Callaghan, NSC funding knocked in science plan submissions   18 Dec 2014

Callaghan, NSC funding knocked in national science plan submissions

Paul McBeth

Dec. 18 (BusinessDesk) - Callaghan Innovation, which was last year allocated a budget of $566 million over four years to dish out research and development grants, and the National Science Challenges attracted criticism in submissions on the government's draft national statement of science investment, with science funding largely seen as too fragmented.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment received 108 submissions on the draft statement released in May, and while most shied away from commenting on specific funding mechanisms, "many felt there were too many, creating fragmentation and leading to a loss of efficiency and lack of synergy," according to a summary of submissions published today.

Of the specific mechanisms, the Marsden Fund drew significant levels of praise for producing high quality science though was seen as lacking industry-relevant research, the primary growth partnership received general positive feedback and Centres of Research Excellence attracted more support than criticism. The performance-based research fund got a mixed review with funds applied in different ways across tertiary education organisations.

The National Science Challenges, which have total funding of up to $180.8 million over 10 years, were seen as being too complex, with one submitter saying "their processes are very confusing and may not involve rigorous review of individual projects," while the MBIE sector-specific funds were regarded as under-resourced.

Callaghan received "a mix of largely negative views" on its performance in administering funds, with submitters "concerned about a lack of links between Callaghan Innovation and industry, believing more effort needs to be applied here."

One submission said "the periodic announcements of the lists of grant recipients somewhat ungainly" and questioned what else Callaghan did: "If the dispensing of grants is its function, we recommend more of this responsibility be contracted to private sector industry organisations which have direct, enduring relationships with their business members."

The funding agency yesterday suspended an R&D grant to Trends Publishing yesterday, saying it had concerns about the legitimacy of the media company's claims and had referred the matter to the Serious Fraud Office. Trends has since come out saying it denies the allegations, and criticised Callaghan for not giving it time to respond to the draft report before making a public statement.

In a statement accompanying the release of the summary, Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce said "stakeholders also recognised that further change, particularly to MBIE’s contestable sector-specific funds, was necessary to raise the performance of the science system."

Submissions on the statement generally agreed that there's more need for international collaboration, and that emerging researchers lacked funding support. They also largely agreed funding mechanisms could be improved by reducing the number available, and that the current structures of competitive funding inhibited collaboration. Restructuring of the government's investment strategy was also a shared concern.

The lack of business incentives in R&D was also widely shared, with economic levers or incentives, such as tax breaks, seen as the best way to encourage industry co-investment. R&D tax credits, introduced by Labour, were phased out under National.

Submitters were also concerned about limited opportunities for scientists in the private sector leading to a lack of institutional knowledge.

Where opinions diverged was over the degree to which economic outcomes should guide investment, and how scientific quality should be assessed. Submitters also questioned whether the level of contestable funding was right.

Among the submitters, 32 were tertiary education institutions, 28 were business related industry bodies and private groups, 15 were peak science and funding bodies, 14 were Crown research institutes and independent research organisations, 11 were not-for-profits or other individual submitters, and eight were local government bodies and museums.

MBIE will release full copies of the submissions next year.

(BusinessDesk receives funding from Callaghan Innovation to write on the commercialisation of innovation.)

(BusinessDesk)

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