Hey everybody,

Science investment, AI data centres and sovereignty, and cyber clawbacks are all in the news this week. I’ll give you a break from the deep AI coverage and shout out a reminder of WellyForge #9 on Tuesday, 14 July, at a pretty rad venue 😎 Details coming next week.

A new Science Investment Plan pumps $122M into “advanced technologies,” a term that covers artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and engineering biology. If I’m looking around Welly, we do heaps of all of those (yes, also quantum 😀). If you hang out with scientists, you will hear “mission-led” a lot in the coming while. If you are a scientist, that’s the keyword to feed your pal Claude. There is also a new IP policy announced in these docs. Pair with some deep commentary from Annabel McAleer.

There is $450M going to Digital Health in Budget ‘26 by one accounting, plus Tech is reportedly ‘front and centre’ for the new board of Health NZ.

NZ First offers gene tech carrot to sceptical voters may well be the most brazen example of politicians relying on our short-term memory. NZ First promised to push the Gene Tech bill in the last election… and then pulled support just when it was about to become law and unleash all our amazing synbio and genetech expertise.

There’s a lot of good awareness building on scammers, so it’s nice to see good news on the topic: Banks recover $10m in scammed funds with Fraud Intelligence Exchange tech. the FIX is a neat example of ecosystem-wide security collaboration.

That much-touted, pre-election macho term of sovereignty suddenly became very real when the US Government actually turned off the tap for Anthropic’s frontier models to non-US nationals—even those employed by Anthropic, after suspicions that a China-linked group gained access to Mythos. Europeans are pretty worried about it, too.

Highlighted entries are new from last week.

Wed, Jun 17th, 12:30–1:30pm, Clinical change makers: disrupting in digital health is about nurses and midwives driving digital transformation in the health domain.

Wed, Jun 17th, 5.45–7pm, Café Scientifique: How nature inspires modern medicine at Southern Cross 🍻

Thu, Jun 18th, 9am–2pm, Future Talent Summit at the National Library will be Connecting people to build Wellington's future.

Thu, Jun 18th, 2–4pm, Let’s Talk SaaSpocalypse at Taiawa.

Thu, Jun 18th, The Great NZ AI Roadshow at Tākina is a “masterclass for Kiwi leaders who want to use AI”. Be that leader 🦸

Thu, Jun 18th, 3pm, Presenting Wisdom final showcase.

Thu, Jun 18th, 5pm–late, International SaaS Day party 2026, a “mid-winter celebration of the fastest-growing sector in the New Zealand economy” 🥳

Jun 18–20, New Zealand Skin Cancer Summit.

Fri, Jun 19, 9–10:30am, Governance, Risk & Compliance, by the AI Forum.

Mon, Jun 22nd, 4:30–6:30pm, Scamming for Dummies, two-hour interactive session.

Jun 22–23, Certificate in Facilitation at Creative HQ.

Tue, Jun 23rd, 5pm - 9pm, Teulo Talks Live: Wellington for architects who wanna build good and do other things good, too. WellyForge people get a 10% discount with code: TALKER.

Wed, June 24th, 12:30–1:30pm, AI in health: Transforming workflow and supporting the workforce, online.

Wed, June 24th, 5:30–7pm, Leading Through the AI Shift: Conversations That Matter.

Thu, June 25th, 1:30–3pm, Two Nations, One Orbit: How Australia and NZ are making their mark in the global space sector by an actual astronaut 🧑‍🚀

Thu, June 25th, 4:30–6:30pm, Biotech ‘n’ Beers at Garage Project.

Tue, Jun 30th, 12pm, Modelling Rainfall-Induced Landslide Susceptibility and the Impact of Climate Change.

Jun 29th to Jul 3rd, Research Bazaar Aotearoa, free and online.

Thu, Jul 2nd, 12–12:45 pm, Ian Axford Fellows Report Back (Fulbright adjacent smart people).

Thu, Jul 2nd, 6–6:30pm, Generative AI, contaminated information and rhubarb, part of This Thinking Life at Massey.

Thu, Jul 2nd, 6–8:30pm, Start with the People, a Do AI × Everybody Eats fundraiser dinner.

Tue, Jul 7th, 3–4:30pm, R&D experience and career chat by Chiasma and Wellington NZ, VUW-Kelburn, specifics TBA.

Tue, Jul 7th, 5:30–6:30pm, Targeting diseases the organic way, inaugural lecture by Prof Bridget Stocker

Tue, Jul 14th, 6:00–7:30pm, Our Mysterious Brain: The Making and Breaking of Memories, Rutherford Medal talk by Prof Cliff Abraham at the Royal Society.

Thu, Jul 30th, Aurora Climate Tech Summit.

6–7 Aug, the AI Hackathon is back at AWS 🛠

Tue, Aug 11th, Digital Trust Hui Taumata at Te Papa.

Wed, Aug 12th, Shadow Tech offers girls in years 9-11 an opportunity to discover the world of tech, spark their curiosity and explore career pathways.

The Atom at Victoria is open for any unfunded Founders (Students, Early Stage, Idea Stage) and is run by Entrepreneur in Residence, Parisa Shademan - Email [email protected], or join the Facebook community.