University of Otago Smart Ideas funded projects

Flooding is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s costliest natural hazards, and risk of flooding will increase with climate change to 2100 and beyond. To prepare for this, we need better ways of predicting and understanding the impacts and implications of elevated flooding risk to households, insurers/banks, and the broader economy. We can achieve this with climate stress-testing across geographic space and through time. Our SMART Idea is to integrate bottom-up and top-down approaches of stress-testing the resilience of NZ’s real-estate market and financial system to climate-related flooding risks, such that behavioural, macro-economic, and social criteria can be incorporated to expand the range of influences beyond what have previously been considered. This hybridised model will be built upon the foundational blue-skies research in the Marsden funded STRAND project (2021-2024), leveraging and expanding the skilled and highly multidisciplinary research team from five research institutions and numerous research partners (including Reserve Bank of New Zealand, CoreLogic) and world-leading experts. Specifically, this expanded team will:

1. improve the physical multi-hazard analysis using site-specific climate and groundwater datasets,
2. factor behavioural responses of market participants (homeowners, banking and insurance firms) and explore how this may affect the pricing of flooding risk,
3. develop better ways to estimate risks to mortgage lending including repayment and defaults,
4. capture the wider effects of flooding risk on the broader economy and financial stability, and
5. go beyond financial impacts and considers social, physical, and cultural factors with a spatial multi-criteria risk index.

Successfully achieving these goals will result in more accurate, applicable, and relevant climate risk estimates that better serve the needs of climate risk pricing and adaptation policies.

Injectable tissue fillers are popularly adopted for cosmetic and reconstructive surgery, with 4 million procedures occurring in the US alone in 2021. The process involves injecting tissue-like materials into the targeted site with the aim of contouring tissue under the skin or repairing damage. This project will develop an entirely new light-based medical device that will revolutionise the current medical aesthetic and tissue grafting industry by addressing a global unmet need in plastic and reconstructive surgery – controlling retention and shaping of tissue fillers and tissue grafts. This project will deliver new manufacturing capabilities to Aotearoa-New Zealand's rapidly growing medical device industry, by both expanding current product portfolios, and creating new light-based surgical instrument and biomaterials manufacturing capacity. The global medical aesthetics market, valued at US$5.1 billion, is projected to grow by 11% annually through to 2031, reaching US$14.4 billion. The technology developed in this project will open a new sector in the medical device and medical aesthetics markets and disrupt the use of traditional implants for soft tissue augmentation, enabling fast return on investment. Our light-based technology is expected to drastically reduce the number of repeated reconstruction surgeries that are currently performed (e.g. breast cancer surgeries) and support tissue regeneration.As a direct consequence of reducing reoperation rates, our technology will improve outcomes for patients, reduce healthcare costs and halve the amount of waste produced from surgery. A multidisciplinary team of researchers and clinicians from the University of Otago, Victoria University of Wellington, as well as local medical-device industry and international collaborators has been assembled and is ready to tackle this problem. For enquiries regarding this research please contact Professor Tim Woodfield create.research@otago.ac.nz

The New Zealand glowworm or titiwai (Arachnocampa luminosa) is an indigenous organism with unique bioluminescent properties. In this proposal we will complete the identification of the biochemical basis of the unique “glow” of the titiwai. We will work to understand and enhance these bioluminescent properties in the laboratory, and explore the use of this bioluminescent system as a biotechnology tool in biomedical and biological investigations. Biotechnology tools based on luminescence can be used to track disease causing microorganisms or locate abnormal cells, like cancer cells, in organs and tissues. If successful, this product will be marketed worldwide but made in New Zealand, ensuring that any economic gains return to Aotearoa. We are partnering in this venture with mana whenua to ensure that titiwai, which are taonga, are protected and sustained, and that treaty obligations regarding the development of titiwai bioluminescence as a biotechnology tool are met. Fundamental knowledge of a unique bioluminescent system will result from this work and set the stage for its continued use for the development of new biotechnological applications while ensuring broad benefit to New Zealand from this work and careful protection (kaitiakitanga) of the titiwai.

