physical structure of their shells and enhance many of the critical ecosystem services they provide; stabilising the seafloor, creating habitat that enhances biodiversity and the productivity of key fisheries species, and potentially providing better habitat for juvenile horse mussel recruitment. A complementary direct economic benefit of this project is in building an economy around the costly disposal of thousands of tonnes of shell to landfill every year from Greenshell™ mussel aquaculture. We propose blending marine restoration and sustainable waste management – introducing a novel circular economy using waste mussel shell to engineer artificial horse mussels and create reefs in degraded coastal systems to recover lost benefits. Leveraging our endorsement by multiple councils and iwi/hapū seeking effective, economically viable tools for immediate coastal restoration, we will position Aotearoa-New Zealand as a leader in restoring lost productivity and biodiversity to the seafloor. By creating replicable guidelines, this initiative facilitates improvements in ecosystem functioning and targeted management strategies, providing a solution today before irreversible environmental damage occurs.

New Zealand is under critical threat; introduced predators kill a staggering 25 million native birds annually, jeopardising the existence of over 4,000 native species. In response to this alarming challenge, we will develop a groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI) toolkit that can identify individual stoats from camera trap images. Unlike current methods that are restricted to single cameras or animal identification at the species level, our technology will work across multiple camera types and be able to discern individuals in species with minimal physical variation. Our toolkit will process and analyse images from trap cameras to identify and reidentify individual stoats; a key predator species that has eluded full eradication efforts. Our powerful team of AI experts, conservationists, and Te Ao Māori will ensure our research translates seamlessly into real-world action. Key conservation leaders are also engaged, forming an advisory group to bridge the gap between research and practical application. This project will deliver many benefits for New Zealand. Working at the forefront of AI research, our user-friendly toolkit will streamline data processing, saving valuable time and resources. Importantly, our toolkit will be accessible to both scientists and non-scientists, empowering community groups to meaningfully contribute to biodiversity conservation. The ability to precisely track predators will lead to targeted eradication efforts. By identifying individual stoats, we will gain a deeper understanding of wildlife populations, paving the way for more effective precision-based conservation strategies. Since our technology is not limited to predators, it could also be used to monitor rare native animals, aiding their protection, conservation and population recovery. This project is a significant leap forward in utilising AI for conservation, ultimately ensuring a future where New Zealand's unique wildlife thrives.

We will develop a novel sensor that can easily and effectively detect excess iron in the human body. Normally, iron in blood is bound to a protein (transferrin) and is nontoxic. However, in some blood-related and other diseases, excess iron accumulates in blood in a highly toxic form which leads to damage of vital organs, including the liver and heart. Each year, 330,000 children are born globally with blood-related diseases (Thalassemia, sickle cell anaemia, myelodysplasia) which can cause excess iron in blood. These diseases are more common in tropical regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, India and Pacific Islands. Prevalence of these diseases in NZ is 2-4% of the population, but this is changing as immigration increases our ethnic diversity. People with these diseases require frequent blood transfusion, which results in excess iron accumulation damaging their organs. Myelodysplasia affects Māori in NZ disproportionately – 39 [Māori] vs 28 [non-Māori] /100,000/year. In addition,~0.5% of NZer’s are affected by hemochromatosis, most commonly people of European descent​.Additionally, emerging evidence suggests iron overload contributes to cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, all of which are prevalent in NZ. Currently, there is no precise and direct method to diagnose or monitor iron overload in patients. Our new sensor technology will provide an early detection solution and enable timely and better management of treatment to prevent organ damage. Our innovative approach will directly detect toxic iron at low levels in patients’ blood samples which characterise early-stage disease. It is intended to be a point-of-care device, enabling fast treatment decisions by providing results in 5-10 minutes. This will improve health outcomes, quality of life and will reduce reliance on healthcare in NZ and globally.

Many types of microparticle are soft: they can deform and even flow when they are squashed and squeezed. The mechanical (or more fully, rheological) behaviour of these particles turns out to be very important for very many research fields. To name just a few, there are open research questions about the mechanics of the cells that make up our bodies, eggs used for in vitro fertilization, colloids that make up food and beverages, the zoospores of Kauri Dieback, and the liposomes that carry medical payloads such as the new RNA vaccines.

The problem is that the researchers, clinicians and technicians working with these soft particles do not have the equipment to easily measure their mechanical properties. Particles can be counted by flow cytometers, and their chemistry can be determined by spectroscopy, but applying a force to them and properly analysing the result is actually trickier.

