Industry outreach - Annual Report 2025

14 June, 2026

Industry outreach activities aim to bring companies, researchers and students together to develop and enhance working relationships. When companies know who to turn to with their R&D challenges, and researchers know which companies employ graduates and value fundamental research, the economic dividends start to flow.

We ran on-site engagements at start-up, scale-up and commercial locations in partnership with the Cleantech Mission in 2025. These experiences expose our researchers and early-stage start-ups to later-stage companies and corporates. Under the banner of Cleantech Treks, these visits bring together top-performing entrepreneurs with key players across the commercial landscape, including banks, venture capital firms, early- and late-stage innovators, service providers, corporates and the support ecosystem.

In July, together with ChristchurchNZ and Cleantech Mission partners, we co-hosted a Cleantech Trek in Ōtautahi Christchurch. 40 people explored some of the region’s most innovative Cleantech companies:

University of Canterbury (UC) based sites of:
- Zincovery - sustainable recycling of zinc from industrial arc furnace dust.
- Ternary Kinetics - developing liquid organic hydrogen carrier fuel options for heavy transport.
Aspiring Materials - green critical materials extraction for low CO₂ raw materials supply chains.
Fabrum - developing bespoke cryocooler and gas compression systems for international markets for over 20 years.
Christchurch Airport - site of the Kowhai Park renewable energy development with 300 hectares of solar energy and a hydrogen storage facility under development. Christchurch Airport have an impressive sustainable technology infrastructure development plan out to 2050 that takes into account the need for innovation in sustainable aviation and logistics.

Cleantech Trek Auckland visiting Environmental Decontamination Limited

We hosted a Cleantech Trek to Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland commercial and research sites in early December, where research entrepreneurs, founders, investors, banks and service providers got to see the full spectrum of early-to-late-stage technology development. This Cleantech Trek was co-hosted by the MacDiarmid Institute, Auckland Council and Ara Ake under the umbrella of the NZ Cleantech Mission. The delegates got to hear from the following research and commercial teams:

Associate Professor Erin Leitao
Associate Professor Cameron Weber
Dot Ingredients
Entropeak
Environmental Decontamination Limited
EV Maritime
Resident companies of Outset Ventures - Future House:

We co-hosted an International Cleantech Trek to the Cleantech Forum Asia in May, supporting our innovators in gaining the insights, capital and connections needed to enter the thriving Southeast Asian markets. Singapore, Aotearoa New Zealand's second-largest source of foreign direct investment, serves as a sophisticated hub for accessing the region and is showing a growing appetite for green economy solutions.

We travelled with the following companies and co-hosted an investor event with NZTE (New Zealand Trade and Enterprise) where companies met investors from seven international funds:

Cetogenix - converts complex organic waste into valuable, renewable resources, advancing defossilisation in the Waste-to-X market.
Mushroom Material - created an eco-friendly alternative to polystyrene using mycelium and agricultural waste.
TasmanIon - commitment to safety, sustainability, and scalability is reshaping the future of energy storage.
OpenStar - founded to build a levitated dipole reactor using the new technology that has developed in the 20 years since LDX.
NILO - solving two global problems: diverts plastic waste from landfilling, incineration or ending up in the ocean; creates an adhesive from that plastic waste to replace urea formaldehyde - a known carcinogen used in the global wood fibre board market.
Allegro Energy - the cleanest, safest energy storage on the market.