AgResearch's fertility project moving to Invermay

David Skegg. Phil Walter / Getty Images

AgResearch is pressing ahead with plans to transfer key parts of its reproduction research to a centre near Dunedin.

The nation's biggest science company has announced $3 million will be invested in a centre for reproduction and genomics, involving Otago University.

AgResearch will provide $1.5 million, to be matched by a similar payment from the Government, and the science company and the university will also each contribute $250,000 yearly for three years.

In addition, Otago will set up New Zealand's first academic "chair" in reproduction and genomic science, which is expected to lead to advances in research into human as well as animal reproduction.

The reproduction centre will build on molecular biology work at the university and AgResearch's expertise in animal reproduction, particularly sheep. The fertility research is expected also to have implications for livestock in sectors such as dairying, as farmers face a trade-off between higher milk production and low conception rates for some breeds of dairy cows.

But sheep also provide an ideal fertility model for humans, and the issue is gaining a high profile as people in affluent countries delay having children until later in life.

AgResearch is closing its Wallaceville campus in Upper Hutt and has said it will spend up to $8 million on the joint reproductive science and mammalian genomic centre with the university.

When AgResearch's world-leading reproductive technologies scientists protested in 2003 over being sent to Mosgiel, their employer agreed they could remain at the Upper Hutt site until December 2008.

AgResearch's Invermay research centre is 15 minutes' drive from Otago University, and Vice Chancellor Professor David Skegg said there would be stronger collaboration between the organisations.

AgResearch plans an upgrade of buildings and equipment at Invermay so that it can double the staff there to 120. It already has a molecular biology unit at the university.

AgResearch chief executive Andy West said the state science company had a high level of collaboration with the university: around 70 joint research projects.

West said the two organisations had carved an outstanding record in reproduction research on projects such as the identification of the Booroola and Inverdale genes, which could boost higher levels of reproduction in sheep.

"The establishment of the seed fund for research collaboration between us is a sound investment.

"Reproduction and genomics research are central to farming. This country makes money when a cow has a calf or a ewe a lamb".

Research at the new centre may also be linked to work at Auckland University's Liggins Institute, which focuses on human growth and development, according to West, who wants a collaborative programme on that science as well.

- NZPA