Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Dr Shane Reti said the money will fund a new Biodiscovery Platform, led by the Bioeconomy Science Institute, over the next seven years.
“This is an economic growth initiative. By harnessing New Zealand’s biodiversity, we can develop world-class, export-ready products that create jobs, grow businesses and increase our global market share,” Dr Reti said.
The global market for bio-based products is forecast to top 300 billion US dollars by 2027. Dr Reti said the new platform would help New Zealand companies fast-track products for international markets and reduce the risks for private investors.
He compared the plan to the growth of the honey sector, which saw exports rise from 187 million dollars in 2014 to 420 million dollars by 2025, largely driven by mānuka honey.
“That’s the kind of uplift we want to replicate across multiple natural product sectors,” he said.
The institute will bring together researchers, Māori enterprises and industry partners to focus on commercially driven science and innovation.
The Biodiscovery Platform is part of a wider strategy to grow the country’s science and technology economy. In the past six months, the Government has committed funding to areas including artificial intelligence, advanced materials, research programmes and the gaming sector.
Dr Reti said the goal was to make sure New Zealand stayed competitive in global markets.
“Science, innovation and technology is one of the five pillars of our Going for Growth strategy. This investment ensures our natural advantages deliver long-term economic gains,” he said.
Broadcaster Chris Lynch is an award winning journalist who also produces Christchurch news and video content for domestic and international companies. This article was originally published by Chris Lynch Media and is published here with kind permission.
The global market for bio-based products is forecast to top 300 billion US dollars by 2027. Dr Reti said the new platform would help New Zealand companies fast-track products for international markets and reduce the risks for private investors.
He compared the plan to the growth of the honey sector, which saw exports rise from 187 million dollars in 2014 to 420 million dollars by 2025, largely driven by mānuka honey.
“That’s the kind of uplift we want to replicate across multiple natural product sectors,” he said.
The institute will bring together researchers, Māori enterprises and industry partners to focus on commercially driven science and innovation.
The Biodiscovery Platform is part of a wider strategy to grow the country’s science and technology economy. In the past six months, the Government has committed funding to areas including artificial intelligence, advanced materials, research programmes and the gaming sector.
Dr Reti said the goal was to make sure New Zealand stayed competitive in global markets.
“Science, innovation and technology is one of the five pillars of our Going for Growth strategy. This investment ensures our natural advantages deliver long-term economic gains,” he said.
Broadcaster Chris Lynch is an award winning journalist who also produces Christchurch news and video content for domestic and international companies. This article was originally published by Chris Lynch Media and is published here with kind permission.
12 comments:
Dr Reti has done a great job focusing academia on providing value for their taxpayer funded salaries.
It is embarrassing so called academics failed miserably to provide useful information and advice, so had to be reorganized by politicians.
Academics failed us by staying quiet as the covid fraud unfolded.
And they are failing us today by leaving Dr McCullough as the lone academic voice exposing kiwi battler wallet emptying: insurance, banking, supermarket, councils, and electricity cartels.
Why? Why should the taxpayers fork out for this. Maori have already claimed the rights to all flora, fauna and minerals in NZ. So any successful products will immediately be handed over to the Iwi to fight over.
So again, why should we, the general taxpayer, be funding this.
"Maori Enterprises"
why?
The Bioeconomy Science Institute brings together AgResearch, Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, Plant & Food Research and Scion into a single organisation. Their “Partnering with Māori” policy is Working with “Māori Organisations”.
[Three guesses who will benefit the most from the taxpayers $42 million new funding]
“Māori – the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand – have knowledge created over thousands of years. We weave Māori concepts of taiao – the interconnectedness of all living things – and Te Ao Māori – the Māori world view – into how we work as an organisation. We believe working towards stronger partnerships with Māori will help us in our goal to develop the best food systems in the world.
Mātauranga Māori (knowledge) and Māori taonga (treasures) are inherited and entrusted to the current generation to care for, to contribute to, and to evolve for future generations. By working with Māori organisations, we can create, innovate and preserve taonga – including our lands (whenua), oceans (moana) and plant and food species – for future generations. We also work with our partners to create collaborative research models that weave Mātauranga Māori and western science together, sharing knowledge to contribute to long-term cultural, social and environmental wellbeing for all”.
https://www.plantandfood.com/en-nz/partnering-with-maori
The statement provided by Anon. @ 9.03 reads more like religion than science and if that is the way forward in this 'science' initiative I see very little progress and lots of specious nonsense getting in way of anything empirically useful. I once had occasion to question why AgResearch, a supposedly 'hard science' organisation, was marketing deer velvet as a pharmaceutically useful product without any empirical evidence to support the endeavour. I think that 'bad-pharma' exercise has stopped, but not the efforts to produce a vaccine that stops ruminants producing less methane in the vain attempt to reverse the effects of solar radiation in producing the climate of this planet. You have to wonder if there is anyone in these 'science' organisations with the guts to stop this nonsense.
>"By working with Māori organisations, we can ... preserve ... our lands ... , oceans ... and plant and food species – for future generations."
Given that the Maori burned down great chunks of forest and hunted or otherwise drove various native species to extinction, that should read "By working with Pakeha organisations, we can preserve........"
Why Dr Reti are we handing over more taxpayer's dollars to Maori who will make it disappear rapidly without any documentation, audits, or accountability ?
I can already see the local SUV dealers gleefully rubbing their hands together.
More Maori emboldened by sucker politicians.
Dr Reti, you government has the mandate and the instructions from your voters to stop this destruction of democracy.
Please explain to us why you are not doing that ?
As some Maori claim radiata pine as "taonga" as the logging industry is so important to Maori people, what are they going to do when truly indigenous species are used as a biological resource ?
Dr Reti, are you in cahoots with Maori ?
Have you thought this proposal through ?
Are you happy that it will become yet another trough to be perpetually filled by the taxpayers ?
If this initiative is taken at face value and funds genuine scientific research, then everyone benefits by documenting the efficacy of "traditional" healing remedies. Even if no evidence can be found that the stuff works, it's money well spent simply by getting to the truth of the matter. Any commercial benefit arising is a bonus. The only losers are the snakeoil vendors, but they are light on their feet and will undoubtedly move onto the next scam because they know perfectly well that a fool and his money are soon parted.
Surely the Anon 9.03 quote is not from Reti. Manuka honey was and is primarily a marketing con with negligible relation to science. Fonterra with all their resources seem to have given up on inniovative development here but we a pinning faith in some new assembly presumably with a major maori input, nota renowned precursor to advanced scientific development.
Join the dots - this is simply more taxpayer money laundered for Maori, wrapped in a word-salad promo for the government. The lack of authenticity is revealed by it being 180-degrees at odds of parallel endeavours to destroy our agricultural sector via gene technologies themselves supercharged by AI. Only interesting aspect to ponder here is "who will get us first?" 50/50 the Maori or the Frankenfood?
Question will be how much of the $42M will go to laboratory science? My hunch is that most $ will go to consultations, meetings, vague reports, travel expenses ... and that the taxpayers will never see a detailed breakdown of expenses.
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