This project will solve that problem by developing a new technology that can carry out mechanical measurements quickly, accurately and effectively. This new technology will also be portable, adaptable, and able to be deployed in many types of laboratories, so that it will be useful for most projects and problems. It will be developed in collaboration with a network of experts across many research disciplines, who have many global connections.

Our goal is to create a product that can be assembled and exported, meeting the fast-growing global demand for such research instruments. This development will bring economic benefits and enhance the scientific and technical capability of New Zealanders. The collaborative studies in this project could also generate benefits in areas such as healthcare, environmental management, and for companies who work with soft microparticles.

The manufacturing industry in Aotearoa New Zealand faces a longstanding productivity challenge due to the unsuitability of traditional automation methods for its high-mix-low-volume nature. To address this, we will develop ultra-flexible smooth human-robot collaboration technologies. These innovations will enable seamless interaction between humans and robots in dynamic manufacturing setups, particularly in product assembly, through advanced cognitive capabilities. Robots equipped with real-time human state sensing, reasoning, and adaptive behaviour planning will understand and respond to human physical and cognitive states, enhancing productivity. Multimodal human-robot communication interfaces will ensure accessibility and cultural relevance, including support for te reo Māori.

The team comprises experts in human sensing, robot control, human-machine interactions, and Māori knowledge, ensuring a comprehensive approach. We will collaborate closely with stakeholders throughout the project, including government agencies, industry associations, end-users, consultants, and Māori and Pacific communities. By co-designing the technology with key industry partners, we will ensure its effectiveness and commercial viability. Ultimately, the project seeks to revolutionise manufacturing automation in New Zealand and globally, leading to improved productivity, product quality, and economic benefits. The advanced robot control technologies will also have global applications and can be exported as high-value software packages. Importantly, the project incorporates Tikanga following Māori data sovereignty principles and aims to support workplace well-being for Māori and all New Zealanders, emphasising cultural sensitivity and inclusivity in technology development.

This research will revolutionise the production and use of high quality microscopic floating plants, known as microalgae, that are critical as food for the early stages of New Zealand's aquaculture species, such as Greenshell™ mussels, oysters and kingfish. It will also underpin the introduction of new aquaculture species, such as geoduck and bonanza clams, that are urgently needed to diversify our aquaculture industry in the face of climate change. This will be achieved by isolating novel new strains of highly nutritious microalgae from our coastal waters, that are much better-suited for feeding and meeting the nutritional needs of our local aquaculture species. The research will facilitate the low-cost and reliable mass production of these high quality native microalgae through further advances in the technology that is customised for culturing these unique microalgae strains efficiently under local environmental conditions in New Zealand. The research will be undertaken by leading local researchers and industry practitioners in both microalgae and aquaculture production, and includes active partnerships with the two largest commercial shellfish hatchery and nursery production facilities in New Zealand. In addition, advanced photobioreactor hardware and expertise for rearing microalgae will come from a European technology-leader. The research has extensive involvement of aquaculture partners with the capability to immediately apply new technologies emerging from the research project to support their rapid growth in this sector. Māori capability will also be built through supporting a talented PhD to contribute to the research and its commercial application. Overall, this project will underpin the continuing rapid growth and emergence of a globally unique aquaculture industry in Aotearoa-New Zealand by providing a foundation for increasing the scale, efficiency and climate change resilience of our key aquaculture species.

Soft tissues such as the breast deform considerably, making it challenging for surgeons to locate and remove tumours. This is further complicated as diagnostic imaging, such as X-rays, are performed in positions that are significantly different than in surgery.

Our research aims to overcome these challenges and improve breast cancer surgery by developing a Mixed Reality (MR) system that can overlay tumour positions identified from diagnostic imagery directly onto the patient’s body to support surgical planning and navigation on site.

Surgeons equipped with head-mounted MR devices will be able to see the tumour in real time, aligned with the breast’s actual position, and be able to remove it more quickly and completely than with other approaches. Using this technology will significantly reduce the necessity for subsequent operations, thereby improving patient outcomes and safety.

Our research has the potential to enhance not only breast cancer surgery but also be a platform for other medical procedures requiring high precision and real-time predictions of soft tissue motion, such as transplant, neurosurgery, and cardiac surgery.

