“The Industrial Fellowship expanded our product offering”
The Royal Commission’s Industrial Fellowship gave our small company, DZP Technologies,
the rare opportunity to do extensive research in one area over several
years. The Industrial Fellow was able to start with a broad research
brief, investigating manufacturing techniques for a new class of
materials, and explore new, tangentially related avenues in detail.
Through the flexibility provided by the Commission, the funding
continued for one year after the EngD had finished, allowing us to
continue to employ the Fellow while letting him conduct further open,
low technology readiness level (TRL) research. It was during this year
that the most promising experimental results emerged.
In addition to process improvements related to our existing products,
the R&D resulting from the Fellowship has opened up an entirely new
product line. It is currently in commercial development for our
customers.
We are fostering the strong relationship we have built with the
university department, with funding from the Fellowship supporting
visits and cooperative, mutually beneficial research. The Fellow’s
presentations at conferences, also supported by the Royal Commission,
has allowed us to extend our network internationally, with new research
and commercial partnerships.
The Industrial Fellowship is an invaluable tool for attracting and
retaining high-calibre employees and pursuing early-stage research goals
that would otherwise be out of reach.
