Move over accountants - here come the scientists to save us

The 1980s and 90s were the decades of the accountant - but scientists say the new millennium belongs to them.

The new chairman of Science New Zealand, the umbrella group for the country's eight crown research institutes (CRIs), said it was time for scientists to "strut their stuff" and help solve the world's most pressing problems - food shortages, energy crises, and the need to adapt to and understand climate change.

"When you look at the problems the world faces ... accountants can't fix the world any more," said John Morgan, chief executive of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric research who is chairman of Science NZ.

The group promotes science and technology on behalf of the CRIs, which employ two-thirds of New Zealand's publicly-funded scientists.

Mr Morgan said the job of CRIs was to figure out how to harness the nation's natural resources to increase exports and tourism.

"We got a lot more than pineapple lumps," he joked, referring to the television advertisement that suggests God endowed New Zealand with little more than the pineapple-flavoured chocolate sweets.

That could happen by growing trees, using the abundant fresh water to grow food and sell tourism and expanding the country's fish and shellfish farming industry.

Mr Morgan said suggestions of tension between CRIs over funding were largely a myth - institutes were more likely to co-operate.

The Prime Minister's science adviser, Peter Gluckman, raised the issue of competition for science funding when he appeared on on TVNZ's Q + A, describing the state of science in New Zealand as "frustrated" .

Mr Morgan said the "extremely" competitive funding model had made CRIs "lean and mean" but acknowledge there was some room for streamlining.

"Where [a particular CRI has] world-leading expertise [and] we know that that is the right place to get a particular type of research done, why do we go through the charade [of contesting funding] each year or every three years?"

On the other hand: "When there are several serious options available you want to have a bit of competition".

He did not see mergers like the mooted, then abandoned, merger between CRI Agresearch and Lincoln University gaining popularity. He said concerns raised about a perceived lack of academic freedom to speak out about science at CRIs at the time the merger was mooted missed the point.

"Our [CRI's] job is not to be a conscience and a critic for society, our job is to add value to New Zealand."

"You don't necessarily benefit society with science by what you say, it is what you do with it."