RNZ reported yesterday that “a decades-old fund dedicated to blue-skies research says it was given a day’s notice of further funding cuts and told to keep quiet about it until the government made it public”.
The team at PoO imagines it was not the fund, but the administrators of the fund, who were given a day’s notice.
Regardless of to whom or to what the news of a budgetary cut was delivered, the RNZ reporter was referring to the Marsden Fund,
“… which backs fundamental research – science for the sake of knowledge.”
Research into a Treaty-based tax system for example.
And on learning how 18th century poetry influenced settlers’ treaty making with indigenous peoples.
And on establishing how plants hear the contrasting vibrations of a bee buzzing and a caterpillar chewing.
It is among three contestable funds to lose millions of dollars to enable the Government to set up the new Institute for Advanced Technology.
RNZ told us: :
Scientists said slashing funding for such research could have significant unintended consequences for innovation and warned the Prime Minister as such in a letter earlier this month.
And:
The cuts come amid a long-awaited review into the sector – final recommendations were delivered to the Science Minister three months ago, but are yet to be made public – and after the government announced the biggest overhaul of the science system in decades, to “ensure a system that generates maximum value for the economy”.
The reforms so far have seen the dissolution of science commercialisation arm, Callaghan Innovation, and merger of the six Crown Research Institutes into three mega science entities or Public Research Organisations (PROs) plus a fourth dedicated to advanced technology.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) said $231 million has been earmarked for the Institute for Advanced Technology over the next four years,.
More than half – $150.4m – was to be reallocated from within the science, innovation, and technology portfolio.
MBIE’s general manager of technology and innovation Dean Ford said this represented a shift in priorities towards emerging technologies that could be commercialised.
“The majority of this funding will continue to go into science – but into new areas of research that have significant potential, where New Zealand is developing greater capability.”
From July 2028, the Endeavour Fund, which provided funding for university researchers, will have its funding cut by $13.5m, and the Health and Research Council will lose $11.5m.
The Marsden Fund will have its funding slashed by a one-off $15m.
The Royal Society, which administered the Marsden Fund, said it learned of the $15m funding cut the day before the Institute for Advanced Technology was announced last month.
The society said the $15m reallocation “effectively doubles the reductions already announced in this year’s budget, amounting to a cut of about 29 percent over the 3 years from 2026/27 to 2028/29”.
President of the Royal Society, professor Jane Harding, said:
“The Society is very concerned that cuts to funding for the fundamental research supported by the Marsden Fund will undermine the long-term potential of the new Institute and other parts of the sector that apply early stage research, by significantly reducing the pipeline of knowledge at the new-discovery end of the process.
“This may have important unintended consequences for New Zealand in the long term.”
The cuts follow a government directive last year, that resulted in the Marsden Fund abandoning support for social science and humanities research and directing at least half of its investments to research with economic potential.
And how will the country and the wellbeing of the people be affected?
PoO’s revisited the Marsden Fund announcement last November of how it dished out its 2024 money and to what purpose to help provide an answer.
PoO team members with health issues were grateful to see funding of $360,000 was provided for a project dealing with…
“… which backs fundamental research – science for the sake of knowledge.”
Research into a Treaty-based tax system for example.
And on learning how 18th century poetry influenced settlers’ treaty making with indigenous peoples.
And on establishing how plants hear the contrasting vibrations of a bee buzzing and a caterpillar chewing.
It is among three contestable funds to lose millions of dollars to enable the Government to set up the new Institute for Advanced Technology.
RNZ told us: :
Scientists said slashing funding for such research could have significant unintended consequences for innovation and warned the Prime Minister as such in a letter earlier this month.
And:
The cuts come amid a long-awaited review into the sector – final recommendations were delivered to the Science Minister three months ago, but are yet to be made public – and after the government announced the biggest overhaul of the science system in decades, to “ensure a system that generates maximum value for the economy”.
The reforms so far have seen the dissolution of science commercialisation arm, Callaghan Innovation, and merger of the six Crown Research Institutes into three mega science entities or Public Research Organisations (PROs) plus a fourth dedicated to advanced technology.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) said $231 million has been earmarked for the Institute for Advanced Technology over the next four years,.
More than half – $150.4m – was to be reallocated from within the science, innovation, and technology portfolio.
MBIE’s general manager of technology and innovation Dean Ford said this represented a shift in priorities towards emerging technologies that could be commercialised.
“The majority of this funding will continue to go into science – but into new areas of research that have significant potential, where New Zealand is developing greater capability.”
From July 2028, the Endeavour Fund, which provided funding for university researchers, will have its funding cut by $13.5m, and the Health and Research Council will lose $11.5m.
The Marsden Fund will have its funding slashed by a one-off $15m.
The Royal Society, which administered the Marsden Fund, said it learned of the $15m funding cut the day before the Institute for Advanced Technology was announced last month.
