Biotechnology Research Roadmap - Science and Innovation

These categories are not those used by any funding
agency to allocate funds but were developed by
government agencies 70 based on the Taskforce
categories to indicate broadly where the investments in
biotechnology are being made. There are considerable
areas of overlap between different categories therefore
it is not possible to present in aggregate figures.
Annex 3 provides a more comprehensive breakdown of
total government biotechnology research investment
broken down by key research area and sub-area.
Discussion of each research area is structured as
follows:
• research strengths;
• current investment levels and trends; and
• any issues or gaps identified.
The need to improve funding processes to progress
research commercialisation as an issue which cuts
across a range of research capabilities is also discussed
in this section.
5.5.1 Biomedical science and drug development research
Research Strengths
Global investments in biomedical research and drug
discovery are considerable and New Zealand cannot
compete effectively in all areas. However, biomedical
and drug discovery research in New Zealand is
characterised by pockets of world-class research
excellence.
New Zealand has significant research capabilities
in bioengineering; diabetes and cardiovascular
disease; cancer and oncology; glycotherapeutic drug
development; neuroscience; asthma; and osteoporosis
and bone health.
Research funding is largely allocated around these
strengths:
Figure 8
Biomedical and drug discovery breakdown
by research sub-area
70
MoRST, FRST, NZTE and Statistics New Zealand developed a statistical framework to categorise the biotechnology research conducted in New Zealand based on the
Biotechnology Taskforce categories.
34 Roadmaps for Science : biotechnology research