Our Services

NZHIH exists to help develop and accelerate ideas and projects originating from the public health sector and private sector entrepreneurs. Innovators from universities and Crown Research Institutes can also access our services via their research and technology transfer offices. We want to help you get your idea out there and working for the benefit of our public health system and New Zealanders in general.

We are looking for ideas that can be used at scale by the health system because they:

• make a material difference to people’s health, here and in other countries;
• make clinicians’ jobs easier and more effective, so they will want to adopt them; and
• reduce the cost of care, so public and private funders will want to fund them.

NZHIH gets involved when someone has a proof of concept that needs to be developed so that it can bring benefits to people throughout New Zealand (and potentially overseas).

If you have clearly identified a problem but need to do more work on identifying the solution, you might want to start by contacting your local business support organisations or local health innovation teams such as Via Innovations at Canterbury DHB, i3 at Waitemata DHB and Ko Awatea at Counties Manukau DHB.

We will discuss confidentiality requirements and how these requirements will be met. A confidentiality / non-disclosure agreement can be signed before any confidential details are shared.

The New Zealand Health Innovation Hub is owned by the Canterbury District Health Board and has its own board and management structure.

We are supported by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Every case is different and should be discussed. Generally, intellectual property generated during the course of employment belongs to the employer. However, many profit-sharing models exist and we will follow any applicable intellectual property policies.

NZHIH is a member of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s KiwiNet PreSeed Accelerator Fund programme. There are strict criteria for funds and we can discuss this with you.

We can also co-fund eligible projects and we work with other agencies like Callaghan Innovation and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise who may be able to help you access funds.

We can provide advice that may help you to access funds. We also work with venture capital funds and can refer you where you meet their criteria.

Please contact us directly if you would like to discuss this.

Yes, NZHIH is the commercialisation entity for the health sector. All district health boards are eligible for our support and we welcome approaches from all around the country.

Email us at enquiries@innovation.health.nz or use our contact form to start a conversation with us.

We are all about ensuring maximum benefit from any new ideas and innovations. If we identify that your idea could benefit a large number of people then we need to make sure that the New Zealand health system can benefit from this roll-out. This is what we mean by commercialisation.

We will support you as your innovation is fully explored and developed. When we approach the stage of seeking funding to roll out and commercialise the project you can decide how involved you want to be from then on.

You will be involved in all decisions about your idea or innovation until the commercialisation stage is reached, and beyond that if you wish to remain involved. At that point important decisions will be made about what sort of entity is required to take the project forward and who will be involved, as well as decisions about intellectual property and funding.

We will support you as your idea or innovation is fully explored and developed. When we approach the stage of seeking funding to roll out and commercialise the project you can choose to step back (or step out) if you wish.