UniServices at 30 - a snapshot

Te toru tekau tau o UniServices he pitopito kĹ?rero UniServices at 30 - a snapshot

Kua puta ki te ao From first spark to global impact

In 2018 UniServices turned 30. Birthdays are often a time to reflect on how far you’ve come and what’s next. Auckland UniServices Ltd, the University’s research and knowledge-transfer company, is celebrating three decades of remarkable growth and notable success.

By the numbers – and since patents started being recorded in 2008 – it looks like this through our 2018 year: more than 900 patents licenced; 1000 or more invention disclosures; ten businesses to commercialise University research in 2017 alone; NZ$1.22 billion of cumulative revenue over the past ten years, and clients in more than 60 countries.

Not bad for an organisation that started more modestly as the Applied Research Office in the late-1960s, recording all its transactions in a nowfamous ‘green book’. CEO Dr Andy Shenk says the handwritten ledger was basically a record of “things people wanted the University to do” (in lieu of a financial system) beyond its official role as a teaching and research institution.

If you wanted a chimney flue, for example, chances are someone in the University could have designed it for you, says Dr Shenk.

“Looking at the entries in the book, and the prices charged, it could range from a legal opinion, an expert to testify about something, a survey of a design, some kind of CB radio, calibrating an instrument; a very broad range. It really reflects the fact that here were a group of people who are experts in what they do, so why not use them to help people outside the University?”

“It began to become clear that a way to manage the growth into delivering even more would be to establish a proper organisation that could do this, and that led to thinking about creating the company.”

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Viewing the University as a pool of practical knowledge, and academics as having something valuable and specific to offer the world beyond their socalled ivory tower, has become known as ‘the third way’.

“Many universities around the world have accepted they have a broader contribution to make beyond training the next generation of citizens and adding to the global store of knowledge; in terms of their impact on local communities, on the societies they’re part of, including economic impacts,” says Dr Shenk.

In 1988, the Applied Research Office morphed into UniServices so it could exist as a separate legal entity, operating as a business on the University’s behalf.

“The University ‘owns’ UniServices like it owns any other property,” says Dr Shenk. “Through us, it can own shares, invest in start-ups, protect its intellectual property, invest in the commercial potential of new ideas, and create commercial relationships with government and industry. From our point of view, we are a commercial company and I report to a board of directors, on which the current Vice-Chancellor chooses to sit; and we have a single shareholder, which is the University of Auckland.”

Holding a PhD in biological sciences from the University of Delaware, Dr Shenk came to UniServices from Fonterra, where he held a number of roles – most recently, chief scientist. He is the third CEO, after founding CEO Dr John Kernohan and Dr Shenk’s predecessor, Adjunct Professor Dr Peter Lee. He says there have been many proud successes over the years, but two in particular come to mind.

“We operate the Immunisation Advisory Centre (IMAC) which has helped transform the immunisation coverage rate for kids in New Zealand.”

Working closely in partnership with the Ministry of Health, IMAC provides training and support to health professionals across the country, promotional materials, a communication strategy, national coordination and strategic advice. The Centre offers independent, factual information about vaccinepreventable diseases and the benefits of immunisation.

Dr Shenk says that from a relatively low rate, more than 90 percent of children are now immunised against common diseases like measles and whooping cough.

“And that means fewer sick children, less stress, and poor parents and everyone else getting more sleep. It also means educational attainment, economic benefit to the families; so that’s a huge, huge success.”

He says University academics have also been leading the charge on new technology to address crucial issues like climate change.

Commericalised by UniServices and developed from as early as the mid-1990s

by Professors John Boys and Grant Covic (Faculty of Engineering), inductive (or wireless) power transfer technology is already being used in high-end manufacturing settings around the world.

“It’s being used in clean rooms to power robots and autonomous vehicles, and in roadways to produce safety lighting along lane markers that doesn’t get disrupted by the traffic, for example,” says Dr Shenk.

Intent on finding a way to charge electric cars without cables or batteries, in 2010, John and Grant co-founded a new global start-up company Halo IPT, with Grant as joint head of research from formation to sale.

“Imagine how much greater it will be to charge your electric car without having to get out in the rain at a charging station and connect the big thick electric cable and risk zapping yourself,” says Dr Shenk. “Instead there’s a pad in the ground and a receiver in your car and you park over the pad and it powers itself.”

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Other milestones include: the partnership with an American drug development company to launch SapVax, a biotech start-up which develops novel new cancer vaccines (2017); Soul Machines, an artificial intelligence start-up company which has re-imagined how humans connect with machines (2016); the establishment of Innovation Institute China (2016) and Engender Technologies (Professor Cather Simpson, Faculty of Science), a company which improves the sorting of sperm by sex for the dairy industry.

All of this activity has a ripple effect outward, says Dr Shenk.

“We’re creating something like ten new companies every year, and they go on to employ people and to have their own lives beyond us. In some areas, we don’t have the skills to bring

“Lately we’ve been focusing on student ventures and also on student investors, so they feel they have a place they can go where people understand them, and so they don’t have to wait until they’re 50 or 60 to become involved and get their ideas out there.

“We do a lot of work with the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Faculty of Business and Economics); we mentor and judge their Velocity (entrepreneurial development) competition; we work with some of the top teams as they move beyond Velocity and get ready to enter the market; we have students on our investment committees.

And the world needs great academic minds more than ever, he believes.

“Many universities around the world have accepted they have a broader contribution to make beyond training the next generation of citizens and adding to the global store of knowledge” something to its full potential so we need others to invest alongside us and add both expertise and dollars to help our new companies succeed.”

Education is another area where UniServices manages University of Auckland contracts all over the world.

“We used to teach English to young women in Saudi Arabia to prepare them for university, around 25,000 of them per year, at the world’s largest women’s university, the Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, it was huge, covering an area larger than downtown Auckland.”

The future, he believes, is increasingly in our brightest young things.

“Reflecting on our birthday as a company, I think our first 30 years have shown that the ‘third way’ for a University involves a significant commitment from all of us to our city, our nation, and the world around us. It’s been a very rewarding experience for those of us at UniServices who’ve had the privilege of working alongside some of the most creative, inspiring academics you’ll find anywhere.

“Our track record proves that a great University like the University of Auckland, has so much to offer to make society a better, healthier, more sustainable and more equitable home for all of us, and we look forward to our next 30 years with real optimism and excitement.”

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INTRODUCING AUCKLAND UNISERVICES

Rangahaua kia whai hua IDEAS TO LIFE Values align work to vision

Auckland UniServices’ three core values – ‘partner with purpose’, ‘create the future’, and ‘pursue with passion’ – inspire staff across the organisation as they bring ideas to life.

The company – which is celebrating its 30th anniversary – fulfils several important roles as a service delivery and the commercialisation company of the University of Auckland.

Developing the values, in a process which began in 2015, has created a sense of connection and a clear purpose across the business, says UniServices Chief Executive Officer Dr Andy Shenk.

UniServices supports researchers to help grow their portfolios; it develops mutually beneficial relationships with research funders and commercial clients in New Zealand and internationally; it identifies, protects and develops the university’s intellectual property; it commercialises university sourced technology and innovations; and it delivers social and economic research programmes and their outputs which can benefit people all over the world.

