Callaghan grants are administered by its monitoring agency, MBIE, which falls in the 7.5 per cent camp, but Callaghan has not confirmed any savings target.
“Callaghan Innovation is consulting with staff to seek feedback on a proposed board directive to refocus the organisation on its core functions,” Callaghan said in a statement.
“We are proposing to refocus on our core functions to help relieve cost pressures.”
Chief executive Stefan Korn said, “While we are not consulting on a restructure at this time, a shift in strategy like this inevitably means uncertainty for many of our people.”
Korn was not available to answer questions, Callaghan said.
“It is an anxious time for staff at Callaghan Innovation after today’s meeting with the chief executive,” PSA assistant secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said.
“The scientists and researchers at Callaghan do ground-breaking work that is not done anywhere else in New Zealand, there is a lot at stake.”
Staff feared for their jobs in the context of National cancelling elements of Labour’s science plans, but yet announce new funding.
The union will be meeting with Callaghan employees on Monday.
‘Science City’ scrapped
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins said she would not comment, saying it was an operational issue for Callaghan.
In February, Collins fulfilled a campaign pledge to scrap the previous Government’s $450m plan, announced in Budget 2023, to make Wellington a “science city”.
The plan had involved creating three “science hubs”, one of which would have housed a new health and pandemic readiness research project involving Callaghan.
The decade-old, $80m National Science Challenges programme has also been cancelled as Collins clears the decks. At this point, it is not clear if the $80m will be banked as a saving or reallocated to R&D initiatives elsewhere.
There is a gap in funding until Collins details a new strategy, the PSA says. The anxiousness extends to Crown Research Institutes. A new funding strategy is expected with Budget 2024.
“The PSA opposes cuts to Callaghan and the Government’s scrapping of the Wellington Science City initiative. The end of the National Science Challenges with no obvious replacement could spell disaster for the future of science in NZ,” the PSA’s Fitzsimons said.
Where Rocket Lab got its start
Named after the late Sir Paul Callaghan, the agency was created in its current form in 2013 when it was merged with Industrial Research Limited (IRL) the Crown agency whose Balfour St headquarters in Parnell provided office space and support for a generation of start-ups, including LanzaTech and Rocket Lab.
Rocket Lab founder, plus early Rocket Lab backer and start-up investor Sir Stephen Tindall, have often spoken strongly in support of the Balfour St setup, where Tindall literally stumbled over Beck when he arrived for a meeting with another start-up.
More recently - and notably, given Korn’s comment about refocusing on core operations - Callaghan has been mired in controversy.
Auditor-General John Ryan delivered a devastating critique of the conduct of Callaghan and its former chief executive, Victoria Crone, in a major report tabled in Parliament on December 7.
The report examined the way Callaghan conducted itself in deciding not to award contracts to We Are Indigo/Manaaki, an Auckland-based company offering services to startup firms in 2022.
The Auditor-General’s criticisms centred on what he saw as failure to properly investigate potential conflicts of interest when it hired a private investigator to look into allegations of fraud and misconduct by Manaaki, which its founders denied.
Ryan criticised Callaghan for not giving Manaaki right-of-reply, and for sharing sensitive due diligence information with other Government agencies, among other issues.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
