Research and Development

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• Not available on their website yet.

• $1 billion of new government funding over three years for research and development to kick-start a transformation shift in how our economy creates wealth.
• Government taking a collaborative partnership approach to innovation with the private sector, including R&D funding made up of tax credits and grants, a requirement for firms that go into overseas ownership to repay their grants, and a new voluntary option for large grants where companies that receive significant taxpayer funding agree to the Government taking an equity stake in their business.
• Funding an additional 1,000 places at tertiary institutions for students of engineering, mathematics, computer science and the physical sciences. (more here)

• Labour will introduce an R&D tax credit at the rate of 12.5%. It aims to lift New Zealand’s lagging R&D expenditure by encouraging businesses to research and innovate. (more here)

• Not available on their website yet.

• Establish a priority investment fund for Māori Research and Development. We will promote collaboration between Māori entrepreneurs, scientists and innovators to improve opportunities, jobs and incomes.
• Create and resource a real and virtual incubation hub for hapū and iwi to test the economic viability of new ideas on the local and global market and to mentor researchers. (more here)

• Increase business-led R&D by:

1. Investing an additional $20 million a year in business R&D to help create valuable products and service that drive economic growth.
2. Helping lift business spending on R&D to 1 per cent of GDP.
3. Setting the right tax environment by allowing tax deductibility for R&D black-hole expenditure and allow start-ups to cash-out their R&D tax losses.

• Investigate up to three private sector Regional Science Institutes around New Zealand.

1. These institutes, similar to Nelson’s Cawthron Institute, will engage in short and long-term R&D with a tight focus on regional economic growth.

• Boost primary sector R&D by:

1. Establishing a Food Safety Science and Research Centre to help ensure New Zealand’s food system remains the best in the world.
2. Continuing to invest in the Primary Growth Partnership, which has the potential to deliver returns of up to $11 billion by 2025, and the Sustainable Farming Fund.

• Establish four additional Centres of Excellence, with one focused on Maori research to lift research quality and encourage networking and collaboration across the tertiary sector.
• Ensure the prominence of science by:

1. Rolling out the Science in Society Project to encourage school students to study science, technology, engineering, and maths.
2. Finalising the National Statement of Science Investment and help guide our investments as we look to achieve our Government R&D target of 0.8 per cent of GDP over time. (more here)

• Provide tax incentives for businesses to engage in research and development leading to innovation and export growth.
• Increase the proportion of tertiary tuition subsidies for specific courses to increase the number of appropriately qualified graduates (e.g. science and technology).
• Introduce further scholarships (especially at post-graduate level) to ensure that we keep our best students and provide for research and development expertise.
• Expand publicly-funded topo-culture research through rural New Zealand.
• Assist New Zealand companies in developing new technology and facilitate technology transfer. (more here)

• Develop a National Science Strategy that identifies New Zealand’s resource and capability needs, international trends, and the medium and long term direction.
• Increase government funding of Research, Science & Technology (RST) as a proportion of GDP to at least the OECD average.
• Investigate ways to increase the amount of privately-funded RST. Current government policy is to reduce public funding of research that benefits industry, assuming that producers will contribute directly, but it can be difficult to attract industry funding for projects with a longer-term horizon from private enterprise, as they often seek more immediate benefits in productivity.
• Ensure the scope and operation of the current range of Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) maintain a balance between public good activity and commercial applications.
• Increase the attractiveness of research and science as a career option by reducing the costs of study through our zero tuition fees policy, expanding current bonding schemes for teachers and medical professionals to scientists in return for a continuous period of work in New Zealand, and by establishing a system of research scholarships between tertiary providers and the private sector. (more here)