Central Pacific Collective (CPC) aims to build up to 300 fit-for-purpose, secure and affordable homes for Pacific families in Eastern Porirua. The funding proposition is a research project within the Our Whare Our Fale programme to inform the important design characteristics when developing housing for Pacific communities. The project will inform the design of housing and, more importantly, the design of the community, and how the houses and amenities relate to deliver community cohesion and wellbeing outcomes that support the vision of “Reimagining the Pacific village in 21st century Aotearoa”.

Ka Uruora operates a collective iwi-led partnership delivery model that collaboratively brings together iwi, Crown, community & values-aligned funding & service partners to deliver housing & supporting services to improve Māori inter-generational access home ownership & quality housing. Based on its Taranaki experience and learnings, the Ka Uruora model is now ready to be rolled out as a national iwi-led model to other regions across Aotearoa. This funding application would support Ka Uruora implement the expansion of its model into the new regions, including establishing local iwi-led engagement, education, support & service delivery partnerships to support local iwi and Māori in these regions access home ownership & quality housing.

Equotee is developing a flexible equity management platform for homes. It is meeting a rise in a trend of first home buyers "banding together to achieve more" for affordable housing In Aotearoa. Equotee will also meet multiple needs including those of papakāinga, equity-partners or guarantors. The software is intended to enable users to leverage their equity positions to reduce barriers to housing pathways or to enable co-owners to do more with existing equity such as home improvements or the retrofitting homes to lower carbon footprints.

Daisy Lab are creating dairy identical proteins without the cows, using precision fermentation technology. These proteins can be used in the production of traditional dairy products like yoghurts and ice-creams. The final products are suitable for vegans, but their market is any traditional dairy consumer. The Westpac NZ Government Innovation funding will allow Daisy Lab to extend their research by adding additional species and proteins, as well as an additional team member to their R&D team. It will also help purchase the necessary reagents and equipment, increasing their chances of success in carrying their research through to lab-scale fermentation, in-turn contributing to the decarbonisation of Aotearoa.

Seagrasses, flowering plants that live in shallow coastal waters, have huge potential as a tool to fight climate change. Overseas, they have been shown capture carbon up to 27 times faster than temperate forests and are estimated to absorb 10% of the ocean’s carbon each year, despite covering less than 0.2% of the seafloor. Unfortunately, seagrass meadows are being lost at an alarming rate worldwide. Restoring these meadows will greatly increase the carbon storage potential of our oceans, helping to mitigate climate change. However, we currently lack knowledge on how to restore these habitats using seeds in Aotearoa. Cawthron’s solution is to conduct the necessary research to develop a blueprint for seed-based seagrass restoration. This blueprint will provide community groups, councils, iwi and others with a step-by-step guide to restore seagrass meadows across Aotearoa.

The Infrastructure Sustainability Council is developing a digital rating tool and supporting materials calculator, tailored to the NZ market to support decarbonisation of infrastructure in NZ. The funding will help bring this tool to market faster and make it more accessible, scalable, and cost effective. The funding will also be used to ensure appropriate capability building to achieve wide scale adoption of the product and broader acceptance and the support to change the hearts and minds in this critical sector.

3 year Foundational Partnership of the Creative HQ GovTech Accelerator Programme - to drive public sector innovation. This years Programme had 14 government projects, NGOs and Startups – all focusing on social and environmental challenges that are facing Aotearoa.

In October 2022 WGIF sponsored Inspiring Stories to prototype and test two regional youth summits – a free and inclusive experience for over 100 rangatahi in the Bay of Plenty (Opotiki) and Northland (Whangarei) regions. Each event provided a high-quality day of connection, inspiration and action, and acted as a launchpad to develop and support youth-led ideas for change. The Youth Summits were designed to:

- Foster innovation and leadership experience, knowledge, and skills
- Develop and strengthen connections with leaders from local business, community and government
- Explore key issues affecting the future of their community/region
- Develop and present their ideas to make a difference for the future of their community/region
- Put ideas into action as part of a local impact challenge

In 2022, WGIF committed $50,000 and partnered with GovTech team to accelerate the impact of their solution. Ngā Mihi is a social enterprise that facilitates the purchase and delivery of preapproved goods to individuals within New Zealand Corrections Facilities. This service was developed by Take2 graduates who have experienced the struggle first-hand of not having easy access to their basic needs, such as socks, shoes, or underwear. Faced with this problem, Ngā Mihi has been on a mission to make things easier for both New Zealand prisoners and their whānau by implementing a hassle-free and secure marketplace that allows the whānau and friends of prisoners to purchase prison-approved items. Ngā Mihi’s Essentials Store lets people in prison access and request a range of pre-approved essential items. Orders are reviewed and approved by Corrections, after which a unique link is sent to whānau to complete the purchase. Whānau receives regular updates to let them know when items have shipped and when the person in prison receives them.