Since he joined UniServices in 2013, Dr Shenk has overseen a change in culture within the 500-strong staff. The company has evolved from being largely commercially focused to choosing to take on work that is consistent with its vision of making the world a better place.

“I’m really proud of our common understanding about who we are and what we’re about, and I’m proud of our value statements and how they contribute directly to the view about what we should be doing.”

Identifying key values When UniServices was invited to participate in the wider University of Auckland staff survey for the first time in 2015, the results showed many people in the organisation were happy with their immediate team and found their work rewarding, but they didn’t identify their business units as being part of UniServices. When he talked to staff about what mattered most, Dr Shenk found the majority wanted to make a difference in the world.

The values structure allows the team to think about the ethics and appropriateness of some kinds of work.

“Partnering with purpose reflects the fact that the partners’ purpose matters for us. And it matters for the partners that we choose to work with, that health or society or the environment is somehow improved by having done the work.”

“I don’t think we were completely reckless in the past, but we were closer to a decision making process that was ‘a, will someone pay for it, and b, have we got a way to actually deliver whatever it is?’, and that was enough. Now it’s much more about our values and purpose.”

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Dr Andy Shenk

“We help enable the creation of new knowledge.

We capture and support hundreds of new products and intellectual property ideas, and dozens of new companies which create new jobs.

Bringing ideas to life Dr Shenk says UniServices focuses on the commercialisation of ideas – but in the absolute broadest sense. He says universities are places that develop people and develop ideas, and both concepts don’t exist in a vacuum.

He describes the work that staff do with the university as ‘connecting’ – bringing the outside world to the university, and taking the university’s ideas to the outside world.

“We help enable the creation of new knowledge. We capture and support hundreds of new products and intellectual property ideas, and dozens of new companies which create new jobs. We are engaged in all of those external faces. We say to the University, ‘this is going on and there’s this opportunity to have an impact, be it financial, social or environmental’.”

A second finding of the 2015 staff survey was a sense that if academics and the researchers didn’t want to engage, then staff felt they had no further course of action. That changed as staff were encouraged to break through barriers with the value ‘create the future’.

“We all have ideas. We have all of these interactions external to the University, and we need to plant the seed [with academics].

If we have great ideas, we must share our ideas, and convince a professor they should want to do something because we can already imagine what we could do with it if they did.”

Building a research pipeline UniServices is the largest institution of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

Over the past year, UniServices has taken on full responsibility for research bids and contract management for public good funds, while the research and the responsibility for delivery sits with the university. This gives UniServices a much more connected partnership with researchers and a privileged view of all of the research contracts and the proposed research pipeline.

In other universities, the commercialisation unit is often separate to the research bid process, making it harder to see potential ideas. With UniServices involved at the start, helping craft the researchers’ bids, staff have a clear understanding of what is required to bring the ideas to life.

The big benefit of the culture change is that UniServices now seeks to understand what researchers are trying to achieve, and the moving parts they’re trying to juggle to accomplish their goal. “That means we can partner with them in a much more effective way.”

The future challenge is to get better at maximising the effort involved in winning New Zealand and international research proposals. Dr Shenk says it’s also important to support younger researchers to get established by helping them produce quality bids, and get their work published.

Creating future companies In the past three years, UniServices has tripled its output of new companies through its unique Inventors Fund. It kickstarts the process of turning ideas into companies, with UniServices as an early investment partner.

The fund started in 2016 at $10 million, doubled within a year, and is soon expected to grow to $30 million.

“Before the Inventors Fund, we had to wait for someone else to come up with some money to pay for the early establishment of those ventures. Now we can be the first investor. So if we believe in it, have all of the opportunity for the IP and assembled the right team, then we can reach into our own pockets and say ‘here are the funds you need’, be it half a million, or $2 million.”

UniServices was able to increase its investment from just two or three ‘spinout’ companies a year to 10 in 2016, 9 in 2017, and 11 this year: “So we’ve more than tripled our output of exciting new companies.”

The fund is having a wider impact – from the 2016 cohort, 300 staff are employed across the 10 companies – the largest being high-tech artificial intelligence company Soul Machines.

Creating future investors Growing the next wave of early-stage investors is also something Dr Shenk is passionate about.

He says the ingredients of a successful commercialisation system are funding, expertise, and resilience. UniServices has formed a student-led investment committee which combines all three, called Momentum.

It includes smart PhD students with strong technology backgrounds along with some very experienced investors, and is approved to use the [Government allocated] PreSeed Accelerator Funds.

The concept has now been franchised to Victoria University, with University of Canterbury and University of Otago interested.

Thirty years on from its inception, UniServices is still leading through innovation, passion and clear values.

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Te Wairua Rakahinonga Entrepreneurial spirit Will Charles, Executive Director Commercialisation says universities are fundamentally fun and exciting places to work.

“It is an enormous privilege to be able to work here and we should celebrate that every day. Universities are unique organisations that renew each year; they are full of ideas of youth, full of energy and optimism and full of very clever and interesting people who have a thirst to discover more and share that knowledge and their discoveries. At the same time, universities are places where things are discussed, the future is envisaged, and the status quo challenged. Argument and debate is probably one of the most human abilities we as homo sapiens have – the ability to rationally debate and argue and to create opportunities from that debate is really exciting. There are real ideas here and they need to be nurtured and supported. Our opportunity is to create economic value out of them.

There are opportunities galore for people with creative minds who have a little bit of an entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to see things differently.”

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Will Charles

1988

1989

1990

2001

2001

Auckland UniServices Ltd is incorporated

Wireless charging technology is licensed to Daifuku for applications in clean room factory automation.

Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre (ACSRC) enters two multimillion dollar contracts with the US National Cancer Institute.

The Auckland Bioengineering Institute, a cross-faculty research centre focusing on the application of mathematical and engineering sciences to biology and human physiology, is launched.

UniServices delivers a NZ$30 million global clinical stroke trial for the World Health Organisation, Servier and International Society of Hypertension.

2002

2002

2004

2006

2006

A world leading Light Metals Research Centre is launched.

The Liggins Institute, a world leading centre for translational research on fetal and child health, is officially opened by her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

Spin-out company Neuren Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical which develops therapies for brain injury and neurodegeneration, is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

The international consortium (UK, Singapore, NZ) EpiGen is launched, applying the science of neonatal nutrition to infant food development.

Spin-out company Proacta raises more than NZ$52 million to develop unique anti-cancer technology.

UNISERVICES AT 30 - A SNAPSHOT

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Anti-cancer drug DMXAA enters Phase III clinical trials and is licensed to Novartis for NZ$890 million.

Spinout company Pathway Therapeutic raises AU$10 million of venture capital funding.

A world first clinical trial of 35 healthcare robots together with a Korean university commences.

HaloIPT, a start-up company focused on IPT technology for electric vehicles is sold to Qualcomm Inc.

IPT, the technology which allows electric cars to be charged wirelessly, hits the streets of London as part of an electric car trial.

2012

2012

2012

2013

2013

ACSRC cancer drug PR610 goes to clinical trial in United States and New Zealand.

Auckland Bioengineering Institute develops electronic solution for artificial muscles made of stretchy rubber that can be made into sensors, power generators and actuators.

