Innovation needs to become everyone’s business

We often talk about innovation as though it begins with a breakthrough technology, a laboratory discovery or a start-up.

I think it starts somewhere more fundamental: with people.

Aotearoa needs more people who can recognise an opportunity, bring different perspectives together, test an idea, learn when it does not work and have the confidence to try something better.

Some will become founders. Many more will take those capabilities into existing businesses, government, research, community organisations and careers that may not yet exist.

What connects them is agency: the belief, capability and confidence to see that something could be different, and to act on it.

That matters because New Zealand is asking more of its innovation system. Science, research and tertiary education are increasingly expected to contribute to productivity, commercialisation and impact. At the same time, artificial intelligence and other technologies are changing how we work and the capabilities people will need.

Capital, technology and research are all critical. But ultimately, people turn those things into impact.

Universities have unusual leverage

Universities are one of the few places where thousands of people from almost every discipline come together at formative points in their lives, alongside world-class research, specialist expertise, technology and deep connections into industry and society.

That combination gives universities unusual leverage.

At Waipapa Taumata Rau, we already have many of the ingredients of a powerful innovation ecosystem: outstanding researchers and students; faculties spanning an extraordinary range of disciplines; CIE's entrepreneurial learning and venture development capability; UniServices' commercialisation and investment expertise; the Newmarket Innovation Precinct; the national MedTech innovation platform; specialist platforms and facilities; and connections to alumni, industry, investors, government, iwi and communities.

The opportunity is not simply to have all those ingredients. It is to connect them so that knowledge, talent and opportunities can move more easily, from discovery and learning through to application, enterprise and impact.

But connection alone is not enough. We also need to be deliberate about where the University's distinctive research, talent and capabilities can help address important challenges and seize opportunities in Aotearoa and internationally.

The challenge is therefore twofold: developing more people with the capability to innovate, and creating better pathways for promising ideas and research to reach impact.

The ambition is bigger than start-ups

Entrepreneurship education is sometimes treated as being primarily about creating start-ups. That is too narrow.

The capabilities that help someone build a venture, such as spotting opportunities, understanding problems, working across disciplines, experimenting, learning from failure and mobilising others, are increasingly valuable in almost every field.

A researcher who sees a new pathway for a discovery. An engineer who identifies a problem worth solving. A public servant who redesigns a system. A teacher who experiments with a better approach. A designer who creates something people value. A founder who turns an idea into a company.

All are expressions of innovative and entrepreneurial capability.

Imagine if more graduates and researchers left university not only with deep expertise, but also with the confidence and capability to create change, and a much clearer understanding of how to connect with the people, expertise and support that can help turn an idea into impact.

CIE's next chapter

That is the context for CIE's new 2026–2030 strategy.

CIE already has a strong foundation. Thousands of students and staff engage with our programmes each year, and our communities have helped create ventures, careers, collaborations and connections across the innovation ecosystem.

Our next chapter is about building on that success while changing how we think about scale.

Instead of asking how many more programmes CIE itself can deliver, we are asking: how can we help innovation and entrepreneurial capability spread throughout the University?

That means continuing outstanding experiential learning, strengthening pathways for people to test and develop ideas and ventures, and increasingly enabling faculties and others to build innovation capability in their own contexts.

It also means making it easier for people to navigate the wider University innovation ecosystem, connecting capability, research, commercialisation, venture development, infrastructure and external networks.

CIE does not need to do all of those things. Our role is to build innovation and entrepreneurial capability, help people test and develop ideas and ventures, connect people to expertise and opportunities, and work alongside others across the University so the whole system is stronger.

An ecosystem without walls

Innovation is a team sport, and a university innovation ecosystem cannot stop at the University boundary.

Knowledge, talent and ideas need to flow out into the world, but experience, problems, investment, networks and opportunity also need to flow in.

That means deeper connections with founders and alumni, industry and investors, government and iwi, schools and communities, and the many organisations that make up Aotearoa's innovation ecosystem.

It also means developing an approach to innovation grounded in our own context, where Māori and Pacific perspectives on innovation, enterprise, leadership and value creation help shape how we create impact in and from Aotearoa.

The goal is not simply to make the University easier to navigate. It is to create the conditions for people, research, ideas and partners to come together in ways that generate greater value and impact.

Building the next chapter

To deliver CIE's part of this ambition, we are growing and reshaping our team.

We are recruiting people who can strengthen innovation programmes, founder and venture development, innovation learning and ecosystem partnerships. We are looking for people comfortable with experimentation, collaboration and change, who care about impact and are excited by the opportunity to build something.

By 2030, I would like CIE to be both indispensable and catalytic: indispensable because the capability, connections and pathways we enable matter deeply; catalytic because success should be measured not only by what CIE delivers, but by what we help others across the University to unlock.

But the bigger ambition is for the University itself to be recognised as a place where people, research, ideas and partners come together to turn possibility into impact.

If we can do that well, we can contribute to something much bigger than the success of CIE, or even the University.

We can help Aotearoa develop more people with the capability, confidence and connections to see possibilities, turn ideas into action and create impact.