Don’t stand by as science funding circles the drain

Opinion: New Zealand has a reputation as a country of innovators, outside-the-box thinkers with a can-do approach to tackling big problems. Yet that reputation belies a huge (and growing) hole in funding for research, science and innovation.
On a global scale, our investment in R&D pales woefully in comparison to other developed countries – in 2019, R&D expenditure in New Zealand was a miserly 1.4 percent of GDP (and even this number is artificially inflated by the R&D tax incentive, which has had little real impact on the sector), compared to the OECD overage of 2.5 percent.
Most of the countries we would like to compare ourselves to (Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland) are well over 3 percent.
The science system in New Zealand is currently the subject of a major review, led by Sir Peter Gluckman. The Science System Advisory Group is tasked with providing recommendations and advice to the government on long-term changes to “improve the effectiveness and impact of New Zealand’s science, innovation and technology system”.
Given the glacial pace of major system changes, it is unlikely we will see any real changes before late 2025. There is a real risk that the short-term challenges faced by the sector will do irreparable damage before any reforms can take place.
And without substantial new investment (ideally with bi-partisan political support), the system changes will have little impact – a point Gluckman himself has repeatedly made.
In the past six months, not only has that funding level taken a further dive, but we have started to see real impacts from the lack of funding available to our research sector. Job cuts at universities last year have been followed by significant cuts and proposed cuts at critical Crown Research Institutes.
Work done by the New Zealand Association of Sciences and the Save Science Coalition shows a loss of 349-359 science roles in the past 12 months. With continued funding cuts, these job losses look set to continue and even grow.
The job losses go hand-in-hand with funding cuts across the sector. Not only are research institutions feeling the pinch, but our competitive funding streams are seeing reductions in both real and absolute terms too.
That includes the end of the National Science Challenges ($64 million per year), and a combined reduction of just over $45 million dollars per year across New Zealand’s major research investment streams (Marsden, Endeavour, Health Research Council, Strategic Science Investment Fund, Geohazard funding) as well as the cancellation of the proposed $450 million Science City.
We have an underfunded system, under review, and rather than waiting for the outcome of that review and growing our investment, we are nevertheless proceeding with wholesale cuts to our science funding.
A thriving R&D sector takes long-term commitment and investment. This is true both in terms of the research that is undertaken (fundamental research sometimes takes a long time to reach economic impact) and the people who do the research.
Neither of our major political parties has made substantial investment in the sector (Labour had six years in power to action their promises but never delivered, while National are responsible for current cuts).
The short-termism that plagues New Zealand politics has undermined our research sector. Regardless of what comes from the advisory review, we desperately need politicians to see the value of research and undertake a long-term and well-considered investment strategy that doesn’t start and stop with each change of government.
Leaving aside the obvious societal benefits of a strong research sector, investing in research ultimately generates economic growth. A stark example of this is the recently completed ‘Science for Technological Innovation’ which invested $106 million over 10 years.
An independent analysis found that 11 of its core projects were likely to deliver a minimum economic value of over $300 million per annum within 10 years.
Both Treasury and government ministers look at the research sector as a cost. The data, however, is clear in showing that it should be viewed as an investment – and one with the potential for hugely significant returns.
If we want New Zealand to be a competitive, advanced economy, we need to start putting real investment into our research sector now.