I must say it was disturbing to learn the words “science”, “research”, “agriculture”, “horticulture” and “farming” were missing from Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ Budget speech this year.
Nor were there any Budget Day press statements or announcements from Penny Simmonds as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology.
But Ms Simmonds had scant reason to draw attention to a Budget that was disappointingly sparse in its contributions to science, research, and university funding.
True, the Science Media Centre sifted through the documents and reported that the Budget provided a big boost for research commercialisation. This included an additional $37 million towards commercialisation and partnerships and an almost $1.5 million increase to funding to support start-up companies.
But that was offset by cuts to a range of research funds and the SMC said: “There is also a reshuffling of money away from previous research funds and into the four new pillars of ‘Priority Research for New Zealand’: environment, health, primary industry and technology”.
According to one analysis, “At the highest level, funding for the science and innovation system was approximately $30 million higher in 2026 than 2025, tracking slightly below inflation pressures. No single area has directly benefited from this increase – it seems to be a much more generalised inflation adjustment.
“For the first time in some years there are precisely zero new science or research initiatives in the Summary of Initiatives which highlights the Government’s key new funding priorities.”
The Marsden Fund, the country’s only major vehicle for investigator-led blue-sky research, was among the victims. It has been cut yet again in the reordering of priorities. Long-standing funds such as the Endeavour Fund and the Strategic Science Investment Fund have been abolished, the money reallocated within into entirely new funding pools.
Professor Nicola Gaston, Director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, noted that the Government had rejected the strong advice from the Science System Advisory Group that increased funding was necessary to achieve the objectives of reform. The Budget – she lamented – showed it also had rejected those objectives. “It should have simply postponed the scale of change originally proposed, because it was never willing to pay for the cost of those changes,” she said.
Agree with her or not, the fact remains that we lag behind other OECD countries in terms of investment in science as a share of GDP – New Zealand spends around 1.5% of GDP on R&D, against an OECD average of 2.6%.
— Bob Edlin, Editor
2026 Kings Birthday Honours
My congratulations to Dr Ron Beatson FNZIAHS, for being named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the King’s Birthday Honours for services to horticulture.
Ron, who has worked as a Plant & Food Research scientist for more than 50 years, has led the breeding and genetics of hops in New Zealand for 38 years and is responsible for release of 17 specialty New Zealand hops cultivars, which are in high demand nationally and internationally.
He became an integral member of The Hops Research Committee in 1982, a dedicated collaborative group hosted by New Zealand Hops Ltd, which included grower directors and key brewers and their technical staff. He won the Brewers Guild of NZ Industry Achievement Award in 2015 and the prestigious Morton Coutts Trophy in 2021.
The majority of the country’s commercial hop industry uses hop varieties which Ron developed, but he has been involved also in breeding and developing other key horticultural crops including kiwifruit, apricots, and berry fruits.
He was part of the team awarded the Prime Minister’s Science Prize for their response to the Psa kiwifruit vine canker.
In 2022 Ron became a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute for Agricultural and Horticultural Science, and he is an Associate of Honour of the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture.
Congratulations also to:
Keith Woodford, Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to agriculture and agribusiness. He holds an honorary position as Professor of Agrifood Systems at Lincoln University and consults through his company Agrifood Systems Limited.
Dr Russell Lowe, Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit or services to horticulture and the kiwifruit industry. During more than 51 years with the Department of Scientific Industrial Research and Crown Research Institutes, he pioneered significant innovations in the kiwifruit industry.
Dr Katrina Roberts, Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the dairy industry and the community. She has provided farm consultancy and veterinary services for more than 20 years and contributed to the development of successful dairy management programmes. Her work has reduced heifer mastitis in herds across the country and reduced the need for antibiotic treatment by more than 50,000 cases a year
Dr John Caradus, HFNZIAHS
President