Interactive simulations including a ‘live’ computer-generated baby driven by neurobehavioural models are developed at Dr Sagar’s new Laboratory for Animate Technologies.

SPARX, a computer programme for adolescent depression, wins an international digital award from UNESCO’s Netexplo in Paris.

Samsung invests in wireless charging start‑up PowerbyProxi.

2014

2014

2014

2015

2016

MIT Skoltech Initiative University Innovation Ecosystem Benchmark Report identifes the University of Auckland as one of the world’s top five “emerging leaders in entrepreneurship” expected to become a major international innovation powerhouse in the decades ahead.

Research collaboration agreement is signed between UniServices and food company Yashili to conduct strategic industry research.

Return On Science is announced as the latest strategic international partner for the Asia IP Exchange (AsiaIPEX), the region’s largest free online platform for international intellectual property trading.

Maurice Wilkins Centre, hosted by the University of Auckland, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health sign a research and commercialisation agreement and form a Joint Centre for Biomedicine.

Spinout company Engender Technologies commercialises technology to improve sorting of sperm by sex for the dairy industry.

2016

2016

2016

2017

2018

The University of Auckland Innovation Institute China is established.

The University of Auckland is ranked #1 in New Zealand and Australia and #27 out of 75 in the inaugural Reuters Top 75: Asia’s Most Innovative Universities rankings.

Artifical Intelligence start-up company Soul Machines attracts US$ 7.5 million from Hong Kong based VC firm Horizon Ventures.

UniServices and the University of Auckland partner with an American drug development company to launch SapVax, a biotech start‑up which develops novel cancer vaccines.

Rain Therapeutics Inc., a privately-held, clinical stage biotechnology company focused on biomarker-driven, small molecule therapeutics for patients with cancer, has closed a tranched Series A financing of US$18.4 million.

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PARTNERING UNDERPINS INTERNATIONAL TEAM SUCCESS

Kei ō tātou ringaringa te ao The world is ours to behold

From fostering innovation in China, to undertaking geothermal modelling in Myanmar and educating teachers from Saudi Arabia, the international work undertaken by Auckland UniServices is incredibly diverse.

UniServices is renowned globally for its work, and the International team specialises in health, science and engineering, and education across public good and private contracts. All have a common goal to make a positive impact on society, says Executive Director International Dr Lisbeth Jacobs.

She says UniServices’ structure is unique internationally: “Most universities have a tech transfer office, but they don’t have the business development people like we do who are working hard on behalf of the academics to make connections. In other universities, it can be left to the academics to try to form commercial partnerships. With us, we gather the information and sell it.”

Dr Jacobs says UniServices’ clients often comment on the organisation’s refreshingly commercially minded approach.

“They are used to sitting down with academics who are naturally more focused on the research and don’t have a good understanding of how the commercial world works and the timelines required.

We are on the same page as our clients; the majority of our international team have worked in commercial environments. We understand what clients need and how to work with them, and that’s what makes UniServices unique.”

International partnerships Dr Jacobs says partnering is central to everything the team does: “We partner with the academics and we partner with our clients. We are the bridge between the university and the rest of the world and we do not do anything is isolation.”

The jewel in the crown is the University of Auckland Innovation Institute in China, which was established in 2016 by UniServices. The institute, in Hangzhou, provides the perfect pathway for UniServices, the University of Auckland, and other New Zealand organisations to undertake research in China, and foster relationships with partners, investors and potential collaborators.

Hangzhou is one of China’s leading innovation and technology hubs, and home to the research and development centres of manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies, says Dr Jacobs.

“The institute provides access to an extensive range of networks, including research and funding opportunities in China, and has a strong focus on collaboration and partnering.”

Across the world, UniServices boasts large international private clients such as GHK and Novartis in medicine and drug development. In the food sector, it works with Nestle, Abbot, Danone and Fonterra researching high value nutrition. It has engineering contracts with companies including Siemens, Hyundai and Huawei – some span robotics.

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Dr Lisbeth Jacobs

“We are on the same page as our clients; the majority of our international team have worked in commercial environments. We understand what clients need and how to work with them, and that’s what makes UniServices unique.”

As a New Zealand university, it can be challenging to access international public good funding, but Dr Jacobs says UniServices fares much better when it’s a sub-contractor.

Public good funding successfully accessed with partners includes work with the National Institute of Health Innovation and the Global Alliance for Tuberculosis – both based in the US, the Bill and Melinda Gates Fund, the UN Environment programme, and the World Bank.

There are significant contracts underway internationally at the moment including a Ministry of Foreign Affairs contract in Myanmar, and contracts in Indonesia, Japan and East Africa for geothermal modelling.

Dr Jacobs is also proud of the work developing customised education programmes for other countries’ governments and tertiary institutions. For example, a very successful contract with the largest woman’s university in the world – Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University in Saudi Arabia – had 37 staff on the ground for four years. In 2018, 75 Saudi principals and their families came to New Zealand for nine months to learn modern teaching methods.

Enabling university’s work to make a difference

“Without us and the work we do, the ideas from the university couldn’t find their way into society and wouldn’t have the impact.”

She says academics often either don’t know how, or they don’t have the time, to bring their ideas to life outside of the university.

“We find practical applications for the inventions and innovations, and it’s wonderful to see the impact of all our work on society – being able to make people’s lives better whether it’s a child’s life in hospital, or a customer with a technical engineering product.”

Dr Jacobs says pursuing their work with passion is fundamental to the organisation’s success – particularly given the length of time it often takes for academic inventions to be unleashed on the real world.

“It’s such a long process and it takes passion to pursue it relentlessly and optimistically – and to work in the face of adversity so that if one door is closed, we find another. It is hard. But the reason we work here is because of the passion we have for the work, and because we know we can make a difference to the world.”

Dr Jacobs is a great advocate for UniServices’ values. She says ‘creating the future’ means her team is the bridge between the funding and the ideas that are being developed.

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DRIVING RESEARCH FUNDING

Kokiri kia rapua Success through commitment

Generating and increasing research revenue for the University of Auckland is the core focus of Auckland UniServices’ Government and Industry team.

Taking a long-term view and working with stakeholders, partners and industry groups to ensure UniServices presents planned, high quality bids is the key to increasing research revenue, says Kerry Price – Executive Director Government and Industry.

However, he stresses the revenue is just one part of the equation: “It is only a proxy measure for quality research being delivered by our academic partners and the university.”

Focus on partners The team understands the importance of planning several years in advance, so when a funding round is announced, it is ready to respond. Mr Price says forming effective, long-term, committed partnerships is critical – sometimes years before bids can be written.

“You need you be able to think about the economic impacts. You need partners on board and to be working with mana whenua, so when there is a funding bid announcement you can start writing. If you haven’t done that work prior, then you’re probably going to have a pretty shonky bid and it won’t get funded.”

He says the focus over the next three to five years is working with academics, industry and government partners so they understand that it takes time to develop successful bids.

“Our partnerships with academics underpin everything we do. And really we are the bridge and the broker between our academic partners and government and industry funding body partners.”

Mr Price says a great example of the connecting role his team plays is an analyst who has finally been rewarded after a lengthy process working with an academic and many partners on a bid for robots and horticulture.

“They worked incredibly hard over a couple of years putting together a proposal and have just secured $16.8 million. Some of that will go to other universities, some will go to external robot providers, and we will do the software side of it.”

