The finalists have been announced for Massey University’s annual Partnership Excellence Awards, recognising businesses and other organisations that have actively collaborated with the University across a range of areas including research, knowledge exchange, teaching and learning, reaching new audiences and taking the best of New Zealand to the rest of the world.
Finalist New Zealand Leather and Shoe Research Association has collaborated with scientists and engineers from Massey University for more than a decade on world leading scientific research to support the competitiveness of New Zealand’s leather and shoe industries in international markets. These industries are valued components of New Zealand’s land-based primary industries. Massey researchers gained a deeper understanding of the structure and capabilities of leather and skin using advanced particle accelerators, or synchrotrons, which are smaller versions of the Hadron Collider that proved the existence of the Higgs Boson. This highly successful collaboration has led to 15 journal publications to date and numerous prizes at international conferences, putting New Zealand on the international map for leather research.
Along with LASRA, the finalists are, New Zealand Defence Force, The Warehouse Group, the Wellington City Council and Weta Workshop.