In 2022, WGIF sponsored a team from Auckland Council called UpSouth to participate in the NZ GovTech Accelerator. UpSouth is a call-to-action platform that empowers the voices of rangatahi in Tāmaki Makaurau and the wider Aotearoa. It is a digital first solution solving engagement pressures through co-design with young people. Organisations provide micro-financing to rangatahi for their ideas through genuine engagement. The open invitation and fair compensation for their involvement attracts young people. Being heard, the sense of community and being a part of the future planning of our city keeps everyone engaged.
Based on a successful pilot in South Auckland, the UpSouth project aims to develop a viable social impact venture in partnership with private, public and third sector allies to transform this rangatahi (youth) engagement platform into a widely used positive social impact tool that supports an economy of mana.

The Wellbeing Protocol is building digital tools to empower our communities. One area where our communities struggle the most is navigating the complexities of the grant funding ecosystem. In late 2022 WGIF joined Sport NZ and Callaghan Innovation to support The Wellbeing Protocol's efforts to develop a new grant funding model.

Building on the already established Trust Alliance NZ (TANZ) workstreams to continue development of an interoperable, yet secure, data sharing framework for all sectors of the primary industry, which enables key stakeholders & data owners across the value chain to share data in a permissioned and controlled manner, while freeing growers, producers and others from redundant, repetitive submission of the same data over and over to different government organisations.

A solution to enhance and verify compliance with HACCP best practices in food processors, increase transparency with supply chain partners, decrease compliance costs, and provide control and security when sharing commercially sensitive information.

Ackama, in partnership with Terra Moana Limited are developing and trialing a technical solution to enable fishing companies to self-assess against the complex matrix of major Conventions, Standards and Criteria, including from NGOs (local & international) to ensure they operate best practice worker welfare and enable them to show that their products are free from human rights abuse.

Research commissioned by the fund on the current state of supply chain transparency

3 year Foundational Partnership of the Creative HQ GovTech Accelerator Programme - to drive public sector innovation. This years Programme was focusing on Sustainability in all its forms.

WGIF sponsored a team from MBIE and SBN to participate in the GovTech Accelerator, focusing on making New Zealand supply chains more sustainable. This was a business-government partnership to combine knowledge and scale the impact of sustainability through supply chains through a tool for small-medium businesses. Now launched as ‘Docket’.

In 2021, WGIF committed $50,000 and partnered with a GovTech team to accelerate the impact of their work. Manaaki Tairāwhiti are catalysing positive change in the social services sector for whānau in Tairāwhiti. Through the GovTech Accelerator, they created Urungi. Urungi is a tool that enables the accurate and efficient collection and analysis of this data. With Urungi, Manaaki Tairāwhiti can collect and aggregate the challenges of the current system for whānau in real-time - enabling systemic improvements to social services with whānau voices at the heart.

The Manurewa High Business Academy programme is designed to prepare large numbers of young Māori and Pacifica for their future in work. They create powerful learning connections with experts from business, and life changing opportunities and pathways for employment, that smash barriers for young people and their communities.

Soft skills are one of the hardest aspects of employability to signal to employers - especially if your work experience or personal work networks are limited. Most employers want soft skills, but few agree on how to define or measure them. EMPLE will be gathering feedback from envisaged user groups (job seekers, youth, vulnerable worker groups) to validate tool demand and requirements as well as potential tool partners. Output will be a high quality report and recommendations.

A survey and subsequent report led by Accordant sought feedback from significant numbers of contingent workers, and also from hiring stakeholders in the government sector, regarding non-permanent work. The aim was to grow the knowledge base around non-permanent work in the public sector. The report covers a range of valuable insights, observations, and opportunities, including:

- Why organisations and job seekers should consider non-permanent work
- The benefits of temporary work for both workers and employers
- How to overcome barriers and improve the temporary worker experience
- Ways to reshape the hiring process and improve onboarding for non-permanent workers
- How to grow impact and productivity to maximise the benefits of a temporary workforce

The findings of the research can be found on the Accordant website.

VR applications to help those with neuro-diversities practice social interaction in relation to employment.

Over 70 million people are on the Autism spectrum globally, and over 93,000 in New Zealand. Engagement challenges in social settings can significantly impact opportunities to obtain employment for neuro-diverse people, Socius XR are leading change in using emerging technologies to mitigate these barriers.

A radical educational alternative that prioritises mindset as the foundation to approach the future of work as a life-long learner with a meaningful contribution.

