Submissions on New Zealand government’s research funding reforms urge more spending, security and connectivity
The vice-chancellors’ group Universities New Zealand has called for a national research council to oversee the country’s research, science and innovation system.
The call for a UK-style council is made in UNZ’s submission to the government’s Future Pathways green paper. Making its submission public on 7 March, UNZ said the proposed council “would be comprised of leading researchers and big-picture thinkers who understand New Zealand’s social, health, economic and environmental context”.
“It would be at arm’s length from the government and focused on priorities extending beyond the vagaries of political cycles,” UNZ said.
Science minister Megan Woods is reviewing the entire national research funding system, raising questions about the future of the Crown Research Institutes, resourcing, research impact and the way research projects are funded.
UNZ said its proposed council should determine research strategies, oversee investment and advise on spending. It would also be responsible for “prioritising mātauranga Māori [Māori knowledge], the careers of Māori researchers and research that advances the wellbeing of Māori communities”, as well as promoting Pasifika interests in science.
Overall investment “must be significantly increased if any future intervention is going to be effective in bringing about positive and lasting change for the country”, a UNZ statement said, noting that New Zealand was still below its target of spending 2 per cent of GDP on research.
‘Hypercompetition’ problems
Meanwhile, Troy Baisden, co-president of the New Zealand Association of Scientists, says that any reformed science funding system needs to address the problem of “hypercompetition” created by contestable funding.
In a paper published on 3 March, Baisden proposes a base funding system that would support up to half of researchers’ salaries and costs. The remainder of funding would then be contestable, in line with national priorities. Specific needs such as infrastructure would be addressed with “targeted base funding”.
The NZ Association of Scientists and the Te Pūnaha Matatini Centre of Research Excellence for Complex Systems have created a forum for discussing the reforms, where Baisden’s paper was published. In it, he writes that “the pandemic has raised serious concerns about the sustainability of today’s research institutions and funding systems”.
As well as hypercompetition, problems in the system include a lack of early career mobility, exploitation of PhD students and “double shift” demands on Māori researchers, who are expected to contribute to requirements to include mātauranga Māori in research programmes, Baisden writes.
“The current research system is poor at prioritisation, connectivity and support for the research workforce due to the combination of funding mechanisms and institutional pressure.”
Baisden says that when the system was created, there had been a proposal for 40 per cent base funding, which was not taken up.
In earlier papers, Baisden and other authors from the NZ Association of Scientists urged more collaboration between scientists. They also said that “our institutions are complex, unusual and fragmented, with the separate roles of commercial consultancy and commercialisation of intellectual property causing considerable confusion”, and that there was a case to “reconsider institutional structures to match current needs and redesigned funding models”.
Health angle
The campaign group New Zealanders for Health Research is consulting on its submission to the review.
In a discussion paper issued to its membership in February, the body identified prioritising health and medical research within the wider system, a falling level of investment in health research, the structure of the funding system and the impact on health outcomes as being among the main issues.
The group has held several public forums and expects to finalise its submission soon.
Final submissions on the green paper are due by 16 March. The government will then release a white paper with concrete proposals.