Legislation will be introduced in the final quarter of this year for a new advanced technologies public research organisation (PRO), details of which are still pending. It will be established in 2026.
There was $20m allocated for the establishment of the new PROs ($10m in 2025/26 and $10m in 2026/27).
On the flipside, Budget 2025 earmarks $24.6m for costs associated with the “disestablishment of Callaghan Innovation”, which had about 350 staff (some of whom will move across to the new PROs and the new advanced research agency being established in 2026).
There was also $20.7m for “science, innovation and technology policy advice capability”, spread over the next four years, to help the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) with the sector overhaul.
“Overall, science funding has dropped by approximately $45m,” New Zealand Association of Scientists co-president Dr Lucy Steward said.
Tech-friendly foreign investment agency
More broadly, $21.2m has been allocated in Budget 2025 and each of the three following years for a previously announced push to make New Zealand a more attractive target for foreign investment. The $84.6m total multi-year spend is largely “reprioritised” Callaghan funds.
A new agency established with the funding will “have a particular interest in investing in science, innovation, and technology,” the Government says.
State of Gracefield
The same amount was allocated for “operational and management costs” of the Gracefield Innovation Quarter – that is, Callaghan Innovation’s research campus in Lower Hutt.
Science, Innovation, and Technology Minister Shane Reti earlier flagged there would need to be a medium-term plan for the buildings, which have suffered issues related to hazardous goods storage and are in need of repair, according to leaked documents.
The $20m funding for Gracefield is a 2025/26 one-off in a Budget where most items have four or five-year allocations.
A letter from Reti to Callaghan chief executive Stefan Korn earlier this year, cited by the Herald, asks the CEO to “explore commercial opportunities to retain the Gracefield site as a centre for science and innovation”.
Elevate top-up
A $100m top-up was confirmed for the Elevate fund, which co-invests with private sector venture capital in start-ups.
The previous Government had not announced any plans to refresh the now nearlyexhausted Elevate, which was established in 2020 with $300m in funding.
The previous Government’s Start-up Council and various venture capital firms had been pushing for a $500m top-up.
$1.37m for Tech Council
The previously announced Prime Minister’s Science, Innovation, and Technology Advisory Council was granted set-up funding of $1.37m per year for each of the next four years.
Council members will include: Craig Piggott, the 30-year-old founder of agri-tech Halter, which has recently expanded its smart cow collars and other services into Australia and the United States; Merryn Tawhai, the director of Auckland University’s Bio-engineering Institute that has spawned several start-ups; and Komal Mistry-Mehta, the head of Fonterra’s venture capital arm.
Funding for gene tech regulator
Budget 2025 also saw $6.7m earmarked over the coming year (and $22.9m through to 2028/29) for the establishment of a new “Gene Technology Regulator”.
“The Gene Technology Bill [due to pass later this year] will end the effective ban on gene technology outside the lab, creating new economic opportunities,” the Government says.
Genetic modification has been a vexed subject in New Zealand since the controversy that swirled around the Royal Commission of Inquiry and the Helen Clark-era “Corngate” scandal 20 years ago.
Experts say technology advances have rendered New Zealand’s GM ban outdated.
Earlier this week, Revenue Minister Simon Watts discharged a bill to create a digital services tax or flat 3% tax on Big Tech firms’ New Zealand revenue, saying it was better for the Government to collaborate on global efforts to deal with profit-shifting.
Do you have questions about the Budget? Ask our experts - business editor-at-large Liam Dann, senior political correspondent Audrey Young and Wellington business editor Jenée Tibshraeny - in a Herald Premium online Q&A here at nzherald.co.nz at 9.30am, Friday, May 23.
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.