In the face of unprecedented societal and ecological challenges, Millennials and Gen Z's are demanding opportunities to create meaningful change. Traditional education and leadership methods are not equipping our rangatahi to meet the future needs of work. The Social Experiment (SOX) is a programme designed by and for millennials and Gen Z's, helping them to find purpose in their current or future workplace while giving them the tools and skills to make an impact.

Ivanov Consulting is conducting research into (and assessment of accessibility to) the systems NZ have in place to teach Future of Work skills. From this research, a report of the existing programmes (government and non-government) designed to address the Future of Work skills gaps will be created.

A Research Report commissioned by the fund, and executed by ThinkPlace on the Future of Work, to support our fifth Intake.

3BF reduces the barriers to employment and economic prosperity by taking digital jobs directly to schools so that students can earn while they learn.

Pocketful is a mobile financial inclusion application that brings together a AI driven chatbot (Penny), budgeting, ID, payments, financial training and connections to the financial assistance ecosystem to deliver an integrated financial fitness solution. Pocketful helps you easily create a daily budget, set up a savings plan, put together a plan to get out of debt, connect to support services… everything you need to get financially fit.

Platform to upcycle unclaimed donation tax rebates back to charities.

“The gift that keeps on giving
Every time you donate to a charity, school or religious organisation, you are eligible for a 33% donation rebate, but most Kiwis never bother with the paperwork. SuperGenerous makes it easy to claim back your rebate and put your share to good use – whether that means regifting it to charity or keeping it for yourself.”

Ministry of Justice options analysis to find a solution to move away from cheques to pay victim reparations.

A pilot of Data Venture’s Population Density solution - a yearly, monthly, weekly, and hourly indicator of the total number of people in areas of New Zealand, down to suburb level and on an hour-by-hour frequency, to help government and industry make better decisions. This helps with emergency planning, tourism, transport, biosecurity, accommodation, construction, energy, education and retail industries.

A pilot of SituateMe’s “Resilience” chatbot with Auckland Emergency Management. SituateMe provides AI-backed chatbots that automate both data collection for emergency services as well as provide quick personalised information for citizens caught up in an emergency

The Generator is where enterprising Kiwis in hardship are bringing their ideas to life, sparking innovation and abundance in our communities. The Generator created a mobile application and digital platform, to support their hands on community representatives, brokering seed funding for people in hardship, enabling them to pursue micro business opportunities, to lead them to financial independence.

Driven by Emerge Aotearoa and Vaka Tautua with support from MSD

Hear our voices - A better way to measure the effectiveness of social services for Māori.

We sponsored a team, led by the Social Wellness Agency (SWA) and local community representatives to enter the 2019 GovTech Accelerator programme. This project is now creating software that collects and combines whānau voices with existing government data, to change the way social sector contracts are deployed.

Scoping project to explore digitally assisted technologies for MoE.

An online marketplace connecting schools who want tech-knowledgeable adults, with suitable corporate volunteers to teach the new Digital Technology Curriculum.

Investigation into how digital identity can help small businesses comply with AML/CFT obligations.

Development of a death notification and data delivery service that partners with the DIA, to process and disseminate identity and personal data related to the end of life. MyTrove is a free service that allows selected individuals (family members, your lawyer etc.) – to notify multiple organisations after you’ve passed away; all in one place, at the click of a button.

Feasibility project to design and build an 'Open Banking Challenge' to explore and showcase the potential of the emerging technology

Professor Shaun Hendy, Director of Te Pūnaha Matatini (a Centre of Research Excellence hosted by the University of Auckland), and his team, had a unique opportunity to investigate historical and anonymised bank transaction data to see if they could identify spending patterns in a community following a disease outbreak. If they could find patterns, they could be turned into a model that could be used by Government policy advisors – giving them new insights into how communities respond to large scale events.

Research project to consider the human centred challenges of cheque usage and explore solutions for transitioning from cheques to other payment options. The aim of the project was to produce a base of actionable insights that can be used by banks, businesses and government agencies to help transition people to less expensive and ultimately more durable and sustainable payment services.

The Fund established and supported a cross government working group to share challenges of cheque usage and explore solutions, for transitioning from cheques to other payment options.

Testing the technological and social feasibility of applying AI avatars to assist with border control. Say Hi to Vai … New Zealand’s first digital biosecurity officer. After an intensive and months-long period of prototyping, testing, tweaking, refining and training, ‘Vai’ (Virtual Assistant Interface) was deployed in Auckland Airport in early 2018.

Anti-money laundering solution for SMEs to on-board new clients.

When a financial services business gains a new customer, it often takes time before the two businesses can start working together. Regulations, compliance and permissions – both public and private – can slow everything down. 2Shakes makes the whole customer onboarding process a lot simpler – and faster.

Sponsorship of 2017 GovHack Aotearoa event

Sponsorship to the NZ Innovation Council Awards