Accurately diagnosing whether chest pain is due to a heart problem relies heavily on measuring specific proteins in the blood. However, current scientific methods and real-world practices face two significant challenges. First, while effective tests exist to confirm or rule out a heart attack, there is a lack of tests to identify serious underlying heart disease causing chest pain, which could help predict risk of heart attack in the near future. Second, many small town and medium-sized hospitals lack access to the necessary equipment for blood testing, and remote areas often have no testing facilities at all. This Smart Ideas project leverages advanced experimental science, innovative discovery methods, and cutting-edge development and manufacturing processes to create a point-of-care (POC) blood testing device designed to address these needs. First, we employed advanced biochemistry and experimental cardiology techniques to discover two novel proteins carried in the blood that could accurately assess a person’s risk of serious heart disease and future heart attack. Second, we developed a prototype POC device capable of measuring these proteins from a very small blood sample, potentially enabling on-site testing in small towns and remote areas. This Smart Ideas represents a significant "science stretch" by integrating the discovery of novel blood markers to predict cardiovascular disease risk with NZ-based design, manufacturing, and refinement of prototype POC devices to serve unmet needs in healthcare, diagnostics and commercial markets.

To combat the decline of culturally and commercially valuable fish stocks and the habitats that support them it is essential we shift away from broad-scale management approaches to more bespoke, adaptive legislation that can be applied at scales that capture the dynamic ecological processes occurring in coastal oceans.

To achieve this, we will harness technological advancements in seafloor mapping and satellite derived environmental datasets to produce ultra-fine scale, four-dimensional (time integrated) maps of species and habitat distribution. These maps will also factor in the effects of the major stressors on our coastal ecosystems (e.g. fishing, climate change, land-use practices) to forecast impacts and prioritise remediation and restoration action.

This project will work alongside Tangata Tiaki (legislatively empowered fisheries managers) across Customary Protection Areas (i.e.mātaitai and taiāpure) in the Ngāi Tahu takiwā to develop the toolkit and generate proof of concept. This will create a network of highly skilled coastal managers that will lead fisheries management in Aotearoa with the best data possible. We will package this toolkit and make it available for roll out nationally, creating an efficient and standardised approach to coastal management.

This project will once again place Aotearoa at the forefront of international fisheries management and ensure sustainable industry, foster cultural practices and safeguard future opportunities associated with our valuable marine resources.

The red meat industry in Aotearoa generates annual revenue of $10.8 billion, constituting approximately 15% of the country’s total export earnings. This vital sector also employs over 25,000 individuals, typically in rural areas around Aotearoa. The meat industry reports that 0.5-1% of export product is returned / rejected due to spoilage or contamination issues, amounting to financial losses of tens-of-millions of dollars annually.

The main reason for product spoilage is bacterial contamination. Bacterial growth and the production of extracellular materials as they form a complex community is called a biofilm which coats the surface of the meat, leading to off-odours. This contaminated product cannot be exported to international markets is due to the presence of bacterial pathogens. We will leverage the animal’s innate defences, so-called Host Defence Peptides (HDPs), to attack the bacteria responsible for meat becoming spoiled or rejected. HDPs are part of the immune system in animals and have recently been shown to have the ability to kill bacteria, including those within biofilms. We will identify novel bovine and ovine HDPs, assessing the activity of these “natural” compounds against spoilage and pathogenic bacteria, with the goal of developing an HDP-based spray product for commercial use.

Our interdisciplinary team, comprising industry experts from Alliance Group Ltd and Microbiology and Food Science researchers from the University of Otago, have co-designed this project. The Alliance Group will continue to provide guidance and be involved with in-plant implementation of HDPs based mitigation strategies against the twin problems of meat-spoilage and contamination. The development of a next generation natural bacterial control strategy will help to future proof the red meat industry and enhance its competitiveness and sustainability globally.

