1928 NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE No. 79

Full funding also means ensuring that the primary results of publicly-funded science and technology are able to be made available to providers and stakeholder groups through appropriate means at the marginal costs of dissemination.

Any compliance costs passed on to providers as a result of the Foundation’s obligation to provide information to the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology, for example for the purposes of evaluating the effectiveness of the investment, are to be treated as part of the full cost of programmes.

Where complementary funding for a coherent programme or portfolio of work is provided by another funder, the outputs that the Foundation is purchasing on behalf of the Government must be separately and clearly defined, or where this is impractical a clear rationale presented for the apportionment of costs. This includes partnerships with the private sector, and with other Crown funders such as Vote Education.

2.5 Assessment Criteria

All proposals must meet standards of scientific or technological merit which are acceptable to the Foundation and are to include provision for appropriate and effective interaction with users. Selection between proposals of satisfactory merit is to be on the basis of potential contribution (relevance) to the high-level and strategic goals for public good science and technology set out in this document and where appropriate in purchasing strategies developed by the Foundation.

In making its assessments, the Foundation is to consider the entire portfolio of proposals in each output class, and determine the mix which is most likely in their view to achieve outcomes by contributing to the high-level goals for public good science and technology and the strategic goals for that output class. Fostering the diversity of science and technology ideas and approaches within each portfolio is to be a strong principle in determining the distribution of funding. It is important that the portfolio be linked by purpose and not (unless coincidentally) by scientific discipline. For most output classes achievement of outcomes will rely on a judicious mix of strategic science, social research, engineering and information technology projects, environmental investigations, and a range of appropriate user-linked information transfer and technological learning initiatives.

The Foundation shall as far as possible use methods which are transparent and able to be defended robustly.

2.6 Encouragement of Strategy Development by Stakeholders

Many stakeholder groups seek to influence priorities for, and benefit from complementarities with, the public investment in science and technology. The Government encourages such groups, which are as diverse as industry sectors, government departments and regional councils, to develop their own science and technology strategies. In future, the Foundation is to increasingly focus public good science and technology investment on underpinning stakeholder groups that develop and articulate a vision for the future and their own forward-looking strategies. Stakeholder groups should also be able to demonstrate investment in research and development or in other forms of technological learning and knowledge application so that the Government can have confidence that its underpinning investment in science and technology will be rapidly and effectively exploited.

2.7 Delivering Benefits

Public good science and technology is intended to contribute to a wide range of social, economic and environmental outcomes. The Foundation’s public good science and technology purchases should be focused on portfolios providing widely dispersed net benefits, over time, to New Zealand. Funding allocation should be managed in a way that maximises the adoption and application of science and technology by users, without at the same time diminishing the incentives for, or displacing investment by other funders in the private sector or public sectors. Links and partnerships between public good science and technology and users should be fostered, to improve the strategic relevance of the publicly funded work, to maximise the adoption of results, and where possible to leverage or stimulate investment by others in research and development, human capital and technology development.

The Foundation is to continue developing and implementing a framework in which technological learning and knowledge application can be tailored to the different needs of stakeholder groups aligned to the different areas of public good science and technology. This should progressively be integrated so that purchasing strategies and the purchasing system are managed in such a way that outcomes are most likely to be achieved.

2.8 Linking Evaluation, Priority-Setting and Purchasing

Public good science and technology must contribute to outcomes for New Zealand by fulfilling the high-level goals set out in section 1.2. These high-level goals must be linked with more measurable objectives and the progress in achieving objectives and goals needs to be evaluated through performance indicators. During the next major review of priorities for public good science and technology, strategic objectives will be articulated within an appropriate framework. In the meantime, the Government wishes to signal that this is its intention by stating strategic goals, listed in Annex 1, for each output class. These strategic goals have of necessity been deduced from existing purchasing strategies.

In future, strategic objectives will be identified during the priority-setting process and used to guide the Foundation’s portfolio-level purchasing. The objectives will not be prescriptive as to the nature of the science and technology that is to be purchased, but will state in measurable terms important outcomes the Government is seeking in each area. They will also be the basis for evaluation over time. Evaluation results will then feed into future priority-setting and into the Foundation’s purchasing strategies.

3. Priorities to the Year 2000/2001

3.1 Output Class Framework

The Government has chosen to express its priorities for public good science and technology by establishing funding targets for the year 2000/01 within seventeen output classes. The output classes are defined in Annex 1. The classification of outputs is based on the purpose of undertaking public good science and technology, not on scientific disciplines or generic technologies. A wide range of scientific and technological research and development, including social research and development, would normally be required to contribute effectively to outcomes in many of the output classes. Collaborative and cross-output research should be encouraged where this improves efficiency or effectiveness in contributing to public good science and technology goals.