By Dr Lucy Stewart (pictured, far left)
Co-President of NZ Association of Scientists, Spokesperson for the Save Science Coalition
The public science system in Aotearoa New Zealand is currently facing a generational crisis.
Government funding cuts have seen more than 400 science jobs axed across the public science sector since the start of the year.
At the same time there has been a reduction in funding for science research on top of the loss of $64 million a year of funding for the National Science Challenges, which finished this year.
These cuts will have a negative impact for all science and research in New Zealand. While the science sector encompasses both private and public work, it is the public science sector that provides the foundation for all science and innovation in our country. It helps train future workers; it builds and maintains scientific infrastructure; and collects and holds data which supports a wide variety of research and innovation. The public science sector performs research for the public good, such as for example assessing the risk from natural hazards like earthquake and tsunamis.
In response to this defunding of science by the coalition Government the Save Science Coalition (SSC) was founded in May by the PSA and the New Zealand Association of Scientists (NZAS). The coalition has four key goals:
- to oppose cuts to science funding and science staff across government institutions
- to highlight and catalogue what is being lost through the current cuts
- to defend support for world-leading indigenous research including mātauranga Māori
- to make the case for a foundation of support for public science and re-committing to a target of 2% of GDP to be invested in research and development in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The Save Science Coalition invited unions, scientific societies, and other bodies representing scientists and the scientific workforce to join the coalition. The result was an overwhelmingly positive response, with 27 other organisations now part of the coalition. In July the Save Science Coalition launched its ‘Science Under Threat’ report which provides a comprehensive overview of the cuts to public sector science across all areas of government.
Unfortunately, it looks likely that there will be more job cuts in the second half of the year.
The Save Science Coalition has been active in advocating for the sector. Representatives met with science spokespeople from the Opposition, who have received the Science Under Threat report with interest. The Save Science Coalition is currently pursuing a meeting with the Minister for Science, Innovation, and Technology.
The public science system at large is also awaiting the long-delayed report from Sir Peter Gluckman’s Science System Advisory Group, which is likely to set the stage for the transformation of the public science system in 2025 and beyond, picking up from the cancelled Te Ara Paerangi science funding programme.
An attempt to request the report under the Official Information Act last month was rejected as it is before Cabinet, so the Save Science Coalition hopes to see some decisions before the end of the year.
In the meantime, the Save Science Coaltition will continue working to ensure that a functional public science sector survives to meet the challenges of any new transformation.
