Wellington

Researchers in New Zealand are optimistic that the country's new Labour-led coalition government will give science more support than it has received for a decade.

The previous National Party government, led for the past two years by prime minister Jenny Shipley, had argued that competition would deliver more science without increasing investment. But scientists in universities became demoralized at the low level of success in applications for research grants.

Under the National Party, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research was broken up into nine government-owned companies called Crown Research Institutes (CRIs), which compete for funds (see Nature 391, 426; 1998).

The new prime minister, Helen Clark, is giving priority to repairing the university sector. But the Labour Party is politically moderate and ministers are wary of major reorganizations.

Hood: ‘benchmarks must be global’. Credit: TODD CRAWFORD

Clark has given responsibility for higher education, as well as the sensitive portfolio of social security, to Steve Maharey, a former sociology lecturer. Maharey plans to set up a Tertiary Education Advisory Commission this month, which he hopes will provide its first report and recommendations in time to influence the Budget in May and will then keep rolling with frequent reports, rather than putting the system on hold with a comprehensive review.

Pete Hodgson, the minister for research, science and technology, is responsible for ‘contestable’ grants and the CRIs. Following criticism of the lack of contact with his predecessor, Maurice Williamson, Hodgson is setting up a Science and Innovation Council of external advisers.

Maharey: wants continuous reform. Credit: BRUCE JARVIS

The council will report to the prime minister. But, like the tertiary commission, its terms of reference and membership have yet to be settled. Hodgson, one of Clark's key strategists, stresses that the research, science and technology effort will be part and parcel of economic and social policy, whereas it used to be marginal. A boost to the support for research and development will be declared in the Budget, sharing in NZ$1.2 billion (US$590 million) already identified for new spending across all portfolios.

Some scientists are concerned that the government could have too many sources of advice — from the ministry, the grant-giving Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, the Royal Society of New Zealand, and the new council.

Maharey says that coordination will be achieved by a high-level Cabinet committee, bringing him together with Hodgson, Michael Cullen, the powerful finance minister, and Jim Anderton, the minister for industry and, as leader of the left-leaning Alliance Party in the coalition, deputy prime minister.

John Hood, the vice-chancellor of Auckland University — the nation's largest — stresses that the advisory bodies need to be resourced with secretariats and investigative capacity independently of the relevant ministries. He says the previous system failed to make valid international comparisons, and wants reference groups of experts to be appointed from outside New Zealand.

Maharey agrees with this prescription, and will invite universities to nominate their own strengths.

Peter Gluckman, Auckland University's dean of medicine, who chairs the Independent Biotechnology Advisory Council appointed by the National Party, is concerned that “the urgent need for deep analysis of policy and perversities in the system may not be accepted” by the Labour Party. “We cannot tolerate only fine-tuning — the CRIs are in urgent need of review.”

The results from ten years of CRIs are mixed. Some, notably Industrial Research Limited, can claim success in generating revenue and spinning-off high-tech companies while maintaining research, for example in high-temperature superconductivity.

This sector generates profits. But the horticulture CRI dismissed some staff just before Christmas, and some CRIs mainly provide technical services to niche industries. Links with universities are expanding but remain patchy. Labour's policy encourages the amalgamation of CRIs.

Andrew West, president of the Association of CRIs and chief executive of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Limited, is calling for “a bold, substantial and sustained increase of public investment in R&D”.

Neville Blampied, a psychologist at Canterbury University and the new president of the Association of University Staff, welcomes the abandonment of the “market-driven model”. But he is concerned that university heads may not agree on priorities.