Career and Relevant-to-Industry Skills Programme (CRISP) - Annual Report 2024

2 July, 2025

In 2024 we have held six CRISP workshops, offering a range of professional development opportunities for our students and postdocs.

April 2024:

• Inside Government - lifting the lid on how government works, where science fits in and where a career in government could take you
• Working with your Technology Transfer Office on Intellectual Property arising from materials research

November 2024:

• Sustainability of Products, Process and Business Models through Advanced Materials
• Outreach
• Tiriti o Waitangi Training
• An Introduction to Investment and Funding Dynamics

The variation in topics allows our research community to learn new things from experts within their respective employment areas. The 'Inside Government' CRISP session had 49 attendees. Dr George Slim spoke about science roles in government, drawing on his own experience including working with the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor during Covid, and the Ministry for the Environment ran a highly engaged policy simulation session. We also heard about Diversity, Inclusion and Equity in the public service, and a panel of our alumni and other scientists working in government answered some great questions from attendees.

The CRISP workshop on working with your Technology Transfer Office and intellectual property helped the 38 PhD students from across Aotearoa New Zealand think about their own roles, both now and in the future, and how they can participate in generating the impact offered by science at a global level.

In the summer sessions, we had the Sustainable Business Network delivering a workshop on the sustainability of products, processes and business models through advanced materials, run by Kimberley Savill and Tori Calver, with guest speaker Michael Maunsell, the Chief Operating Officer of Nilo. The 28 attendees were able to work interactively in groups and hear case studies specific to materials science.

Researchers hard at work during the Outreach workshop

We were also able to enhance our researchers' outreach capabilities with a half-day workshop run by Deputy Director Outreach and Education Associate Professor Anna Garden allowing students to develop the skills and ideas for effective outreach to inspire our next generation of scientists.

In parallel with the first day of workshops, Institute Programme Manager Gabrielle Holmes also organised on-site tours at OpenStar Technologies, Hot Lime Labs, Bspkl and Paihau-Robinson Research Institute. It was a great opportunity for students and postdocs to visit some of our local cleantech companies and see first hand the facilities and the teams working there.

Our last day in November had two separate workshops. We were lucky enough to have a Tiriti o Waitangi Training workshop facilitated by Raihānia Tipoki and Tāwhana Chadwick from Kūwaha Limited. This is an informative and powerful workshop that we also held in December 2023 for the CRISP cohort.

The final CRISP session, 'An Introduction to Investment and Funding Dynamics', ran in two parts with Emil Schroder of NZGCP and Mitali Purohit of Nuance Ventures guiding the attendees through the investment landscape and demystifying the system. In the afternoon they had Kristin Gozdzikowska (Funding Fundamentals) and Donato Romanazzi (Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington) explaining the research funding landscape with ideas on when to apply and how to get funded.

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