Signalling proteins control all aspects of plant growth—how a plant responds to its environment, the stature of a plant as it develops, the size of seeds and fruit a plant produces, and everything in between. Small changes in signalling protein levels can markedly change growth characteristics and have outsized impact on plant productivity. Therefore, fine-tuning the turnover rate of signalling proteins has significant potential upside for agriculture.

There are multiple examples where changing the degradation rate of signalling proteins has had massive agricultural impact. However, most examples have required decades or centuries of traditional plant breeding to integrate genetic variants that occur randomly, or mutagenic screens with chemicals that must be carried out in a laborious manner in whole plants. Both traditional approaches are effectively looking for genetic needles in a haystack.

Here we will develop an approach to massively accelerate the identification of genetic variants with favourable growth characteristics. Using molecular approaches in the laboratory will enable the discovery of genetic variants that alter turnover rate of signalling proteins on much faster timescales, and in a more cost-effective manner, than traditional approaches. This work will focus on a defined set of targets that are pivotal regulators of plant growth, and in the future the approach could be applied to enhance growth traits and productivity of diverse crop species.

Antibiotics are widely used in agriculture to treat and prevent the spread of disease. However, there is increasing concern about killing of non-target animal, plant and environmental ‘good’ bacteria. In addition, use of antibiotics in farming has been linked to both good and bad bacteria (including those that cause life-threatening infections in humans) becoming resistant to antibiotics so that they no longer work. Due to these concerns, regulations limiting agricultural use of antibiotics are being introduced. This will have impacts on the ongoing sustainability of farming in NZ.

We have an innovative planet-positive approach to address this problem. We are re-engineering current antibiotics, carrying out chemical modifications to selectively activate antibiotics in diseased tissues. Our technology means farmers can continue giving antibiotics to animals, but active antibiotic will be concentrated in diseased tissue in sick animals, where it can effectively and safely treat the infection. Importantly, good bacteria in/on healthy or infected animals are not harmed and antibiotic resistance is less likely to develop. The amount of active antibiotic ending up on pastures and in waterways will be reduced, as will impacts on environmental bacteria.

We have shown we can modify antibiotics to remove activity and that anti-bacterial effects are restored upon exposure to bacterial infection. In this research, we will refine our technology, assess its effective use in common NZ farming infections and work with pharmaceutical companies to bring products to market.

Software errors have led to dire consequences over the years, from failed space missions to aeroplane crashes. Many of these errors are introduced by unassuming software developers who reuse publicly available code. In fact, it is estimated that 96% of all software products reuse code that is publicly available online. AI-inspired code generation techniques will exacerbate the reuse of error-prone code, as large language models (LLMs) are often trained on the same online code. Solutions generated by these models have indeed been shown to inherit the errors that are typically found in code online.

New Zealand software development companies such as those provisioning life-critical software (e.g., Orion Health and Volpara) are not immune to the threats of reusing faulty code. While New Zealand’s tech sector contributed $18.8 billion to GDP in 2021 and exported $8 billion, as overseas sales grew 14.4%, the continued success of New Zealand companies will depend on the delivery of highly reliable and secure software. They need to be vigilant that modules reused in their products do not result in failure or vulnerabilities that may lead to hacking and compromises in client safety, thereby threatening New Zealand’s growing software reputation, especially in light of skill shortages faced by the software development industry.

This project aims to develop and deliver AI-inspired software violation detection and repair algorithms to support New Zealand software developers in their efficient and rapid delivery of high-value, reliable and secure software, with export potential. Further, we will package our algorithms to support the upskilling of under-represented groups in developing coding competency, enhancing participation, and reducing the skill shortage.