This project will “support new and existing industries to be knowledge intensive”, by co-developing new technology for NZ industry, including Māori companies, that translates both the gestures of Māori sign language into text, and also the nuances of emotion and cultural significance. This will create more workforce members and companies who are highly skilled in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology we use, and are able to use this technology to create exportable products for sign language understanding as well as other future products that are able to address social interaction with emotional and cultural communication. The impact of the work will also help bring Māori groups already involved further into the knowledge intensive industry, by co-design for the technology, and involvement in delivering the technology to Ngāti Turi (Māori Deaf Community) groups. This will in turn give more Ngāti Turi access to knowledge intensive industries by improving communication for this group. The project will also advance knowledge of sign language including cultural and emotional expressiveness, in digital form. This work will not replace human sign language interpreters, of which there is a shortage, but will enable improved communication for Ngāti Turi in situations where trilingual human interpreters are not readily available, and will support whānau as an additional way of helping with communication. Culturally meaningful Te Reo Māori sign dataset will be delivered to our iwi partners to preserve their valuable heritage as a digital form. Also a sign interpreter robot will be used for healthcare and education purposes. This project will contribute to breaking down barriers of restrictions to signers as well as New Zealanders and creating an equal world.

Knowing how well a fracture is healing is challenging. X-ray imaging struggles to monitor healing progression as it doesn’t always detect the difference between strong healed bone and bone which is still growing and repairing the fracture. Bones are usually held in place by fixation devices - plates and screws that position the bone correctly. We will develop smart, instrumented fixation devices to measure the relative transfer of load between the device and the healing bone.  Detecting the load on the plate will be done by adding our unique measurement system which wirelessly talks to a reader device outside the body and upload the results to a patient health record. Our technology enables us to add tiny instruments to the plate which are much smaller than previously possible, in fact they are so small they do not impact the existing plate shape or ease of use. Quantitative measurement of bone healing will provide optimal clinical outcomes and also allow the patient, their whānau and their doctor, to track recovery from their own home. Our technology will also allow problematic non-union to be detected, facilitating earlier intervention as faster recovery.  For most people it will show successful healing well before the currently recommended conservative recovery time - allowing people to get back to work, sport or hobbies faster. Our aim is to develop and manufacture the technology in New Zealand so that we benefit from improved care and lower health costs, as well as generate high skill jobs and export revenue based on cutting edge medical device manufacturing.

Our proposed research can revolutionise the world of sweeteners and beyond. Our team will expand the applicability of sweet proteins, which are natural compounds found in fruits, and are thousands of times sweeter than sugar. Importantly, sweet proteins do not cause the adversarial health effects of sugar or artificial sweeteners, and thus hold great potential to reshape our diets without limiting dietary choice.

Despite their remarkable sweetness, SPs face challenges due to their limited applicability in foods because of their low stability in food matrices.

Our approach revolves around cutting-edge computational design of new proteins, molecular simulations, and high-tech sensory evaluations. 

By assessing the natural properties of sweet protein sequences we design new sequences storing these properties but with the added benefit of being hyper-stable within the micro-environmental conditions of most foods.

Crucially, we will develop state-of-the-art platforms for assessing sweetness, including using an electronic tongue. This will ensure rigorous testing of sweetness without the need for human trials, reducing the risks of experimental validations on humans and reducing the costs of sensory trials led by panels of experts. This will further empower food development for NZ industries.

Most importantly, we have designed an approach that is transferrable, so that we could ultimately revolutionise not only sweeteners but also other proteins, through molecular design across industries.

To successfully fulfil the aims of our endeavour, our team brings together experts from three different continents in both simulation and experimental sciences, opening the door to new science-driven frontiers for expanding product quality, safety and sustainability: all under the umbrella of the enormously promising concept of new protein design.

Could New Zealand experience a hyper-explosive eruption like the 2022 Hunga event in Tonga? How can we recognise this potential? How can we more precisely gauge the upper limit of explosivity for New Zealand volcanoes?  By answering these questions our project can dramatically improve volcanic hazard preparedness.

We will test whether the upper limits of volcanic explosivity are reached if molten rock (magma) meets water underground or below sea level at high pressures – pressures too high for steam to form. Our team from University of Auckland, GNS Science, Lancaster University (UK) and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (Germany) will create lab-scaled explosions in a unique high-pressure apparatus (like an extreme version of a two-sided pressure cooker – but operating at up to 900 oC). We will compare the experiment results to known highly explosive eruptions. Experimental and natural particles will be used to quantify the characteristic signatures of hyper-explosive volcanism. This tool will be then applied to discover the maximum limits of explosivity in diverse New Zealand volcanoes, including Auckland, Ruapehu and Taupo.