Competitive funding challenges Mr Price has been with UniServices since 2008, and says research funding is an interesting area to work in.

In line with New Zealand’s reputation for being a highly transparent and ethical place to do business, the public good government funding model is an “incredibly rigorous, robust and transparent process”, he says. However, that comes at the expense of the research organisations, which normally invest months of time and effort into competitive processes where only one 10

UNISERVICES AT 30 - A SNAPSHOT

Kerry Price

“Our partnerships with academics underpin everything we do. And really we are the bridge and the broker between our academic partners and government and industry funding body partners.”

of the perhaps 10 applicants is successful.

His highly skilled team of nine draws upon its diverse industry experience, and market intelligence, procurement and bid writing expertise to support academics to successfully partner to produce winning bids.

His team also produces a business intelligence report for the University which is a goldmine of information about trends, government insight, and what specific business are purchasing.

“UniServices teams are passionate about the work they do – whether it’s working with researchers, child or adolescent mental health workforce developments, preventing family violence, increasing the uptake of immunisation, improving global health, language use, literacy or educational leadership. They all tend to be very passionate people. What gets UniServices people up and into work in the morning is the ability to work with really passionate people who are contributing to the New Zealand economy and really making a difference.”

Passion driving commitment Mr Price says his team’s motivation is fairly clear: “I think you could say that just about everybody wants to be part of the research, and everybody wants to work with brilliant minds.

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OPERATIONAL TEAM SUPPORTS RESEARCH GROWTH

He waka eke noa A canoe which includes us all

Helping the University of Auckland achieve its research objectives is the main focus of the highly skilled operational team at Auckland UniServices.

Chief Operating Officer Ian Olan is responsible for: research service functions including research portfolio management, funds and submissions and contract management; also for business operational functions including business information systems, finance, people and culture, business intelligence, and communications and marketing.

Increasing revenue His staff support the other UniServices teams so they can bring in more research revenue and deliver optimal value for the university to magnify the impact.

“Ultimately, we need to ensure that we have the right resources, systems and the environment for our teams, peers and UniServices to succeed in helping the university to grow research revenue,” Mr Olan wants to ensure everyone in the team is equipped with the right resources and customer service attitude and understands that their clear purpose is to help create a high level of satisfaction among the colleagues and customers they provide a service to.

“Every time we do our jobs well, the rest of the business can focus on research opportunities and growth” “Everything we do has to add value to UniServices”.

“We must leverage our relationships across the university to achieve our overall enterprise objectives. We exist to support and enable the rest of UniServices and University research outcomes”

Values support culture When he joined UniServices in mid-2018, Mr Olan’s team were amalgamated from three different areas.

He has some ambitious targets for his unit, including it becoming the ‘best team to work with and to work for’ within UniServices. His philosophy is to empower his team to make decisions and focus on a solution-finding approach.

The UniServices values of ‘creating the future’, ‘partner with purpose’ and ‘pursue with passion’ have played a role in helping the team forge a new culture together.

“We are working towards delivering great value to the researchers as well our UniServices colleagues. We collaborate, value, trust, develop and celebrate our people. We are trusted for open and transparent action, and we continuously improve our relationships and the way we work to deliver excellent outcomes.”

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Ian Olan

“We collaborate, value, trust, develop and celebrate our people.

We are trusted for open and transparent action, and we continuously improve our relationships and the way we work to deliver excellent outcomes.”

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UNISERVICES BUSINESS UNITS CHANGING LIVES

Ko te amorangi ki mua ko te hāpai o ki muri Outward success is reliant on success behind the scenes

From developing new ways of teaching reading to children, to supporting people to stop smoking, Auckland UniServices is making a huge difference to thousands of people’s lives every day.

Debbie Peri is Executive Director Business Units at UniServices and oversees the organisation’s successful 10 business units with 350 staff across multiple sites and faculties.

Mrs Peri, who joined UniServices in early 2016, oversees a diverse portfolio of business entities including the National Institute for Health Innovation (NIHI), Conectus, the Immunisation Advisory Centre (IMAC), the Light Metals Research Centre (LMRC), the Centre for Advanced MRI (CAMRI), the English Language Academy (ELA), Werry Workforce Whāraurau, the Centre for Educational Leadership (CEL), the Growing Up in New Zealand longitudinal data-collection service, and education programmes.

Mrs Peri is proud of her teams which are converting research into action through the delivery of programmes that support education, health, social and technology improvements, reflecting the research focus areas at the University of Auckland and central government priorities.

Values support team She says the UniServices values of ‘create the future’, ‘partner with purpose’ and ‘pursue with passion’ are the guiding compass for the work the business units do.

The values helped keep staff connected through recent changes which have seen UniServices take on the management and contracting of all public, private or commercial research contracts coming through the university.

Previously, UniServices had focused on commercial customers and the university managed public good research grants.

“The business units hold the contracts with the external clients, but we partner with academics and researchers in the university when our teams need academic direction, advice or design, to give academic and quality assurance to the programs or the services we’re delivering,” says Mrs Peri.

Teams are passionate and committed She is impressed by her teams’ belief in UniServices’ kaupapa (purpose) and mahi (work).

“UniServices people have a commitment to doing really good values-driven, purpose-driven work. There’s a commitment to continue to do right by the contracts, and right by the people that we’re trying to deliver great service to – whether that’s through the business units or through research. That never wavers even in the face of challenges, or uncertainty.”

Mrs Peri says UniServices’ work is incredibly varied, and delivered by specialists including scientists, research, innovation specialists working on 14

UNISERVICES AT 30 - A SNAPSHOT

Debbie Peri

technology challenges through to education experts focused on tasks such as helping autistic children learn.

“Everything we do has a real impact on society or a real impact on the future. And that’s why people work here, because they believe what they’re doing is going to make a difference.”

is fit for purpose for now, and what can it do in the future.”

Mrs Peri says the health sector research such as the Growing Up in New Zealand study is generating masses of data to help future policy decisions that could impact generations to come.

“Everything we do has a real impact on society or a real impact on the future. And that’s why people work here, because they believe what they’re doing is going to make a difference.”

Partnering is being adaptable With UniServices being wholly owned by the university, to be successful it must partner across a diverse group of people in different faculties and different roles, Mrs Peri says.

“The partnering is not linear and not singular. The act of partnering requires people to be adaptable, fluid and flexible and understand different audiences and different people. So it’s stakeholder management, it’s empathy and understanding what people want from you.”

Creating the future “Creating the future and the next generation of thinkers and doers is what universities are about. In all the business units, we are on the cusp of new technology and innovation.”

If that’s service delivery, such as an education programme, the team is thinking how learners will receive the programme – it could be about new ways of delivering knowledge, or the future of work.

“So everything we do is pitched at the sort of future we want, how we can impact the future, and how we can create a future for New Zealand that sets us apart.”

Growth on the horizon Mrs Peri is focused on supporting the business units to become independent, sustainable businesses. She is encouraging the business units’ senior leadership to consider how they can leverage and learn from each other’s capabilities and experiences to augment what they currently do.

The long term goal is to increase the number of “impact-driven and purpose-driven” business units for UniServices.

“There are many opportunities to develop new business teams, but its making sure it’s the right ideas we develop.”