Extracting value from invasive species could develop new environmentally positive industries while sustaining control programmes thus reducing the negative impacts of invasives.  The invasive kelp Undaria pinnatifida reached New Zealand in the late 1980s and is now ubiquitous part of valuable rocky reef habitats, particularly in the SE of the South Island and Stewart Island.  Undaria (Wakame) is an important food and is rich in bioactives however the low landed value for whole Undaria in New Zealand is not sufficient to sustain control programmes and is a key bottleneck to accessing this resource. To address this problem, we will merge fine-scale maps of Undaria biomass and data on key drivers (e.g. temperature, light) of bioactive concentration to build a Bioactive Forecast Model that directs control programmes and processing pathways to maximise value of the Undaria resource and the efficiency of extraction. In parallel, we will optimise and apply green extraction technology with the dual purpose of determining bioactive concentration to inform predictions while developing technology to extract bioactives within regionally distributed research and bioactive extraction hubs. The project will initially focus high value bioactives within Undaria but the technology developed can extend to other bioactives, other algae, terrestrial plants and waste streams. This project will inform and equip specialist Undaria control divers providing fine scale maps of high value resources and green bioactive extraction technology – allowing value to remain in the small coastal communities that surround the Undaria resource – unlocking a quadruple bottom line industry.

Pathogenic bacteria are a major challenge in healthcare and agriculture, particularly antibiotic resistant ‘superbugs’. Antibiotic resistance is rising and spreading rapidly, driving a global health crisis. The economic impacts of antibiotic resistance are predicted to exceed US$1 trillion annually by 2030 but the global R&D pipeline for new antibacterials is described by the World Health Organisation as “insufficient”. As such, innovation is required to develop new, commercially viable therapies targeting antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Here, we will combine cutting-edge generative artificial intelligence tools with a 100-year-old therapy to develop engineered bacterial viruses, known as bacteriophages, into precision antibiotic products that can be commercially scaled for global use.

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB), caused by Mycobacterium bovis, and Johne’s disease (JD), caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) are highly infectious livestock diseases that cost Aotearoa’s primary sector NZ$160 million/ year. Rapid detection and isolation of infected animals can reduce disease spread. The current gold-standard bTB and JD tests require at least 72 hour turnaround, specialist equipment, skilled staff, and laboratory infrastructure, preventing diagnosis of the disease on farm (point-of-need [PON]), and allowing infected animals to stay in their herds.

We will develop a rapid, cost-effective, point-of-need multiplex test (NZ-TBDx) for simultaneous detection of bTB and JD, that can be performed by non-experts. Our diagnostic test will facilitate herd management with farmers able to implement disease control solutions rapidly to reduce cost and production losses. Our test can also serve as a platform technology for the detection of other pathogens.

This project will create a minimally invasive and inexpensive sampling technique to identify the animals used in manufacturing taonga tūturu, precious objects created by Māori artisans. This will substantially enhance the capabilities of the museum and heritage sector to find and engage meaningfully with the custodians of these taonga.

Taonga tūturu have whakapapa (genealogies) that connect them to Te Ao Māori (the Māori world), but through the process of colonisation, the provenance of many of these objects in museums is unknown. Species identification of many taonga tūturu materials is impossible visually, and currently available destructive sampling impacts the mauri (life force) of taonga tūturu.

Collagen peptide mass fingerprinting (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry or ZooMS) allows for inexpensive and rapid taxonomic identification of collagenous materials such as bone, skin, and hair, but traditionally requires a piece of an object to be cut off and destroyed.

We aim to develop MIMS (Minimally Invasive Molecular Story) – using a small piece of fine grit polishing film - to collect a small sample for analysis, allowing the mauri (life force) and visible appearance of an object to remain intact while enabling identification of the material. This means taonga tūturu can be cared for in accordance with tikanga and, where appropriate, repatriated.

Beyond taonga tūturu, the optimisation of this technique has exciting applications for contemporary biodiversity and conservation science. It would enable taonga and other species to be readily and inexpensively identified, especially where decomposition or utilisation of the species has made morphological or DNA identification unlikely. Contexts for its use include cetacean and other marine mammal strandings, and applications at the border to identify incoming animal materials and enable compliance with CITES.

