Biotechnology Research Roadmap - Science and Innovation

Recent initiatives like the inclusion of biotechnology
as a focus area in the Korean research mobility
funding programme and the International Investment
Opportunities Fund’s focus on developing co-funding
relationships with South Korea and Japan signal
government’s efforts in facilitating links with North
Asia. Over the short to medium-term the government
will also be actively building New Zealand’s research
relationship with China.
MoRST is also updating its International Science
and Research Linkages Strategy. The current
strategy focuses exclusively on developing bilateral
and multi-lateral relationships. The updated
strategy will take broad thematic research areas into
account like biotechnology and food and nutrition
research. This will provide further clarity and focus
for the government’s priority nations for building
biotechnology research links.
Short term actions:
MoRST to focus additional effort on building and facilitating New Zealand’s research linkages with China.
MoRST to update the government’s International Science and Research Linkages Strategy to reflect
thematic areas of research focus, like biotechnology research.
Direction 10
The government will work to consolidate underpinning biotechnology research platforms to better support key
areas of research strength where there will be considerable benefits to New Zealand.
There are opportunities to better integrate
underpinning research platforms and infrastructure
(for example, genomics platforms, high throughput
technologies and analytical capability) in New Zealand
that have application across a number of areas of
biotechnology.
This is particularly the case within broad research
investment areas where there is fragmentation in
research capability and the potential for duplication
of effort between research organisations. Downstream,
the effective consolidation of underpinning platforms
will have the potential to free-up research funding for
re-investment in more value-added research.
This view was confirmed by the findings of FRST’s
recent Plant Biotechnology Domain Review. 84 It
recommended that within the government’s plant
biotechnology research investments there are
opportunities to “integrate” national research capability
at this underpinning level.
Beyond plant biotechnology, other broad areas of
research capability could also benefit from the further
consolidation of biotechnology research platforms.
Rolling review processes, like FRST’s science domain
reviews, will help identify future areas where further
consolidation of underpinning research platforms
could offer significant benefits to New Zealand.
The implementation of plant biotechnology domain
review recommendations provides an opportunity
to “pilot” this direction. MoRST will work closely
with FRST on the wider RS&T system implications
involved. In the short-term (2007-08), the initial phase
of work will involve defining the implementation
pathway of this pilot in greater detail with FRST
and the wider RS&T sector. This will include an
assessment of how this will be incorporated into the
ongoing negotiated funding roll-out.
Short term actions:
FRST, with MoRST, to implement the recommendations of the Plant Biotechnology Domain Review to
better integrate national plant biotechnology research platform capability in New Zealand.
Research funding and investment agencies through ongoing review processes to investigate the case to
better integrate other areas of underpinning biotechnology research capability and infrastructure.
Research Organisations to continue to explore ways of working more collaboratively to share the costs and
access to critical research infrastructure.
84
FRST (June 2006), Plant Biotechnology Domain Review – Report of the Strategic Decision Group
60 Roadmaps for Science : biotechnology research