SCIENCE BY NUMBERS

New Zealand’s science sector includes the equivalent of about 20,000 full-time

researchers, according to official government sources. Many are employed by eight universities and three wānanga, seven CRIs, an innovation agency (Callaghan Innovation), and 23 independent research organisations, including the high-profile Cawthron Institute in Nelson.

The seven CRIs are AgResearch, ESR (Environmental Science and Research), GNS Science, Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, Niwa, Plant and Food Research and Scion. There are also 10 Centres of Research Excellence in areas ranging from nanotechnology to earthquakes, and 11 national science challenges, which are intended to ensure a crossdisciplinary approach to solving specific issues.

SPENDING

New Zealand has been way behind many of our peers when it comes to spending on research and development for many years. Public and private sector expenditure on R&D rose from 1.1% of GDP in

2001 to just 1.4% in 2019. The average across the OECD in 2019 was 2.47% of GDP, but some countries spend well above this. Overall, New Zealand spent about $4.5 billion on R&D in

2020, which was well up on previous years. However, most of this heavy lifting is being done by businesses. Back in 2012, the private sector and the public sector each spent about $1.2 billion on R&D. By 2020, the private sector had boosted its spending to $2.7 billion, while the public sector had increased its spending to

only $1.8 billion. As a proportion of GDP, spending by the public sector actually fell between 2012 and 2020, from 0.67% to 0.57%.