We will communicate our findings to volcano advisory groups (Auckland Volcano Science Advisory Group, Caldera Advisory Group in Bay of Plenty, Central Plateau Advisory Group), local authorities (Auckland Council, Bay of Plenty and Waikato Regional Councils), emergency agencies (the National Emergency Management Agency, and local CDEM groups), and iwi agencies. Our new knowledge will thus support regional efforts in volcanic hazard mitigation (e.g. towards updating AVF contingency plan) and can, in future, be used globally for volcanic hazard planning and mitigation.

Glioblastoma, a relentless cancer with a dreadful five-year survival rate of around 7%, stands as a testament to the challenges we face in modern medicine. Glioblastoma not only impacts the individual diagnosed but reverberates throughout families and communities, underscoring the urgency for new therapeutics that improve prognosis.

This project strives to deliver a pre-clinical candidate for glioblastoma within its 3 years timeframe. New Zealand’s isolation prevents many kiwis suffering from this disease accessing the many investigational drugs in clinical trials overseas, so we are dedicated to running clinical trials here in New Zealand for New Zealanders with glioblastoma. Our hope is that New Zealand will be the country where a vital medical breakthrough occurs, ultimately extending and improving the lives of those affected by this devastating cancer.

To bring our new drug to the clinic as soon as possible, we have assembled a unique interdisciplinary team that includes decades of expertise in medicinal chemistry and brain cancers. Our proposed strategy is completely novel from a drug development perspective, and we are confident our drug candidates will result in a better therapeutic response than the current frontline chemotherapeutic (temozolomide). Longer term, the new technology developed herein will serve as a platform for the inception of a NZ-based company that applies this technology to treat other debilitating diseases, proving on-shore jobs for highly-skilled individuals that would otherwise head overseas.

Our research programme addresses the need for better sports analytics as used by broadcasters to improve their customer’s viewing experience, increasing their viewership and revenue, and by sports clubs to improve their coaching and training strategies, improving competitiveness.

Currently, the application of computer vision techniques and automatic intelligent analysis — discovering the causal reasons for why actions are made — is lacking. Even wealthy sports teams and leagues are not able to leverage the latest advances in Artificial intelligence and behaviour modelling despite the extensive availability of team visual data recorded during training and live broadcasting.

Providing intelligent analysis through computer vision and causal models will improve access to affordable explanatory and predictive analytics for: sports clubs; small broadcasters and content creators, providing an affordable means to deliver accurate analysis of players; and team behaviours with the potential to increase their revenue, viewership, and competitiveness across a variety of sports (individual, team, and e-sports). It will also provide fans with a more immersive sporting experience, further increasing viewership and revenue.

Our broadcasting (Sky TV), Sports (The warriors) team and software development (Arcanum and 9spokes) partners will support our research and ensure a successful outcome by the end of this project. We expect potential benefits to the New Zealand economy of between NZ$10M and $NZ100M by 2030, while significantly reducing the incidence of sport injuries in New Zealand which cost our country up to NZ$700M each year.

We expect spill-over benefits to the public and the economy such as i) reduced mental and physical health effects of sport injuries; ii) support to small-scale local broadcasters and content creators; iii) new high-value manufacturing products and jobs in media and AI software applications.

This project allows us to explore new opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint, with substantial co-benefits to marine conservation and biodiversity restoration.

New Zealand’s Zero Carbon Act seeks to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. If we are to meet this obligation, we need to implement as many options as possible and recognise there is no one solution to the climate crisis. Advice from the New Zealand Climate Commission (April 2023) shows that are current practices are not sufficient. The seafloor is the largest sore of carbon in the world and New Zealand have an extensive marine estate. Recent research has indicated at the balance of processes that support carbon storage on the seafloor is broken by trawl and dredge fisheries – potentially equating to same carbon footprint as the worlds aviation industry.

This project will work with our largest Māori fishing company who have a strong interest in defining their carbon footprint and identifying ways to lighten their impact. It will also work with kaitiaki Māori to explore the potential of protecting seafloor from disturbance to enhance carbon storage. This collaborative and interdisciplinary project will be integrated with inputs from international researchers from Europe and the USA. The project will empower the development of new solutions to the climate crisis and highlight how marine science and mātauranga can work together. A series of engagements with Government agencies and the New Zealand Climate Commission will draw attention to the opportunities provided by marine ecosystems in climate change and to foster policy and management actions that support our climate and biodiversity responsibilities.

