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The Government is going to fund only 10 Centres of Research Excellence. Why not fund all 15?

OPINION: The New Zealand Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs) are the creme de la creme of our research landscape. Led by our best universities, CoREs bring together the leading scientists across the country to resolve the most pressing technological, environmental and social problems our nation is likely to face.

It might therefore be surprising that we have only 10 CoREs.

Among these are the Centre for Earthquake Resilience, which focuses on better building designs to avoid the tragedies Christchurch witnessed in 2011. The Brain Research New Zealand combats age-related brain disorders. My own Bio-Protection Research Centre delivers pioneering research to reduce the impacts of pests, weeds and plant diseases on our country.

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The Government has recently short-listed the 10 existing CoREs and five new proposals for possible future funding.

This followed a competitive process that can only be described as brutal. Half of the proposals didnt make the cut, leaving hundreds of scientists with nothing to show for months of hard work.

Yet the process of in-depth international review has ensured all the short-listed CoREs represent outstanding research excellence and significant potential to contribute to New Zealands future development.

The short-list of 15 will now be whittled down to a final set of 10, which will get funded. This is a tough proposition by anyones standard.

But should we really have to make a choice between heart or brain research, nanotech or medtech, food security or biosecurity? A worry is that this next step could be driven as much by public relations as by objective criteria.

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New Zealand under-invests in blue sky research, writes Professor Philip Hulme of the Bio-Protection Research Centre.

Selecting a mix of existing and new CoREs simply to refresh the research landscape, or to make sure there is a balance between technological and social sciences, or even to suit the interests of coalition partners and industry heavyweights, are probably bad ideas.

A more radical and better idea would be to fund all 15 short-listed CoREs.

Compared to other developed countries, New Zealand under-invests in the kind of blue sky research undertaken by CoREs. While Budget 2020 has provided a boost in science spend, much of it targets operational research addressing todays problems.

We still need to invest in the high risk, high reward science undertaken by CoREs that looks to solve tomorrows challenges.

CoREs are unique in their emphasis on building capability to ensure our students have the skills and competence to thrive in an uncertain post-COVID-19 world. It seems obvious that investing in CoREs will contribute significantly to both the science and also the skills needed to strengthen our fragile economy and lead the way towards our nations recovery.

Of course, I am biased since I would benefit from a decision to fund all short-listed CoREs. But the biggest beneficiary will be New Zealand.

As we recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, we cant afford to be unprepared for further shocks, whether from an earthquake, extreme climate change or the incursion of a new pest or disease.

We need to invest wisely in our future. Lets invest in the science our recovery needs.

* Professor Philip Hulme is a project leader at the Bio-Protection Research Centre, and a distinguished professor of plant biosecurity at Lincoln University.

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Fund all of the NZ Centres of Research Excellence - Stuff.co.nz