Funding split makes scientists 'insecure'

Splitting science policy and funding agencies has been a failure, says a top scientist, who adds that his colleagues feel like seasonal workers.

The new president of the New Zealand Association of Scientists, Dr Hamish Campbell, says the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (Morst), which sets policy, and the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (Forst), which administers research funding, should be merged.

"We have ended up with two giant administrations trying to drive a relative Mini. Having two separate organisations is over the top. There needs to be a rationalisation."

The two agencies were created when the former Department of Scientific and Industrial Research was broken up into 10 Crown research institutes (CRIs) in 1991-92. The ministry now employs 85 people and the foundation 82.

Dr Campbell, a geologist with Te Papa and the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS), said the requirement for each research institute to bid for research funding every few years had created a huge sense of insecurity.

"Since the CRIs were formed we have felt like seasonal workers. We live on our nerves. We have guaranteed funding for two, three or four years. That might only amount to a percentage of our salary and time, and then what?

"We have research projects that might suddenly be cut because of the competitive nature of the game. There is far too much emphasis on competition."

The institutes valued their scientists for the money they brought in from research contracts, rather than the quality of their research.

"You get rewarded according to how much money you earn for the company. If you are the best salesman in the outfit, you get the biggest salary. It makes life unhappy for a lot of scientists."

Dr Campbell said he was also concerned about the calibre of administrators in the foundation.

"I'd love to know what their qualifications are. Here they are making decisions about highly qualified people," he said.

"I'm staggered at the salaries that some of them are on. Admittedly they are conduits for millions of dollars. Is that a reason why they should be earning so much more than scientists?"

The foundation's annual report shows that 11 of its 82 staff earned more than $100,000 last year. The highest-paid employee, presumably chief executive Murray Bain, earned $190,000-$200,000.

But these salaries are not noticeably out of line with the Crown research institutes, whose chief executives earn between $240,000 and $320,000. Dr Campbell's own institute, GNS, pays more than $100,000 to 25 of its 274 staff.

Dr Campbell said he did not want to see the CRIs disestablished, because their independence had allowed them to bid for research funding from other clients as well as the Government.

But he said the institutes needed more long-term funding so that young people could feel confident they could have a secure career in science in New Zealand.

 

Science Minister Pete Hodgson said merging the two agencies would not provide net benefits.

Although the ministry was responsible for policy, Mr Hodgson said he had asked the foundation and the other two funding agencies, the Health Research Council and the Royal Society, to offer policy advice in annual "progress and achievement reports".

This year the foundation proposed a $1 million-a-head scheme to recruit top scientists from overseas.

Mr Hodgson said he had already moved to give researchers longer-term funding for up to 12 years through a new system of "outcome-based investments" being trialed this year. He also boosted base funding for the CRIs in this year's budget from $28.6 million to $32.4 million to help maintain national "capabilities" in key areas even if they lose temporary research contracts.