The technology developed thanks to this Smart Idea funding will allow identification of the locality and severity of prostate cancer with unprecedented accuracy and give clinicians and surgeons real-time information to diagnose prostate cancer or remove it in surgery – an international first. Our technology uses artificial intelligence to interpret MRI images (this is used to accurately localise the cancer), and photonic probes (sensors that use light) to identify healthy and cancerous tissue.

Prostate cancer is the second most common male cancer worldwide, with growing incidence. It is the most diagnosed cancer, and among the top 4 causes of death (600 deaths/year), for men in New Zealand. Māori men have significantly worse prostate cancer outcomes, being less likely to be screened and diagnosed. There is currently no method to diagnose prostate cancer rapidly and accurately. Current methods have an accuracy of 20-80% and rely on invasive biopsies with well-known side effects. ~50% of prostate biopsies are unnecessary, being of benign tissue, while 38% of cancer surgeries leave positive (cancerous) margins. Loss of life and economic impact on New Zealand exceeds $100m p.a.

Our device will revolutionise the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer, building on our team’s skills in photonics, AI, medical device development, prostate cancer diagnosis and surgery, and MedTech device commercialisation. A new company will seek investment in the technology to drive manufacturing in and export from New Zealand.

The global prostate cancer diagnostics market was worth USD$3.2billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD$8,2billion by 2028. The high-tech New Zealand company established to commercialise our next-generation diagnostic devices will provide new job opportunities in the fast-growing New Zealand’s Healthtech sector.

New Zealand's Essential Freshwater package aims to protect and improve the country's freshwater quality within five years. However, a significant number of wastewater treatment systems (145 out of 321) currently discharge excessive nitrogen, surpassing the limits set by the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management. To meet these standards, extensive upgrades to all wastewater treatment systems in the country would be required, involving significant investments and operational costs. However, improving nitrogen removal in these systems can lead to increased emissions of N2O, a potent greenhouse gas.

Under the Net Zero Carbon Act, New Zealand seeks to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions. As there are no domestic measurements for N2O emissions from wastewater treatment systems, utilities estimate their emissions using guidelines provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The revised 2019 IPCC emission factor for N2O in wastewater treatment was substantially increased, making the wastewater treatment contribution 37%-50% of a council's total emissions.

Currently, no solutions are available to simultaneously reduce N2O emissions and improve nitrogen removal in wastewater treatment systems. In this project, we will create a new technology that offers a unique capability to activate enzymes in the microbial nitrogen cycle, effectively reducing N2O emissions while enhancing nitrogen removal. Additionally, we will create an easy approach to accurately estimating N2O emissions during wastewater treatment to identify the major emission sources and implement targeted reduction measures.

Wound healing is a complex and coordinated set of events that usually proceeds without major issue. However factors such as the environment or human variables such as age, underlying diseases and medications can delay or derail this healing process. Here we propose for eventual commercialization, the development of a new type of wound healing intervention that is designed to augment healing processes in many settings. The proposed smart idea is particularly relevant to deployment in unusual and remote environments such as low gravity (for example, space station or future moon and Mars colony locations) or oxygen deprived situations (for example, high altitude), where injury healing may be impaired and complicated.

The parasitic mite Varroa destructor is the most significant cause of honeybee health decline in New Zealand and around the world. Through pollination, honeybees make the most valuable contribution to global food production ($US 235-577B annually) and to New Zealand’s $NZ 6.7B horticulture exports. Aotearoa also produces 15-22,000 tonnes of honey per year, worth $NZ 455M (2022). Varroa presents a considerable and growing threat to these industries. Despite >98% of New Zealand colonies being treated for Varroa, the loss of honeybee colonies continues to rise (6.4% in 2022).

This focused, ambitious R&D project will deliver a compact photonic prototype for integration into a beehive that identifies and targets Varroa mites carried by honeybees and laser-eliminates them before they can infest the colony, without chemical pesticides. This is a high-tech, science-stretch solution to a difficult challenge in the primary industries. Success will see better resiliency, food security and sustainability in the primary sector.

The project aims to develop technology that can be manufactured here in New Zealand and exported overseas, mostly to Europe and the Americas. The benefits here in Aotearoa will come through strengthening the honey, horticulture, pastoral and other industries that rely upon vibrant, robust apiculture. Though it is difficult to predict at this early stage, we estimate revenues in the $10’s to $100M’s per annum.

The R&D will be performed by a collaborative team from the University of Auckland’s Photon Factory and Plant & Food Research’s Bee Biology and Productivity Team. Together, we bring extensive laser research experience, commercialisation success and broad and deep connections with New Zealand’s beekeeping industry. Māori are key players in Aotearoa apiculture, and important stakeholders and participants in this project.