This project will develop an innovative technology for absorbing excess ammonia using sheep’s wool to mitigate the adverse effects of ammonia pollution from indoor agricultural operations.

Excess ammonia in the environment is a public concern as it is toxic to both humans and animals, promotes unwanted algal growth in waterways, and causes air pollution through the formation of small airborne particles. Current ammonia scrubbing systems involve the use of harsh toxic chemicals that require complex storage, handling, and disposal protocols, and the associated health-and-safety and compliance considerations. We envisage that the use of a natural under-valued material that is relatively abundant in NZ (course sheep's wool) that does not require specialised handling, will have environmental and economic benefits as well as ease-of-uptake and use.

We have recently discovered that appropriately treated sheep’s wool can reduce ammonia concentration in an air-flow. We will study this unique phenomenon through surface studies of the treated wool fibre to create a product that can be used to sequester ammonia in the air. We plan to investigate the regeneration of the treated wool product for repeated use, and harvesting of the captured ammonia for productive applications.

Our team consists of academic and industrial scientists, and industry partners, who can make use of the deep wool expertise in NZ. Although agricultural applications will serve as a demonstration, we can see the use of this technology in other applications to create other products, from personal protection equipment (PPE) to alternative-fuel production.

Our goal is to create a new, high-value line of products from New Zealand seaweed (rimurimu) through use of an environmentally-friendly technology (pulsed electric field or ‘PEF’) to generate supporting material for tissue engineering.

Tissue engineering enables creation of functional tissues outside or within their animal host and is used for repair of human organs (regenerative medicine) and ethical production of cell-based meat and seafood (cellular agriculture). The supporting materials used must be safe for cells to grow on and provide physical and biological cues that encourage tissue formation. There is an unmet demand for natural materials produced in a sustainable and ethical manner that does not harm the environment.

We propose processing of seaweed can deliver all the requirements for supporting materials and that sustainable production is possible without harsh chemicals or wastage. Our Smart Idea will pioneer the application of PEF to intact seaweed to isolate its cellulose and other active constituents, then establishing their utility for engineering of skin and muscle.

Our internationally recognised team of scientists from University of Otago, Plant and Food Research and Victoria University of Wellington, in partnership with Māori whānau-owned business AgriSea NZ Seaweed, are poised to develop the knowledge, tools and pathways needed to integrate manufacturing of tissue engineering products into a sustainable seaweed sector.

In our Māori-centric approach, we will explore rimurimu whakapapa and seek kawa and tikanga relating to the gathering, storage, traditional use, and protection of rimurimu. This will enable us to seamlessly merge Māori knowledge and perspectives with high-end technology to underpin development of an industry where remote coastal communities will supply seaweed for manufacturing of high-value products for export to tissue engineering industries.

Heating, Ventilating, Air-conditioning, and Refrigeration equipment is estimated to account for around 20% of global electricity use and around 8% of global emissions.

Unfortunately, this equipment suffers from a build-up of water films that reduces their efficiency.

If a means could be found to manage this water and stop the films forming, it is estimated that the equipment’s efficiency could be lifted by 30% to 40%. This would have a major positive impact on the demand for electricity and GHG emissions.

Our Smart Idea addresses this problem by using micro patterned surfaces in the heat exchangers (HX) to remove droplets of water before they collapse into films.

There are 2 major problems standing in the way of this solution. Developing and reproducing the necessary patterns at a mm2 scale and being able to design heat exchanger surfaces to give this desired overall performance.

We will use our team’s skills in:

Microfabrication, microfluids, computational fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, and high-speed motion capture to design the necessary patterns and reproduce them using 3D printing

Machine learning and generative AI to develop tools to design the micro patterns based on the performance required of the exchanger surface. The latter is not possible using traditional software because there are simply too many options to allow more traditional approaches to optimisation.

