Science 'deserves more funding'

The committee, headed by Sir Peter Gluckman and consisting of other prominent science leaders, says in its report to government that there is overwhelming evidence investment in research and science is absolutely core to productivity growth.

And it adds that "failure over several decades to accept and act on this causation has led NZ to being a poor performing outlier compared to most advanced economies of comparable size". Essentially this is a rap over the knuckles for successive governments for underfunding science.

This is the same committee that recommended the merger of the four agricultural related CRIs (AgResearch, Landcare Research, Plant and Food Research and Scion) into a mega organisation called Bioeconomy. They will no longer be called CRIs; rather they get a name change, and probably a new logo, and will be known as a PRO or public research organisation.

As part of the changes, a new entity will emerge called Earth Sciences which will bring together NIWA and GNS and, as already signalled, will see MetService become a wholly-owned subsidiary of NIWA.

ESR will be renamed the Health and Forensic Science Services PRO with a 'new' focus. Gone is Callaghan Innovation, with the Government saying its functions will be spread amongst other PROs.

The rationale for this move, according to Judith Collins, the Science Minister at the time of the announcement, is to ensure that there is a science system that generates maximum value for the $1.2 billion the Government invests in science funding.

There are other changes afoot, including the establishment of a special investment agency and a super advisory body to provide strategic oversight for the changes.

"This work, along with our move to overturn what has effectively been a 30-year ban on gene technology, will unlock enormous opportunities for our science sector and New Zealanders," she says.