The early stages of Greenshell mussel farming in New Zealand are often extremely inefficient, with the majority of seed mussels, or "spat" often lost from production after only a few months of being seeded onto farms. Each year, we harvest more than 300 billion mussel spat from the wild, but we only produce approximately 1.7 billion adult mussels, meaning more than 99% of the spat we harvest are lost from farms. Research has demonstrated that we can reduce these losses by seeding out with larger spat. However, current approaches to nursery culture (i.e the stage of production involving growing tiny mussel spat to larger sizes) of mussel spat require enormous quantities of live microalgae to be grown for feeding to the growing mussels. The process of growing these microalgae is extremely expensive, and as a result, current approaches to nursery culture are cost-prohibitive. Our research aims to solve this problem by developing tidally driven nursery systems that can be used to grow spat to larger sizes in situ, where they use naturally occurring microalgae found in seawater to help grow the spat. By developing tidally driven nursery systems, we hope to produce a technology capable of greatly reducing spat losses on New Zealand's mussel farms.

For enquiries, contact Dr Brad Skelton Brad.Skelton@auckland.ac.nz

We are at the big-bang moment of ‘AI in neuro-navigation’ and our team is dedicated to stay at the forefront of this rapidly-evolving field by delivering the next generation of surgical navigation technology.

Brain tumour resection is a complex, crucial, and significantly high-risk task. Our New Zealand team of biomedical engineers, neurosurgeons, researchers, and academics is committed to developing and delivering a ground-breaking neuronavigation technology that integrates cutting-edge artificial intelligence to assist surgeons in making the most precise decisions possible during surgery. Our technology represents a major step forward in the field of neurosurgery and has the potential to revolutionize the way surgeons approach complex brain procedures.

Our offering product harnesses the power of advanced algorithms to provide real-time, high-resolution images that enable surgeons to precisely navigate through the brain, allowing them to make confident decisions when removing tumours to minimize damage to healthy tissues. One of the key advantages of our platform is its ability to adapt to the unique needs of each patient. By combining cutting-edge machine learning techniques with sophisticated MRI imaging technologies, we plan to create a platform that can analyse vast amounts of data in seconds, allowing surgeons to make critical decisions in real-time.

We are confident that our technology has the capacity to revolutionize the field of neurosurgery by enhancing the safety and efficacy of complex procedures, ultimately reducing the risk of complications and improving patient outcomes. We are committed to working closely with neurosurgeons, imaging experts, and other medical professionals to refine our technology and create a tool that is accessible to all.

Complications are a significant problem for patients and surgeons after major bowel surgery. One of the most feared and deadly complications is anastomotic leak, where a join in the bowel breaks down and starts to leak into the abdomen. Unfortunately, the diagnosis of these complications is often delayed, as doctors have to rely on non-specific signs, symptoms, and blood tests. If leaks and other postoperative complications could be detected early, they could be managed before patients become unwell.

We will develop a wearable device to detect anastomotic leaks and other postoperative complications, combining multiple sensor technologies to help monitor patients more closely after surgery. We will design this device together with patients, surgeons, nurses, and other healthcare workers to ensure it can be easily applied in hospitals. Input from Māori will ensure the device is culturally safe, especially given that Māori patients have a greater burden from postoperative complications. Other research studies will ensure that the wearable sensors are as accurate as monitors used in Intensive Care Units.

Developing this device will make surgery safer, improve postoperative recovery, and presents an incredible opportunity to grow the MedTech industry in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Nitrogen (N) is an important nutrient found in all living things, including plants and healthy soils. In plants, nitrogen is essential for growth. Agricultural productivity is improved by the application of nitrogen as a fertiliser, however even the best-bred crops fail to capture 50-70% of added nitrogen, yet don’t benefit from excess N. This wasted nitrogen causes huge ecological and environmental damage e.g. higher greenhouse gas emissions and pollution of waterways.

Globally, there is an urgent need for nitrogen fertiliser to be used more efficiently while maintaining or increasing food production. This can be achieved by a new method for boosting nitrogen uptake and absorption by plants. we have discovered biostimulants that increase the uptake and use of nitrogen in plants. These are plants’ “hunger signals” for nitrogen. Our research has shown that these peptides can be effectively applied to plants to boost growth.

Our research will develop and deliver potent peptides that mimic peptide coding genes (called peptide analogues) that can efficiently activate the uptake and use of nitrogen in plants, thus increasing growth and yield. The aim is to develop effective, safe, affordable agrochemicals that can be applied to boost crop productivity.