The team will be advised by a range of companies in the HX manufacturing and AI software areas; organisations involved with appliance efficiency and its impact on emissions; and those involved in the development of Manufacturing 4.0 in NZ that this project will contribute to.

Buildings are directly and indirectly responsible for up to 20% of NZ’s greenhouse gas emissions. They are also the main cause of winter electricity demand peaks which are a key barrier to the achievement of high levels of renewable electricity supply – a critical component on NZ’s overall decarbonisation strategy.

New low-carbon options, such as nearly-zero or net-zero energy (that self-generate renewable energy) buildings have the potential to significantly reduce operational emissions, but they could also increase embodied carbon in construction materials and have negative or positive impacts on the electricity grid.

To avoid “lock-in” of carbon emissions in long-lived buildings and electricity grid infrastructure, there is an urgent need to identify the most effective low-carbon pathways for buildings in NZ.

Current modelling tools are either focused on single buildings or extrapolate from current national heating demand and are unable to explore large-scale uptake of transformative low-carbon options.

Leveraging synergies between the team’s recent research, we will overcome limitations in current modelling tools to create the world’s first national building scenario modelling tool for assessing the impact of nearly-zero or net-zero energy buildings on the regional and national electricity system and exploring the trade-off between operational and embodied energy/carbon.

The insights from our research will transform NZ building standards for new and retrofitted buildings, inform government and industry strategies aimed at decarbonizing NZ’s energy system and help catalyze the creation of low-carbon, future-proof buildings by the building sector.

This research will yield a permanent reduction in greenhouse emissions from buildings and significantly reduce the costs of decarbonization for NZ. It will also result in significant co-benefits in health and energy costs and poverty reduction.

Chronic non-healing ulcers represent a relevant clinical and socioeconomic burden. Diabetic patients with foot ulcers associated with narrowing of blood vessels in the limb manifest the worst outcome with the highest amputation and mortality rates. Although the efficacy of topical gel formulation of various growth factors is currently in clinical use, they are not effective in chronic diabetic ulcers. Our project will explore the novel therapeutic option for chronic diabetic ulcers using molecular modulators. We will develop an innovative combinatorial approach of incorporation of the molecular modulators with biopolymeric nanomatrix to increase the efficacy and stability after topical application on the ulcer. This will be the world-first off-the-shelf product bringing direct economy and training for high skilled force in New Zealand. Further, reducing the amputation rates will have a marked improvement on the quality of these patients, thereby reducing the burden on the health sector.

Subduction zones, where one tectonic plate is forced underneath another, produce the world’s deadliest and most destructive earthquakes and tsunamis, as demonstrated by the 2011 Magnitude 9 Tohoku-Oki earthquake in Japan. In New Zealand, geological records reveal that great subduction earthquakes (magnitude>=8) have occurred regularly along the Hikurangi Subduction Zone beneath the eastern North Island, where the Pacific tectonic plate thrusts beneath the Australian plate.

Recent overseas research has shown that major subduction zone earthquakes are sometimes preceded by phenomena known as slow slip events (SSEs, essentially earthquakes in slow motion). Following the 2016 magnitude 7.8 Kaikōura earthquake, SSEs were immediately triggered along the full length of the Hikurangi Subduction Zone, sparking demand from central government for scientists to determine the likelihood of a great earthquake in central New Zealand following on from the SSEs.

This project aims to develop statistical models to clarify the relationship between SSEs and earthquake occurrence, and the impact of SSEs on near-term great earthquake forecasts. We will analyse existing geodetic and seismic data to obtain new catalogues of SSEs and seismic swarms along the Hikurangi Subduction Zone, and develop tools to forecast SSEs and great earthquakes.

