Scientists: Loss of Government cash puts expertise in New Zealand’s food sector at risk

Scientists working under the High Value Nutrition National Science Challenge have helped validate health benefits of Sanford's Greenshell mussels.

A wealth of expertise could be lost from New Zealand’s food sector if a funding lifeline isn’t found, says the leader of a major research programme about to be shut down.

After a decade and hundreds of millions of dollars of government investment, funding today dries up for New Zealand’s 11 National Science Challenges.

They’ve brought together thousands of researchers from across the science sector and steered them against major issues like natural hazards, freshwater quality and saving native species.

Sector commentators say their end spells the loss of a vital chunk of funding for our small science system, where hundreds of jobs have already been shed amid financial turmoil in our universities.

Now, there’s worry that research under one of the science challenges - focused on helping Kiwi food businesses and exporters tap into a lucrative global economy of high-nutrition products - won’t be completed if funding runs out.

The High-Value Nutrition National Science Challenge has received about $80 million over the last 10 years, in which its researchers have worked with 60 businesses on 137 different products, including Sanford’s Greenshell mussels, Gisborne’s Torere Macadamias and Zespri kiwifruit.

Gisborne’s Torere Macadamias is among 60 businesses that have collaborated with researchers under the High-Value Nutrition National Science Challenge.

“Around the world, there is increasing demand for food with validated health benefits,” said the challenge’s director, Joanne Todd.

“These are products that are scientifically proven to have health-giving properties, such as boosting vitality and digestion, and healthy ageing.”

The challenge has also been a pipeline for emerging research talent - around 80 students have been involved in its projects – and backed 17 Māori-owned businesses in validating their products.

With the challenge and its leadership team set to be entirely dismantled, Todd said scientific leadership and economic growth in the sector was at risk.

It could mean losing top scientists to better-funded research programmes overseas, she said, and some had already made the move.

Some important work within the challenge also hadn’t yet wrapped up.

In two of the biggest studies - one exploring the health benefits of eating whole diets of high-value New Zealand foods, and another investigating whether kūmara can boost babies’ gut health - researchers had only just carried out their final follow-ups with participants.

“There are also still quite a few students yet to complete their studies,” Todd said.

“We are fortunate to have been able to secure extensions for their work, however it will require their supervisors to continue to oversee them without funding.”

High Value Nutrition National Science Challenge director Joanne Todd.

The challenge’s leaders have appealed for a lifeline - $5m annually over the next decade – which they said would make a “meaningful difference” to a wide range of food businesses, many of which were too small to run their own R&D.

“While we recognise that due to budget constraints it is unlikely the challenge could be reestablished in its original form, more broadly this is a call for support for the food and beverage sector that cannot afford to complete research without direct funding.”

However, there’s little prospect of more cash from the Government, with Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins pointing out the challenges and their funding were always time-bound.

“It has been clear since the start of the programme that the challenges would run for 10 years only.”

She said work done under the challenges would continue to inform policy, and that a new advisory group had been set up to improve the impact of the science system itself.

At this point, it’s not clear what will come after the challenges: a massive sector reform planned by the last Government has now been scrapped, as has a half-billion spend that was ear-marked for science infrastructure in Wellington.

The New Zealand Association of Scientists has been scathingly critical of the coalition Government’s funding for research, with its co-president Professor Troy Baisden dismissing May’s Budget as “worse than a nothing burger for science”.

New Zealand Association of Scientists co-president Professor Troy Baisden.

In regard to the challenges, Baisden told the Herald it was “internationally unthinkable” to see the wholesale defunding of teams carrying out vital research for the country.

“We’ve been watching this closely, it is clear everything in the challenges has been deemed dead in the water,” he said.

“There are no lifeboats allowed. It appears the few examples of funding for new initiatives had to demonstrate how they were distinct from challenge activity.”

For New Zealand’s research capability, he likened it to “pulling all the bolts out a power pylon and expecting the power to flow”.

The association’s co-president, Dr Lucy Stewart, suggested some job cuts proposed at Crown Research Institutes - up to 90 roles may go at Niwa - were a “direct result” of the challenges ending without any funded programme to replace them.

“In other words, the way this funding has ended has directly damaged our science system and will lead to a loss of expertise that will take decades to rebuild.”

The association was among national bodies that recently launched a “Save Science Coalition”, in what Stewart called for the most dangerous “most dangerous time for the science sector in decades”.

“Any new funding for the sector must make up for the loss of the [challenges] before we can even begin to talk about improvement,” she said.

“Sadly even the best case scenario now is unlikely to prevent the job losses on the horizon.”

Jamie Morton is a specialist in science and environmental reporting. He joined the Herald in 2011 and writes about everything from conservation and climate change to natural hazards and new technology.