“So we’re constantly questioning and challenging to see if this TE TORU TEKAU TAU O UNISERVICES – HE PITOPITO KŌRERO

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ENGLISH LANGUAGE ACADEMY

Tōku reo tōku ohooho Tōku reo tōku mapihi maurea My language is my awakening. My language is the object of my affection

A range of programmes, courses and tests delivered by the English Language Academy (ELA) are helping thousands of international students every year to prepare for their future careers.

Established in 2001, the ELA has grown into a multi-million dollar business unit of Auckland UniServices, achieving revenue of $13.8 million in 2017.

Julie Haskell, Director of the ELA, says it welcomes students from 35 different countries into its English language courses which run from several weeks up to a full semester.

Up to 2200 students each year study at the academy, which is based at the University of Auckland and is New Zealand’s largest test centre for the respected International English Language Testing System (IELTS) – with more than 8000 candidates sitting the tests in 2017.

Mrs Haskell says the academy offers a pathway for students to improve their English before studying at the University of Auckland or other universities. It has three pathway courses: a Foundation Certificate in English for Academic Purposes (20 weeks); the English Pathway for Undergraduate Studies (10 weeks); and the English Pathway for Postgraduate Studies (10 weeks).

English testing in the Pacific The ELA began offering IELTS testing in Tonga in 2009, which has evolved into a contract with Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) offering testing in Samoa, Vanuatu, Kiribati and the Solomon Islands. The partnership was further strengthened with a three-year MFAT contract to run English preparation courses and testing, and now includes nine countries in the Pacific with the addition of Fiji, Tuvalu, Nauru, New Caledonia and French Polynesia.

“The New Zealand Government has scholarships across the Pacific for students to study an undergraduate degree here. To enter, they need to meet IELTS requirements, and we support them with a preparation course.

“That course we provide is life changing. It’s giving the students the English language skills and confidence they need to apply for the scholarships. It is making a huge impact on individuals and their families in the Pacific by opening doors and giving them access to scholarships that could change their future,” Mrs Haskell says.

A comprehensive approach The ELA takes a holistic approach to the students, offering a dedicated student services team focused on pastoral care, help arriving in Auckland and finding accommodation, and social, sporting and cultural activities.

“For many of our students, it is the first time they have been overseas. We want to ensure the teaching they experience, the activities they do, the homestay we organise – that each provide our students with an amazing experience,” she says.

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Passionate team going the extra mile

International curriculum support

The heart of the ELA’s success lies with its dedicated team of 58 permanent staff and an additional 30 fixed term staff at peak times during the year.

Mrs Haskell says the ELA also undertakes large projects where members of staff are sent to build curriculum support in a particular country. Internationally, the ELA is highly respected, particularly because it is part of the University of Auckland.

Mrs Haskell says the UniServices values of ‘Pursue with Passion, Partner with Purpose, and Create the Future’ underpin the work all of the ELA staff do.

“The teachers are passionate about making a difference in these students’ lives. Our student services team are passionate about making sure they place the student in the right homestay. So, added together, we’re passionate about everything we do with the students and the support that we give them.”

In 2010, the ELA partnered the Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University in Saudi Arabia – the world’s largest university for women – to design and implement an English Language Development programme for undergraduates and academic staff. More recently, the ELA hosted a group of 73 visitors from Saudi Arabia including 23 principals, 25 English language teachers and 27 high school teachers.

“We’re passionate about everything we do with the students and the support that we give them.”

“I am very proud of how ELA staff keep raising the bar and demonstrating their passion for making a difference in the lives of so many individuals.”

Partnering to achieve Partnerships are vital for the ELA’s success.

“It’s important we are viewed as part of an excellent university, and that we are a credible brand working with other world-renowned universities,” says Mrs Haskell.

In 2013, the ELA developed a 20-week programme for employees at Pertamina Geothermal Energy in Indonesia.

The 12 participants received excellent grades and went on to postgraduate study in geothermal energy technology at the University of Auckland.

Following a request from the Myanmar President to support English teachers in 2015, the ELA delivered a month-long English course for Myanmar education officials, followed by a New Zealand study tour for 40 teachers.

“We have many, many partnerships with universities around the world including Waseda University, Kansai University, Osaka Shoin Women’s University, and City University in Hong Kong. We have agreements where they send their students either as individuals or as groups to come and study and improve their English language with us.”

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WERRY WORKFORCE WHĀRAURAU

Ehara taku toa, he takitahi, he toa takitini

My success should not be bestowed onto me alone, it is the success of a collective

Supporting the youth mental health workforce The Werry Workforce Whāraurau supports the infant, child and adolescent mental health and addiction workforce by providing education, information, sector analysis and advocating for people working in the sector.

Formed in 2002, the Werry Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health was part of the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland. It was set up to take a leading role in the development of the child/tamaiti and adolescent/rangatahi mental health sector and provide a cohesive unit focused on analysing workforce needs, promoting research, delivering training and monitoring the impact of training and support.

Today, it is a business unit of Auckland UniServices with a team of 22 spread across Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and has expanded from supporting specialist health services and practitioners to include people working in social, justice and education services.

Sue Dashfield, the Director of Werry Workforce Whāraurau, says its vision is for all children and adolescents with mental health needs to receive expert assessment and evidence-based care from a highly skilled, well-supported workforce.

Ms Dashfield says the work the unit does is incredibly diverse, encompassing: workforce development and education; providing online services; evidencebased parenting programmes such as Triple P and Mana Ake; information sharing; sector leadership events; sector intelligence; youth consumer representation and regional support.

“Creating the future is exactly what we do – it’s about taking young people and children and giving them as much support as required to ensure that they have the best future possible.”

Whāraurau provides trusted support Ms Dashfield says the 3000-strong workforce that liaises with young people with mental health needs has very high turnover and high vacancy rates, making the work the Whāraurau does invaluable. Working in the sector is challenging, with issues to tackle including youth suicide, and a national growth in levels of anxiety, depression and eating disorders, self-harm and conduct issues in young people.

Mental health is an incredibly multidisciplinary field, and for the majority of professionals the interventions they deliver are often based on their postgraduate skills and training.

“One of the reasons we exist is that when people come out of their undergraduate studies as a nurse, occupational therapist, social worker or the like, they don’t necessarily have the specific skills to work with children and families in all circumstances. So you might come top of your classes, 18

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“It comes down to trust. Even in a time when the workforce has been incredibly stressed, we’ve continued to try to improve things and help them deliver evidence-based effective care to young people in families. I’m most proud that we are trusted. That’s the most important thing to us.”

but you don’t necessarily know how to have a conversation with a child or to engage youth or to work with a family under stress.”

She said passion for the work was incredibly important to her team.

“The people who work in the child and youth mental health sector are unbelievably passionate about trying to improve things for young people and their families. There are lots of easier places to do your job, but our people are drawn to working in mental health and making a difference.”

“It comes down to trust. Even in a time when the workforce has been incredibly stressed, we’ve continued to try to improve things and help them deliver evidence-based effective care to young people in families. I’m most proud that we are trusted. That’s the most important thing to us.”

Workforce survey invaluable tool The Whāraurau provides a stocktake of the sector every two years, which Ms Dashfield describes as an “unequalled planning tool” for the mental health sector. It reports on workforce trends and issues, helping to influence policy and make changes around the workforce. It has an excellent completion rate– with 100 percent of health professionals, and 99 percent of non-government organisations participating.