This research programme will deliver significant benefits to New Zealand agriculture and the environment – a win-win situation. Improved nitrogen use efficiency will boost crop and pasture productivity while decreasing nitrogen leaching from soil and into waterways. There will be huge demand for our innovative peptide analogue as the issue of food security and nitrogen leaching into the environment is global.

Invasive marine pests and diseases have a history of devastating harm to NZ’s maritime industries and environment. Biosecurity is critical for economic resilience and growth of NZ. We are targeting the critical gap in marine biosecurity response systems – the lack of suitable and effective tools for marine pest and disease control. In this project we will develop the first biocides specifically for management and eradication of marine pests (e.g., the current incursion of ‘killer algae’ at Aotea) and diseases (e.g. Bonamia ostrea which ceased flat oyster farming in NZ and threatens the iconic Bluff oyster fishery), to enable effective and responsible biosecurity responses. The biocides developed herein will be prepared by harnessing a novel ‘green chemistry’ method of preparation and provides opportunity for environmentally responsible manufacturing, including the use of climate-friendly CO2 consuming processes. Leveraging this new manufacturing platform, our biocides will harness readily biodegradable motifs, allowing their effective break down to inactivated species that significantly reduces the collateral harm, environmental accumulation and damage to delicate ecosystems and microbial communities (e.g. in soil/sediment) that is known to occur with many of the currently available mainstay biocides. We will develop our biodegradable biocides and methods of application in partnership with multiple stakeholders in NZ, including Iwi, to ensure the ultimate outcome for NZ. The potential impact of our new technology will be far reaching and not only has implications for biosecurity internationally, but will be highly applicable to a range of sectors including: agriculture/dairy industry, hospitality, cosmetics, clinical disinfection and personal hygiene, the latter two of which have become increasingly relevant in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Primary contact: Dr Alan Cameron, email: alan.cameron@auckland.ac.nz

Having excess fat mass is associated with an increased risk of numerous diseases including heart disease, diabetes and cancer. However, loosing and maintaining lost weight through diet and exercise is very difficult, and the very few pharmaceutical options help have uncomfortable side effects, low effectiveness in the long-term or need to be injected. In this project we will develop a new class of weight loss pills to assist with the long-term maintenance of a healthy body weight.

We have recently discovered that a drug that is already used clinically to inhibit an enzyme called PI3K can cause rapid and sustained loss of fat in in obese mice. We have developed our own versions of this drug that are more specific and therefore should have less side effects. In this application we will determine the safety and efficacy of these drugs, and optimise the dosing in to determine if they are viable drugs to aid in weight loss. One of the ways through which these dugs act to support weight loss is by reducing the ability of the body to used sugar, leading to high blood sugar. While long-term high blood sugar can be of clinical concern we have designed new co- treatments to avoid this and therefore improve the safety of these drugs.

The weight loss industry has a annual revenue in the hundards of millions, and a large proportion of the global population are currently trying to lose weight.

Therefore obese, developing, testing and producing a new effective weight loss pill locally here in New Zealand will have considerable economic and health benefits for the country.

This research explores the creation of Empathic Virtual Characters (EVCs) for enhancing VR therapy. This will be the first time that EVCs have been used in VR for cognitive therapy, and could transform the rehabilitation industry, adding value to NZ’s knowledge intensive industry.

EVCs combine physiological sensors (EEG, GSR, heart rate, eye- and face tracking) with AI to measure the patient’s emotional and cognitive state. This provides valuable feedback to patient and clinician, especially compared to current practice of self-reported measures, and could be used to adapt the VR therapy. The aim is to provide customised therapy for the patient in a simulated social situation and understand how patients respond. The EVC can adapt to the client, such as being represented as Māori and speaking in Te Reo. The EVCs can be used in a collaborative VR setting to support remote real therapists, enhancing access to rehabilitation services.

The initial focus will be on therapy for people with post traumatic brain injury (TBI), with cognitive fatigue; a long term lack of mental energy. During their rehabilitation, people with TBI work closely with health care providers, often for many months in a time consuming process, which is difficult in remote regions with limited access to therapists.

We will involve user groups, including people with lived experience (using the Burwood Academy consultation network) and clinicians from Laura Fergusson Brain Injury Trust, and will commercialise the research through game company CerebralFix. We include Māori perspective through engagement with kaupapa Māori organization’s Iwi United Engaged Limited and He Waka Tapu. The outcome will be a tool that could transform therapeutic healthcare, enabling patients to receive support wherever they are and whenever they need it.

