Budget 2024 and the future of New Zealand’s science sector – experts’ reaction

Science was notably absent from the coalition government’s messaging on the first budget.

The main source of funding is the National Science Challenges, which will end next month after 10 years; and while the science and university sectors continue to be reviewed.

SMC asked experts for comment.

Professor Nicola Gaston, Co-Director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, comments:

“This is not a surprising budget for science, research and our universities, but it is a challenge. I won’t bother commenting on the cancellation of projects planned by the previous government, but I will reiterate that the long-term trend is for the sector to run out due to inflation against an unchanged level of underlying funding.

“The 25% reduction due to inflation over the last decade has now been joined by the loss of funding from the National Science Challenge established by Steven Joyce a decade ago. Perhaps the key thing to note here is that much of this funding came from existing research funding and was reallocated to national research centers. Losing this money from the system means a cut in funding compared to 2014, even before we start worrying about accounting for inflation. This is something new.

“I’m actually surprised that the minister, who has a lot to say about the value of science, agreed to such cuts in existing funding (again, I repeat, I’m not talking about canceled new initiatives). Science and innovation is an ecosystem and many of the outcomes this government would like to see – technical skills development, commercialization, business investment in research and development and all the important economic contributions innovation can make – will be seriously hampered when so many parts of the system are struggling “

Conflict of Interest Statement: “Co-Director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, New Zealand Center of Research Excellence.”

Dr Lucy Stewart, co-chair of the New Zealand Scientists Association, comments:

“Typically, when assessing the budget from a science policy perspective, we can look for bright spots – new spending and initiatives. The analysis of this year’s budget is to determine how severe the damage will be, with previously announced cuts such as the cancellation of the Science City infrastructure program and the failure to restart the National Science Challenges program.

“There is one truly welcome new initiative – funding for Geonet, the National Seismic Hazard Model and the National Geohazard Monitoring Center has been extended through 2027, confirming the long-term nature of the funding needed to support this crucial work in our geologically active nation. However, looking to 2027, the budget also includes actual cuts of $35 million to the Marsden Fund, the Health Research Fund, the Strategic Science and Innovation Fund and the Endeavor Fund this year – perhaps to generously give researchers three years to find new job abroad. Otherwise, spending remains broadly unchanged during a period of record inflation and decades of underfunding of the sector. There is certainly no indication that anything will even remotely compensate for the loss of the National Science Challenges, which, as we have already seen, has resulted in proposed job cuts in the public science sector.

“I expect to see more layoffs across the sector before the end of the year. This lack of investment, at a time when the research and science sector has already been struggling to outperform for years with insufficient funding, will have the inevitable consequences of a loss of expertise as people move to better-funded research sectors abroad as infrastructure failure, and the research just doesn’t stop.

“Almost forty years ago, a target of 2% of GDP was set for research and development spending, appropriate for a high-skilled, innovative economy. Successive governments have declared that they want this country to become. With this budget, we are no closer to achieving that goal, and perhaps even further.

Conflict of interest statement: “I am also a spokesperson for the Save Science Coalition, a group of organizations representing scientists who are campaigning against cuts to the public science sector.”