Biotechnology Research Roadmap - Science and Innovation

Government has the following four main objectives for
New Zealand’s involvement in biotechnology research:
• Biotechnology research should contribute
to economic transformation, through higher
productivity, higher value products and
diversification of the economy.
• Biotechnology research should assist in protecting
the natural environment and developing
environmentally sustainable industries.
• Biotechnology research undertaken in New
Zealand should be developed and managed
responsibly.
Using these over-arching objectives as starting points,
we have identified a set of directions for biotechnology
research. Where appropriate these directions
are supported by immediate actions to aid their
implementation.
• New Zealanders should benefit from biotechnology
developments which will improve their health and
wellbeing.
6.2 Biotechnology research directions
At the highest level, the current balance of the
government’s biotechnology research investment
is “about right”. For example, there is a good
balance between supporting biotechnology
research for New Zealand’s core business of food
and agricultural production (approximately 50% of
research investments) and the development of new
knowledge and enterprises based on global biomedical
opportunities (30% of research investments).
Our own analysis and consultation with key
stakeholder groups, therefore, leads the government
to conclude that there does not need to be any
radical shifts in funding priorities. Consequently,
this Roadmap does not recommend any significant
re-prioritisations of existing funding between different
research areas or portfolios. Biotechnology research
requires long term investment (often at least 10-15
years) to reap benefits, and major short-term shifts in
priorities can lead to wasted effort as research projects
are started up and shut down to meet these changes.
However, there are some areas where New Zealand
needs to improve, either the way its biotechnology
research system operates, or in how it responds to
future opportunities or challenges. Specifically,
improvements need to be made to:
• better integrate underpinning research platforms
which support strategically important research
areas;
• improve linkages between research and end-user
communities (industry and government);
• develop more appropriate public-private co-funding
arrangements for currently fragmented industry
sectors; and
• improve funding processes between and within
research funding and investment agencies (in
particular, building greater flexibility into processes
as projects move from basic to applied and into
commercialisation stages).
Furthermore, to bolster New Zealand’s efforts in
emerging areas of importance, the overall balance and
level of research investment will need revisiting in
some areas. These emerging areas include:
• adding value in the marine and the food and
beverage sectors;
• taking advantage of significant opportunities
emerging from global industrial biotechnology
developments; and
• using biotechnology research to address
environmental sustainability challenges.
The government recognises that identifying areas of future opportunity and challenge may have potential
budgetary implications. If additional funding is required to achieve these directions, government funding
decisions will be made as part of the annual Budget process.
50 Roadmaps for Science : biotechnology research