Aotearoa New Zealand’s marine and aquaculture industries aim to grow to a $3Billion industry by 2030. These industries are also aiming to minimize their carbon footprint. Harnessing marine renewable energy (MRE), i.e. energy collected from wind, tides, salinity gradients and sunlight over the surface of the ocean is essential for decarbonisation of the marine and aquaculture sectors. This is especially important for Aotearoa New Zealand, which has an Exclusive Economic Zone approximately 15 times larger than its land area.

Efficient storage of MRE is essential for meeting the energy needs of the growing marine and aquaculture sectors. Currently, lead-acid batteries (LABs), and lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are used in these sectors, providing a power source to a wide range of underwater robots, sensors and inspection systems, as well as offering micro-grid scale energy storage. These battery technologies have limitations due to low energy density (LABs) and non-recyclability (LIBs), making them less than ideal for MRE storage and improving the sustainability/resilience of our aquaculture and marine industries.

This project aims to design and develop rechargeable seawater batteries (SWBs), a new battery technology that uses seawater as an active battery component. SWBs are considered very promising storage systems for marine renewable energy (MRE) storage. Our approach will combine the advantages of metal-air batteries and magnesium-ion rechargeable battery technologies. Novel alloys will be fabricated and applied as battery electrode materials, and hybrid rechargeable seawater batteries will be constructed.

The proposed work builds on our current fundamental battery research and will exploit unique methods to design and develop rechargeable batteries for MRE storage, sustainable aquaculture and the marine industry. This research will deliver environmentally friendly batteries with high-energy-density, low-cost and 100% recyclability.

This research will develop novel larval culture technology to provide a source of juvenile octopus for ongrowing that will underpin the emergence of a globally unique octopus aquaculture industry in New Zealand, while also driving greater sustainability in the seafood sector. A team of leading octopus aquaculture researchers from Japan, Australia and New Zealand will collaborate to build on recent significant local advances in culturing New Zealand octopus species. These recent

advances include the development of new captive breeding techniques, artificial egg incubation and extended hatching technologies, and feeding octopus larvae with formulated feed. Further advances from this research will deliver the technology to supply juvenile octopus that can be grown rapidly to market size in aquaculture, reaching over 1.5 kg in less than a year. The advanced technologies for culturing marine larvae will also have ongoing benefits for the further diversification of New Zealand's aquaculture industry. Octopus aquaculture will leverage off the capacity of the existing Greenshell™ mussel industry, utilising expertise, excess farm space, and more than 5,000 tonnes of waste mussels a year will be converted to octopus food. The advent of this new industry will serve to diversify New Zealand's aquaculture sector by producing and supplying high-value octopus products into a global market that is characterised by ever increasing prices and demand, and constrained supply from wild octopus fisheries. The emergence of a new octopus aquaculture industry in New Zealand will provide new opportunities for Māori participants in the sector with the potential for rapid growth to over $100M within a decade, making an important contribution toward the sector achieving its growth target of becoming a $3 billion industry by 2035.

New Zealand is the seabird capital of the world, yet 90% of our seabirds are threatened with extinction. Climate change and El Niño are known threats but their specific impacts on seabird stress and breeding are poorly described. This gap severely hampers our ability to ensure climate resilience in seabird populations.

To improve our ability to support seabird populations, researchers from The University of Auckland, Auckland University of Technology, DOC, Manaaki Whenua/Landcare Research and Tamaki Paenga Hira/Auckland War Memorial Museum are coming together to study tītī/sooty shearwater (Ardenna griseus). This species has immense cultural, economic, and ecological importance, so a project has been codesigned with Māori muttonbirding communities, eager to ensure that the mana and mauri of tītī persists in a warming future.

A key question is how will climate change and El Niño affect tītī stress levels/breeding in a warming future, given that stress reduces breeding success? The team will investigate whether: 1) tītī stress has increased over the last 130 years, 2) El Niño and warmer seas lift tītī stress levels, 3) northern tītī colonies are more stressed than southern.

The team will track migrating/breeding tītī over both hemispheres using the International Space Station. Bird tracks will be matched to satellite data on environmental conditions and bird stress assessed from feathers. We will develop a predictive model of how bird breeding success is affected by ocean conditions. This will provide rapid predictions of ‘bad seasons’ for DOC, kaitiaki and conservation groups, delivering greater agility in seabird management approaches and optimisation of future workplans to cope with climate change.