NZAS Supports Saving Biotechnology Capacity In Callaghan; Asks What Now For Applied Technology Group

The New Zealand Association of Scientists (NZAS) Co-Presidents applaud Science Innovation and Technology Minister Dr Shane Reti’s announcement today that two groups of scientists at Callaghan Innovation have been given a lifeline.

The Biotechnology group with Callaghan Innovation will transfer to the new Bioeconomy Public Research Organisation (PRO), which will be created from a merger of Scion, Plant and Food Research, Manaaki Whenua, and AgResearch as of 1 October 2025. The Applied Technology group will be funded until 30 September 2025 to carry out existing commercial contracts.

NZAS Co-President Troy Baisden says, “This partially averts a crazy prospect – units which are critical to the early stages of helping startups and firms develop technology were being made redundant months to a year before a new organisation with the same purpose is to be created. Skilled scientists and technicians would be lost, likely overseas, while a crisis had been created around the future of equipment and laboratories shared with the co-located Robinson and Ferrier research institutes within Victoria University of Wellington.”

“We must reiterate that the Applied Technology group at Callaghan has no permanent pathway to the proposed Advanced Technology PRO, which is not scheduled to form until 2026, with no further detail released today on the process or timeline for this organisation. The current staff at Callaghan are critical to the future of advanced technology research in Aotearoa New Zealand and will be looking overseas after September.”

“This unnecessary brinkmanship and backtracking is an expensive and direct result of the ongoing lack of capacity in the science and innovation policy within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. We reiterate our call for a separate science ministry that performs like those in peer nations.”

“We need a well-performing science ministry to reform our research system so it more efficiently delivers the knowledge and innovation that makes us healthier, safer and more productive. The Science System Advisory Group (SSAG) chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman contained a recommended way to better advise the minister during this critical period when we need to complete a system reform.”

Co-President Lucy Stewart adds, “The SSAG recommendations provide a coherent way forward. We need to see parallel recommendations and integration with the future of our universities. Leadership is needed to ensure a coherent and complete reform. We reiterate the SSAG’s warning that this process cannot be treated as a smorgasbord, and that their recommendations will be effective when implemented as a package.”

“The future of Advanced Technologies in New Zealand are brighter today because we're keeping rather than tossing out a big cluster of tasty options for the future - but we still have a group of scientists whose future is very uncertain. We need the leadership that will allow us to develop a wider plan for our future foundations of science and technology.”

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