Three institutions offering wine and viticulture courses have signed an agreement that will see them collaborate on research and student learning with the Marlborough Research Centre and Marlborough-based Bragato Research Institute.

We are delighted to tell you that Pyramid Farm are featuring on Rural Delivery, TVNZ1, at 7 am on Saturday 20 June 2020.

Pyramid Farm is the winner of the 2019 Cawthron Marlborough Environment Supreme Award, sponsored by the Marlborough Research Centre.

We think it is terrific to see the Awards and the Dawkins family being recognised in this way.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has awarded funding to Bragato Research Institute (BRI) for a pilot study that explores transforming grape marc – the skins and seeds remaining after pressing – into hand sanitiser. The hand sanitiser from the study will be donated to Marlborough health workers and first responders.

The NZ Dryland Forests Initiative (NZDFI) is pleased to confirm that it has been awarded a grant of $539,000 from Te Uru Rākau’s One Billion Trees Partnership Fund.

Congratulations to the Bragato Research Institute (BRI) team on the establishment of the BRI Research Winery, located on the MRC Budge Street campus within a 9 months time frame.

At the opening, the Mayor, John Leggett, noted that this is a Marlborough-based facility but of course the research

The New Zealand Dry Forrest Initiative (NZDFI) is making exciting progress. Its commercially oriented research and development project focuses on plant improvement through tree breeding, with the evaluation of clonal trials being a “most significant step” and a first for New Zealand, says Paul Millen, Project Manager, NZDFI.

The breeding programme is complemented by research on site and species matching, and the

Plant & Food Research’s Rob Agnew gathers monthly meteorological data which is available from the MRC website.

Looking back at 2019, most interestingly, 2019 was Blenheim’s equal hottest year on record, Rob notes.

MRC congratulates Sanford on the expansion of its marine extract facility. Sandford has been producing a Greenshell mussel powder since it purchased ENZAQ in 2017. Sanford and ENZAQ were two of the founding members of the Marlborough Food and Beverage Innovation Cluster.

We would like to welcome Carole Crawford, Director of Marlborough for the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. In previous positions, as Executive Director – Learning Innovation & Delivery and Director - Learning, Teaching and Quality, Carole was based in Nelson. She is excited about her new role with responsibility now totally focussed on NMIT’s Marlborough campuses at Budge Street and at Woodbourne.

She says it is exciting being able to focus on what’s good for Marlborough.