Emirates Team NZ get govt funding injection

Emirates Team New Zealand have announced they have obtained a research and development funding line available to New Zealand business.

The funding is similar to that provided to Core Builders Composites from the NZ Government's Callaghan Innovation Fund named after eminent NZer Sir Paul Callaghan, and not the former British Prime Minister.

Core Builders Composites attracted some very negative, and quite erroneous publicity from the Kiwi media at the time their funding line was announced.

The purpose of the funding is to encourage NZ companies to invest in R&D, and the America's Cup companies seem to be able to justify expenditure on Cup projects - particularly on obtaining capital assets such as CNC milling machines, and can then use those facilities to attract other project work outside the tight focus of the America's Cup.

In CBC's instance they were able to get work on a Google backed energy project (the Makani kite http://www.google.com/makani/), a carbon composite roof project and the ambitious SkyPath project across Auckland harbour (successful suppliers yet to be formally announced).

It will interesting to see if the funding for Team NZ is just for America's Cup - which could be hard to justify other than as being a test platform for other teams or if it marks a move by the team into a wider marine composites business.

The full story can be read here http://www.sail-world.com/America-s-Cup----Emirates-Team-NZ-taps-into-Kiwi-government-R-D-fund/141944