“We’re now onto our eighth stocktake – so we’ve got incredibly comprehensive data about workforce demand, access demand and ethnicity demand, and other issues spanning 16 years.”

“It has been invaluable because we’d been able to use real data showing access has been rising but the workforce has plateaued. We support government by translating government priorities into words, tools and programmes that are meaningful to the sector. And we communicate issues, treatments and concerns of the sector back to the policy

makers, because we have a role around engagement and advocacy with the sector – so we don’t just provide training, we actually engage in work for the sector to understand their issues and their priorities.”

Whāraurau – shelter for the workforce The centre was renamed Werry Workforce Whāraurau in 2016 after its esteemed kaumātua, Rawiri Wharemate, worked with the Iwi Leaders Forum to gift the name Whāraurau.

Whāraurau is an ancient Te Reo Māori term for a highly mobile shelter built to protect the gatherers of titi (mutton birds).

Constructed according to local conditions and resources, traditional whāraurau were adaptable, flexible and provided protection.

“At a certain time of the year, people followed the birds and caught and prepared the muttonbirds. They moved every day and they built these temporary shelters out of what was locally available, so it might be papyrus or flax or tea tree.

The whāraurau sheltered mainly women who did all the hard work of plucking and preparing the birds for preservation.

“So the idea in our context is shelters for the workforce that adapt to local conditions and use local resources. We think it is a beautiful analogy because that’s who we are. We are people who go around and help provide shelter for the workforce based on what they have available and what they need,” says Ms Dashfield.

The centre also continues to acknowledge the work of Emeritus Professor John Werry by proudly retaining and honouring his name, she says.

“We know that our work to support the infant, child and adolescent mental health and addiction sectors is needed more than ever – and we continue to seek better, proven and effective ways to improve the services for children, young people and their families and the practitioners who support them,” says Ms Dashfield.

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THE IMMUNISATION ADVISORY CENTRE

Whāngaia ngā tamariki ki ngā mea pai o tēnei ao, kia tupu, kia ora Providing our children with all that is necessary for a healthy start to life A mission to keep communities healthy An impressive increase in New Zealand’s child immunisations rates over the past 20 years is a tribute to The Immunisation Advisory Centre’s (IMAC) determination to improve the health and wellbeing of all New Zealanders.

IMAC is a nationwide organisation based at the School of Population Health at the University of Auckland . It is supported and managed by Auckland UniServices.

IMAC works closely with the Ministry of Health, District Health Boards, public health organisations and directly with health professionals. Thanks to these close working relationships, about 95 percent of all 2-year-olds in New Zealand are now immunised, compared to only about 60 percent two decades ago.

Centre’s vision and passion IMAC’s passionate team provides New Zealanders with a local source of independent, factual information about vaccine-preventable diseases and the benefits and risks of immunisation. It also provides information and training for health professionals, national immunisation coordination, and policy advice and research into many aspects of vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases.

IMAC Director Dr Nikki Turner says the centre’s vision is that all communities are healthy and protected from vaccine-preventable diseases, and its mission is to ensure communities value immunisation and have confidence in the National Immunisation Programme – resulting in people choosing to immunise their children.

Creating an equitable immunisation future for all of New Zealand IMAC started in response to poor immunisation coverage in New Zealand, resulting in unnecessary disease. For example, a 1991 measles epidemic involved thousands of cases, hundreds of hospitalisations, and seven deaths – despite a universal measles vaccine introduced in 1969.

A national immunisation survey a year after the epidemic showed only 60 percent of Kiwi kids were fully immunised at 2, and for Māori and Pacific children the rates were only 42 percent and 45 percent respectively.

“This confirmed that national coverage was far too low, which made our communities extremely vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases,” Dr Turner says.

A 1995 National Immunisation Strategy recommended appointing district immunisation coordinators, creating early childhood education and school entrance policies, accrediting vaccinators, improving vaccine stock management, and making all vaccine-preventable diseases notifiable. Targets were set aiming for 95 percent of children to be fully immunised by 2000, and for equal immunisation rates between Māori and non-Māori.

IMAC was then created in the form as we know it today in 1997 as a joint venture between the University of Auckland, UniServices and the Government (then the Northern Regional Health Board).

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“What we have done better than almost any Western country, is that we have closed or nearly closed the traditional equity gaps where poor people and marginalised groups miss out.”

Communication strategy is core to our success Dr Turner says IMAC’s work was initially a communication strategy providing integrated advice on the value of immunisation to New Zealanders, parents and health professionals. It has evolved into a whole system approach working with health professionals to improve immunisation coverage.

“We’ve put a lot of effort into communication. One of the interesting things is that if you get your system right and your system delivery people right, and they feel supported and they’ve got enough resources and the right tools, they then communicate effectively.”

“So your frontline trust is developed. Whereas I’ve seen other countries put truckloads of money into big national campaigns, and they don’t get the results we do with our system approach.”

One of the first simple, but effective, tools was the 0800 IMMUNE phone line which still provides free advice from immunisation experts to health professionals and parents.

Following its launch, paediatricians and public health colleagues nationwide applauded IMAC saying it reduced their workload.

By 2000, IMAC had developed into a coordinated national centre for immunisation service delivery, education, research and communication. It expanded further to include the annual national influenza immunisation campaign.

A meningococcal B outbreak in 2004 finally hastened the introduction of the national immunisation register a year later– which IMAC had been advocating for. The register is a national surveillance system to make it easier to ensure timely immunisation delivery for the national programme, coordinate effective outreach programmes, and monitor immunisation rates.

Partnerships, trust and training key to success Dr Turner says partnering with others is key for IMAC to achieve its goals, and it has strong relationships with health

professionals, government agencies, professional bodies and non-government organisations.

IMAC trains all New Zealand health professionals wishing to become authorised vaccinators. IMAC’s research has informed how services are delivered for the most effective immunisation uptake. As nurses perform the majority of immunisations and provide information to parents, IMAC focuses on vaccinator training particularly for nurses, other vaccinators and promoters. Recently supporting pharmacists with delivery and training is a growing focus.

“We understand the immunisation decision that parents make is based on a lot of inherently human factors. One of which is trust – who’s giving the information and can they trust them? So that’s the health professional’s role. And that’s why a public facing campaign might be good for raising some awareness, but what you really need to do is engage with those people who are having the conversations with the parents,” says Dr Turner.

But Dr Turner is really proud of another achievement: “What we have done better than almost any Western country, is that we have closed or nearly closed the traditional equity gaps where poor people and marginalised groups miss out.

We have a very well-functioning integrated system now – the difference [in immunisation rates] between high incomes to low incomes is tiny and the difference from Māori to New Zealand European is also now tiny.”

Dr Turner says immunisation delivery is now increasingly focused on a whole-of-life approach from in the womb to old age, and important new vaccines are being added to the national schedule. Sustaining high immunisation levels is crucial to preventing communities being vulnerable to outbreaks.

“I believe every staff member here comes to work because they can see the great outcomes of their efforts – with another child vaccinated. Obviously getting paid a decent salary matters, and the centre making adequate money to be commercially viable really matters, but it’s certainly not the driver for what we do.”

