Seed projectsKaupapa kākano
Seed projects are funded 200k for up to two years. They are small and technically complex investigator-led projects. All Seed projects are relevant to NZ, and likely to make strong contribution, in the longer-term, to NZ's economic growth. Learn more about how we develop our Seed projects.
SfTI has funded 86 projects from 2016-2021. Applications for our last Seed Project Funding round closed on the 18th of June 2021, resulting in 15 projects. The 2021 Seed project fund is the last round of funding available during the National Science Challenges ten year term, 2014-2024.
If you are interested in learning more about these projects, you can contact the lead researcher by doing a web search for their name and organisation, or by following the 'Read more' link in some of the projects below.
Enabling seamless communication in UAV swarms
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), usually called drones, are being increasingly used for missions classified as dull, dirty and dangerous for humans. However, they have limitations related to flight hours, processing power and reliability. To address these limitations, the concept of autonomous UAV swarms is gaining momentum. This involves multiple UAVs seamlessly communicating and coordinating for a given operation. This project will design an energy efficient and fault-tolerant communication protocol. The protocol will imitate the behaviour of bird swarms where individual birds adapt their movements to ensure a coordinated flight.