The society said the $15m reallocation “effectively doubles the reductions already announced in this year’s budget, amounting to a cut of about 29 percent over the 3 years from 2026/27 to 2028/29”.
President of the Royal Society, professor Jane Harding, said:
“The Society is very concerned that cuts to funding for the fundamental research supported by the Marsden Fund will undermine the long-term potential of the new Institute and other parts of the sector that apply early stage research, by significantly reducing the pipeline of knowledge at the new-discovery end of the process.
“This may have important unintended consequences for New Zealand in the long term.”
The cuts follow a government directive last year, that resulted in the Marsden Fund abandoning support for social science and humanities research and directing at least half of its investments to research with economic potential.
And how will the country and the wellbeing of the people be affected?
PoO’s revisited the Marsden Fund announcement last November of how it dished out its 2024 money and to what purpose to help provide an answer.
PoO team members with health issues were grateful to see funding of $360,000 was provided for a project dealing with…
Preserving and repairing heart function with suPAR after a heart attack.
It looks like $941,000 would be well-spent, too, on finding…
A new, milder way to guide toxic drugs to cancer cells
Those of us concerned about climate change and efforts to reduce emissions from the farm sector were cheered that $942,000 was earmarked for…
Producing next-generation materials that can capture methane
Similarly, we saw merit in investing $941,000 in…
Developing a new, flexible, low-cost class of organic solar cells that convert sunlight directly into electricity
But we would like to know more before we support the spending of $853,000 on
Mā te tāke tika, e mau roa te iwi: with a just tax system, the people are sustained. Researching a Te Tiriti-affirming tax system design.
Before the arrival of Europeans, Maori had no monetary system. Their economy was based on a barter system.
The implications for applying that sort of arrangement to a Treaty-affirming tax-gathering system – and the Government’s Budget deficit – are huge.
Then there’s the spending of
- $941,000 on
Spying on the daily rhythm of a honeybee hive.
This voyeurism – we trust – is intended to foster economic growth by enabling apiarists to persuade their bees to produce more honey.
- $360,000 on learning
Can we halt soil degradation through a new consideration of soil sovereignty?
The word ”sovereignty” niggles us. Militant Māori have led us to associate it with vexing Treaty claims.
- $859,000 spent on
Me aro ki te hā o Hineahuone: the significant contribution of wāhine from Te Tai Tokerau.
The significant contribution of these wāhine to achieving what, exactly?
- And how will we be better off when have learned more about their accomplishments?$941,000 on learning
Do mantis shrimps use one or two eyes to strike prey and predators accurately?
We had not been deeply troubled by this question, here at PoO.
Now that we have been alerted to it, we must confess to wondering how the knowledge will be put to good use when the researchers have found the answer.
Will our shrimp paste taste better?
- $360,000 to establish
What is a ‘surplus’ zoo animal and what should happen to them?
We confess to being apt to seeing things somewhat simplistically, here at PoO.
If a zoo has enough space for its animals and enough money to feed them, there should be no surpluses.
- $941,000 on
Unearthing stories of early Māori ancestry and adaptation in Te Tai Tokerau.
This implies that not all stories have been passed down from one generation to the next.
So where have they been buried?
But wait. There’s more spending that cries out for more information before we can enthuse about the use to which it has been put.
- $660,000 on
How 18th century poetry influenced settlers’ treaty making with indigenous peoples$706,000 on
Developing models of reputation dynamics, to explore how scrutiny and social standing generate cooperation among strangers.
- $660,000 on
Death’s impact on privacy, reputation and mana. A comparative exploration of Pākehā law and tikanga Māori
- $360,000 on
What drives the rise of indigenous nonreligion and how does it connect to broader trends? A comparison between Aotearoa New Zealand and Canada.
- $869,000 on
Tiaki tāne: Kaupapa Māori approaches to exploring causes of youth offending for rangatahi tāne Māori.]
- $869,000 on
Combining te ao Māori concepts with contemporary economic methods to build a model of the Aotearoa New Zealand economy that analyses and quantifies intergenerational wellbeing.
- $870,000 on
Creating a demographic database of iwi, hapū and kāinga in the 19th century to better understand population change during colonisation.
- $360,000 on
Examining which syllables are stressed in te reo Māori and why.
- $852,000 on
Ngā Rōpū Kupu o Te Reo Māori: understanding the parts of speech in Te Reo Māori.
- $660,000 on
How will a phonetician’s work from 100 years ago alter our understanding of the evolution of modern New Zealand English?
- $360,000 on
Centring Pacific girl gamers’ voices in understanding how gaming contributes to their wellbeing, identity and relationships
- $360,000 on
Ngā Kōrero Tawhito: using an archive of recordings of native te reo Māori speakers to assess the evolution of the language.
- $360,000 on
How do plants hear the contrasting vibrations of a bee buzzing and a caterpillar chewing?
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE. - where this article was sourced.
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