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NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH INNOVATION

Naku te rourou nāu te rourou ka ora ai te iwi With your basket and my basket our people will be well NIHI provides innovative approaches to improving people’s health Being forward facing, adaptable and keeping ahead of international trends that could impact on people’s health have been key success factors for the National Institute for Health Innovation (NIHI).

Managed by Auckland UniServices, this year NIHI is celebrating 30 years of undertaking and managing clinical trials and service delivery.

Focus on people’s health and disease prevention NIHI is focused on the discovery, development, testing and delivery of innovative health approaches to prevent disease, improve people’s health, and enable the delivery of more effective and equitable healthcare in New Zealand and overseas.

It was established in 1989 as The Clinical Trials Research Unit by Professors Stephen MacMahon and Norman Sharp to undertake large‑scale international studies, and was originally part of the Department of Medicine.

NIHI General Manager Karen Carter says over the past 30 years NIHI has moved from pharmaceutical-funded trials to public good-funded research, and government and industry funded service contracts.

Ms Carter says the unit’s early work focused on cardiovascular research, but the portfolio has grown to encompass nutrition, addictions, physical activity, mobile health, child and young adult health and other priority areas impacting on the health of the population.

“Our strength is our ability to diversify, we’re constantly trying to look to the future for the next best thing and trying to stay ahead of the curve,” says Ms Carter.

Consultation with and working in partnership with Māori to ensure its work addresses the needs of Māori is key to NIHI’s work. It became the National Institute of Health Innovation in 2011.

Passionate team make a difference Ms Carter says the team are passionate about making a difference in the world.

“The people who work here truly believe in what we’re trying to do. It’s about people, with our culture, values and passion underpinning everything that we do. People, culture, values and passion are some of the keys to our success.”

One of the biggest changes in the past decade has been a move to technology supported and delivered research. It can be undertaken faster, reach more people and can speed up the time from research to market compared to traditional labour and time-intensive research.

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“Our strength is our ability to diversify, we’re constantly trying to look to the future for the next best thing and trying to stay ahead of the curve.”

Adapting research to technology trends

Partnerships key to success

NIHI’s research into the innovative delivery methods for health interventions enabled by mobile phone, internet and social media – or mHealth – is world-leading.

NIHI partners with individuals, communities, clinicians, and policy makers involved in health care. Key partners include the Ministry of Health, heath providers, public health organisations and district health boards, other universities in New Zealand, and international and community groups.

One example is the revolutionary STOMP smoking cessation trial which was NIHI’s first mHealth intervention to help prevent disease. Published in 2011, the trial delivered existing smoking cessation messages using behaviour change techniques via SMS messages to users on mobile phones. It proved to be effective and was adopted within New Zealand and overseas as a smoking cessation programme. In a world first just two years later, NIHI published and proved that e-cigarettes have a role to play in helping people to stop smoking; and in 2016 it formed its first trial aimed specifically at reducing the harmful effects of smoking in Māori.

The research has now further evolved to using apps, artificial intelligence, user- experience and programmed chatbots.

The unit was also one of the first to undertake a co-design research project with Māori and Pacific communities to create a culturally tailored, personalised mHealth tool for Māori and Pacific peoples.

“What we do is take publically available information and digitise it in some shape or form. This has the potential to reach more people, can be a standalone intervention or support existing services and is often cost effective,” says Ms Carter.

“The things that we develop are proven to be of benefit through rigorous randomised controlled trials and grounded in reputable theories. This often sets us apart from other similar products on the market and is a good ‘selling point’.

People can be assured that the product has been proven to be of benefit, should do no harm and is acceptable to end users. It is also important to funders.”

In 2013, NIHI was awarded a contract by the Ministry of Health, in conjunction with Enigma Solutions Ltd to manage the All New Zealand Acute Coronary Syndrome Quality Improvement (ANZACS – QI) registry (also known as the Cardiac Registry).

“We collect information about people who have had a cardiac event and been admitted to hospitals across New Zealand.

The information is used to inform and improve the quality of care of future cardiac patients. By October 2018, there were 140,800 recorded episodes of care in the ANZACS-QI database,” says Ms Carter.

In 2017, NIHI’s registry expertise saw it awarded a contract to manage the New Zealand arm of the Bariatric Surgery Registry (BSR) run in partnership with Monash University in Melbourne. The BSR aims to record all bariatric procedures performed in Australia and New Zealand, and to follow patients undergoing bariatric surgery for up to 10 years.

“Registries are just one example how we help inform policy and can make a real difference in people’s lives,” says Ms Carter.

Another success has been SPARX – a therapy in game format designed to help teens with depression and anxiety. It uses cognitive behavioural therapy to help youth change how they think about things and how they behave, which leads to improvements in how they feel. NIHI holds the Ministry of Health contract to deliver SPARX free within New Zealand.

“While we are increasingly using technology and novel approaches to improve health outcomes, our methodology is grounded in the rigour of our clinical trials expertise.”

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LIGHT METALS RESEARCH CENTRE

No te whenua te konumohe, he taonga nā Papatūānuku Metals are treasures, sourced from the earth Aluminium research pioneering new approach to energy use World leading technology developed by UniServices is transforming energy use in aluminium smelters here and around the globe.

The aluminium smelting industry is one of the most energy intensive manufacturing processes. The 200 aluminium smelters worldwide use 3 percent of the world’s electricity; in New Zealand, they account for 15 percent of the country’s daily electricity use. Half of this energy consumed is wasted heat, but a new technology developed by the Light Metals Research Centre (LMRC) is poised to change that.

An aluminium reduction cell heat exchanger system, known as EnPot, is considered one of the most important breakthroughs in aluminium smelting in 125 years. It works by enabling modulation of the energy being consumed and providing a buffer between electricity supply and demand, acting like a virtual power plant, changing the dynamic of how aluminium smelters interact with energy grids and increasing smelter efficiency and profitability.

Centre showcases aluminium expertise EnPot is just one example from a range of breakthrough technologies, education and technical consulting services offered by the LMRC, which was set up by UniServices in 2002 by Professor Jim Metson, now the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research, and founding Director Professor Mark Taylor, also a University of Auckland alumni who was previously at Comalco and Rio Tinto.

The centre was the perfect way to capture the University of Auckland’s growing body of world-leading research, and expertise about aluminium smelting, including the crucial early work by Emeritus Professor Barry Welch, who pioneered research into aluminium smelting at the university.

From the 1970s to 1990s, the number of the university’s academics and PhD students involved in research funded by aluminium companies was growing, and a number of PhDs from that time have gone on to be leaders in the industry.

The centre received seed funding from UniServices and grew very quickly, becoming self-sufficient based on its research contracts and consulting services.

Over the past 15 years, LMRC’s highlights include developing new smelting technologies such as Gen3 – a revolutionary supervisory control system, and EnPot. LMRC engineers work on many projects in all aspects of primary aluminium production at smelters around the world. The centre offers a range of services including customised operational training through to technical support from its engineers’ vast experience in operation and control of all aluminium smelting business units (helping smelters improve their performance through reduced energy consumption and emissions, and increased profitability).

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Independence, trust and partnerships underpin reputation Current LMRC Director Mark Dorreen has been with the centre since 2008 and says its internationally renowned reputation is based on independence, trust and partnerships.

