Digital twin NZ US collaboration awarded $4.5m funding

18 September 2025

Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University news, AI, Science and technology

The Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Hon Dr Shane Reti has announced $4.5m from the Catalyst Fund to support the New Zealand United States Digital Twin Research programme.

The project brings together New Zealand's world-leading Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI) and the University of Texas's Oden Institute, which specialises in AI, advanced simulations, and digital twins across a range of scientific, engineering and medical applications. By combining expertise, tools, and data from both countries, the collaboration will accelerate discoveries and give New Zealand access to cutting-edge science.

At the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, Minister Reti said: "Our existing AI research is expanding, with innovative work already under way in areas such as precision health and agriculture.

"This investment will accelerate that work by bringing our best researchers and businesses together to build capability, fast-track commercialisation, and create high-value jobs and new opportunities for Kiwi researchers."

Vice-Chancellor Professor Dawn Freshwater said, "This project brings together New Zealand and American researchers working at the cutting edge of digital twin innovation. This partnership will see important progress in a range of fields from precision health, agricultural biotechnology and population health."

The Director of the ABI Professor Merryn Tawhai said, "This collaboration not only partners the ABI with the Oden Institute and its leading work in AI and advanced simulations, but it also enables the ABI to become strongly involved with two New Zealand public research organisations (PROs), PHF Science and the Bioeconomy Science Institute."

The collaboration with the PROs seeks to create predictive models for crop health and yield, simulation models for novel plant varieties and plant treatments, all aimed at boosting innovation in the country's agriculture sector.

The Director of the Oden Institute is Professor Karen E. Willcox, a University of Auckland Distinguished Alumna. She welcomed the collaboration and is looking forward to working closely with the ABI.

She said: "ABI has long been a world leader in computational modelling for medicine and human physiology. The Oden Institute is thrilled to launch this new partnership to push forward the frontiers of digital twins in biomedical and biotechnical applications."

The ABI's expertise in developing digital twin models will be combined with the Oden Institute's AI research to develop physics-informed AI. Most AI systems look for patterns in data. The project adds an extra layer: the laws of physics (like how blood flows or how plants grow). The goal is to create computer models that are not only data-driven but also scientifically grounded in the laws of physics governing biological systems, making them more reliable and trustworthy.

The potential benefits range from pharmacological modelling to reduce the cost and time to develop new drugs, tools for clinical decision making and public health management with population health models. The funding also enables ABI researchers to work with the country's leading agricultural and horticultural scientists.

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Catalyst research