Being able to forecast when great earthquakes will next occur is of profound importance for providing critical early warnings that will ensure the preservation of our workforce, infrastructure, and economic. The ability to better forecast future Hikurangi Subduction Zone earthquakes will place New Zealand at the forefront of subduction zone forecasting worldwide, and enable the country to better anticipate and reduce potential disruption, damage and casualties. This will enhance our ability to undertake critical early warnings for damaging earthquakes, and inform decision-making for risk mitigation.

Aotearoa shines as gem of cultural richness, but one facet of its history has yet to be illuminated – the story of our indigenous Moriori. Cultural health is interlaced with national health and when one erodes, so does the other. It is often forgotten that New Zealand has not one, but two native peoples, and few have suffered such persistent and damaging myths and misinformation about their cultural heritage as the Moriori of Rēkohu (Chatham Islands). False narratives perpetuated for generations have misrepresented them as a people who were conquered, cast away and ultimately driven to extinction.

The truth is that Moriori are very much a living indigenous community with a history steeped in connection to the natural world – the land, the wind, the sea. Highly adapted to their island environment and bounty of natural resources, they developed their own specialised culture, traditions, language and music – all now at risk of being lost or forgotten.

In a marriage of indigenous knowledge and cutting-edge technology, this groundbreaking project, co-designed with and directed by the Hokotehi Moriori Trust, serves to revitalise Moriori culture through a multisensory, cross-cultural approach. Employing a range of multimedia replication technologies including acoustic sampling, 3D printing, extended reality (XR) and 360^o filmmaking, our international team of contributors will co-design and create an immersive experience to be shared with the global public. It is research that embraces totohunga (heart) by engaging the public in a project that amplifies the Moriori story while creating a scalable model for advancing cultural understanding everywhere.

Flavour compounds contribute to the sensory properties of a food and to consumer enjoyment - for example, think of the smell of freshly baked bread. For us to smell them, such compounds must be volatile, which means that they can be released into the air and move to the odour receptors in our nose. Many different volatile aroma compounds combine to form a particular flavour. Natural flavours can be expensive to isolate from raw materials and this coupled with their high demand means that they command a premium price. Our idea is to use the waste streams produced by food processing plants as novel sources of raw materials from which to harvest natural volatile compounds, which can subsequently be sold as natural flavours or flavour components. The large size of our milk powder industry gives New Zealand a competitive advantage in mining the waste streams that dairy factories produce as a source of flavour compounds, as no where else in the world is milk processed in such large volumes for export. Not only will this research generate an additional revenue stream from milk, it will lead to the development of high-value knowledge- intensive natural flavour industry. Further, once it has been determined that flavour compounds can be extracted and stabilised from dairy waste streams, the technologies and know-how we develop could be applied to the waste streams generated by other industries.

Rapid melting of floating ice shelves is speeding up the flow of ice from Antarctica into the ocean. Planning a climate change resilient New Zealand requires the most realistic ice sheet models possible, to predict future ice loss, consequent sea-level rise and changes in Southern Ocean circulation. Physical properties of the ice, such as its plasticity and elasticity, are critical inputs to the predictive models. Yet we have virtually no ice samples available to study the physical properties, because existing ice sampling approaches are slow, cumbersome and expensive. The models are thus limited in how they represent this critical component.

We propose to build new, portable, low-cost drilling tools for rapid sampling of shallow ice (<200m), combining existing and newly developed technologies. Access holes will be drilled using a small hot water drill, a proven method. After water is pumped from the hole, we will collect small samples from multiple depths using a newly developed sidewall coring tool. Development systems will be designed and built by teams of engineering students, with mentorship from local and international experts. Students will be involved in testing, application and outreach.

To develop and test the technologies, we will collect ice samples at multiple depths from 30 sites across the floating Northern McMurdo ice shelf. Conventional coring would allow sampling of just one or two sites in the same time. Accessing multiple sites in a single field season is important because ice properties are variable and change over time due to ice flow. This will be the first extensive ice sampling across any ice shelf, leading towards better understanding, better models and better prediction of how the Antarctic ice sheet will respond to climate change.