Primary Innovation

Co-innovation is a way for research and the primary industries in New Zealand to work together to accelerate the pace of innovation and deliver more profitable growing and farming practices. The Primary Innovation project is encouraging and sharing ideas to foster co-learning and co-innovation that will ultimately bring greater economic benefit and a more sustainable future for New Zealand.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and DairyNZ have funded a five-year project, Primary Innovation, which aims to bring about greater economic benefit and a more sustainable future from the performance of New Zealand’s primary industries, including science.

Primary Innovation takes a co-innovation approach to deliver this impact. A unique trans-disciplinary team from three sectors – forestry, horticulture and pastoral – and across eleven industry organisations, Crown Research Institutes and universities, including Wageningen University and Melbourne University, has been formed.

Together with a Community of Practice, consisting of 44 industry and government participants, they form an innovation network that will test and evaluate co-innovation in action in six innovation projects.