It is independent of aluminium producing companies and aluminium smelting technology providers.

The centre’s experts are in the unique position of being trusted with access to smelters around the world.

Partnerships have been fundamental with key relationships established with global leaders including Trimet Aluminium in Germany, Hydro Aluminium in Norway, and Outotec in Europe. It also advises government bodies such as the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“The most exciting part of this job is being able to meet so many different people in different cultures.

It’s knowing that almost everywhere we go, there are really good opportunities to make improvements.

“The most exciting part of this job is being able to meet so many different people in different cultures. It’s knowing that almost everywhere we go, there are really good opportunities to make improvements. So it’s the excitement of what might we be able to improve and change when we go somewhere new, and how can we make a difference,” Mr Doreen says.

Passionate team committed to making a difference Mr Doreen’s team are passionate about what they do and underpin the success of the LMRC. “The team of people we have – they have a wide range of capabilities. Smelters are not the nicest places on Earth. Our people are resilient and often have to endure hot, dusty, dangerous environments, on top of challenging cultural differences, and lots of tiring travel. They need to be adaptable to change, and as consultants, above all the client has to like you for the relationship to work.”

EnPot evolved from one of the earliest research projects in the centre – based on a PhD student work from 2004–2007.

Following initial laboratory research, patents were formed for that technology. UniServices founded a technical support partnership with Trimet Aluminium in 2013, and in 2018 signed a licence agreement for the EnPot system. If successful in its potline implementation, Trimet may roll out the system across all four of its smelters in Germany and France.

Mr Doreen says: “EnPot is a good example of what UniServices does – taking a research idea, turning it into a successful research project, capturing and commercialising the know-how and spinning it out to form a company.”

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GROWING UP IN NEW ZEALAND

Poipoia te kākano kia puāwai Nurture the seed and it will blossom

A long term study into the lives of thousands of Kiwi kids, their whānau, and the communities they live in is helping shape a better future for New Zealand.

Growing Up in New Zealand is the country’s largest contemporary longitudinal study – tracking the development of about 7000 children from before birth until they are at least 21. The study, which started in 2008, is managed by Auckland UniServices and is based at the University of Auckland’s Centre for Longitudinal Research – He Ara ki Mua. Director Dr Susan Morton says the information and stories gathered by Growing Up in New Zealand is a valuable national resource that is helping contribute to a brighter future for all Kiwis.

“In a complex and rapidly changing modern world, how do we give New Zealand’s children and young people the best start in life? How do we ensure their homes, neighbourhoods, communities and learning environments help them to realise their true potential and remain resilient in the face of challenge? How can what we learn from children now, improve the future for generations to come?,” she says.

Study now influencing policy Dr Morton says parents have been so far been interviewed before their children were born, then when they were nine months, two, 4 ½, and eight.

Information is collected about health and wellbeing, psycho-social and cognitive development, education, whānau, culture and identity (including households’ use of Te Reo Māori), and the societal and neighbourhood environment. Of particular interest to the researchers is finding out what builds resilience and optimises child development.

More than 90,000 interviews have been carried out, with more than 50 million pieces of data collected; the aim is to collect information every two to three years until the children are at least 21. The size and diversity of the study’s cohort means its findings can be extrapolated to the wider population.

Dr Morton says the study insights are influencing government policy across a diverse range of areas including paid parental leave, immunisation, poverty and material hardship, family housing and mobility, nutrition, household safety, bullying, participation in early childhood education, and pre- and post-natal depression among fathers.

Partnerships underpin unique approach to study design After years working on a longitudinal study in Scotland, when Dr Morton returned home to New Zealand in 2003, she was delighted to find her dream of an equivalent study in New Zealand was already in the pipeline, driven by the Ministry of Social Development.

The participants of two longitudinal studies started here in the 1970s – in Dunedin and Christchurch – were close to 40 years old, mainly New Zealand Europeans, many of whom were now living overseas.

Dr Morton says the time was right for a new study into growing up in New Zealand in the 21st Century – particularly one which recognised the importance pregnancy, family and the wider environment have on child development.

“New Zealand had some persistent issues with our child population, particularly inequities in the Māori and Pacific population in comparison to our New Zealand European population.”

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“Being part of UniServices has been a really good model.

The academics have the science and the vision and passion, and UniServices has the business knowledge and the people who could help us with ideas about consultation, innovation, budgets and managing a project”

She was invited to participate in the study design and along with paediatrician Professor Cameron Grant, they pulled together a multi-disciplinary team (from the University of Auckland, the University of Otago, Victoria University and Massey University) to work with 16 government agencies to create a study that would be useful to the scientific community – and importantly provide robust evidence that could inform a cross section of policy areas which all affect childhood development.

UniServices support crucial to study After several years’ hard work putting together the project framework, Auckland UniServices was awarded the study contract in 2008, and it was officially launched.

“Being part of UniServices has been a really good model. The academics have the science and the vision and passion, and UniServices has the business knowledge and the people who could help us with ideas about consultation, innovation, budgets and managing a project – all things that academics probably wouldn’t be very good at it on their own.”

Ongoing partnerships vital Dr Morton says partnerships underpin all aspects of the study: “The families are sharing their lives and their stories with us and as a wider team we are seeing more and more people actually recognising the value of telling those stories.

“We are building relationships with the families, and the children as they become old enough to engage with us. We need ongoing trust and an ongoing relationship with these people who can share their unique stories and journeys with us. That’s what makes the study valuable.”

This year, with the children eight years old, their voices are being included for the first time.

“It provides a really important platform for the next stage because these children are going to be transitioning into adolescence, and it’s a key time for understanding their view, the development of their identity and sense of self, and also the development of resilience and mental and physical wellbeing.”

Dr Morton says the team worked for several years to gain the trust of Māori and Pacific Island communities.

“It was a journey – we shared how we would be working with them, how these stories would inform policy. That partnership remains critically important. The evidence is we can help to strengthen communities, strengthen the relationships and strengthen their children’s future.”

The partnership with the research team is also critically important: “They really have the values of the study at heart, and the face of the study for the participants.”

General Manager Annette Gohns stresses a strong partnership with funders and the 16 agencies backing the study is critical: “We make sure the funders are getting value for their investment and we deliver information that is of use to them so they continue supporting this study right up until the children are 21.”

Pursue with passion Dr Morton says the study would not survive without the team’s passion and dedication.

“There are so many ups and downs, but we think the benefits outweigh the challenges and the money and effort invested will reap rewards for generations in time.”

Internationally, the study is regarded as innovative, and is unique for two reasons: the children were recruited and data capture began before birth (via their pregnant mothers), creating a wealth of information about the crucial first 1000 days of life (conception to two years old); and fathers are included.

The team works closely with colleagues carrying out similar studies internationally, including Scotland, Ireland, and Australia, and compare what works and what doesn’t.

“There’s always an appetite [from overseas] to understand how Growing Up in New Zealand is doing because our retention rates have been extremely high and we engage with such diverse communities.

Dr Morton is immensely proud of the progress to date: “The study has started to fuel changes in policy that are going to ultimately make a difference. That is really why we started this process in the first place. It was a chance to actually go out and make change and for me, that’s what being a good public health doctor is about.”

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