Anthony Scott: Future lies in innovation

Last month more than 350 people gathered to celebrate the stunning achievements of the nation's young scientists at a glittering event in Auckland.

On the same night, the President of the Association of Scientists was speaking to a national forum of scientists and politicians on "the science crisis in New Zealand".

The most telling aspect was that neither event got much media coverage.

Such indifference is the underlying threat to science in New Zealand. And the antidote is: demonstrating value.

I can argue that New Zealand science has never been so replete with top quality people, so well connected to global science, so productive, so engaged with industry and yet challenging, or so attractive to young people with vision and ambition.

Equally, I can be dismayed at university enrolments in science relative to those in business or law courses, at the greying of our science workforce, the time spent in applying for grants, or how science pay packets have not grown as much as those in some other fields.

But the "Is the glass half-full or half-empty?" exchange not only misses the point, it also lacks an audience. It does not engage anyone outside the science community because it fails to link science with the value it adds to people's lives.

Test yourself: replace "science" in the statements above with "health". Feel the difference?

The challenge to science managers, business, sector and political leaders is clear: demonstrate to New Zealanders that our current and future wealth depends on science-based innovation. The investment and the people we need will flow from that.

We cannot simply demand money or the best students as if it is our right. We have to make that emotive connection which underpins society's support for education, health and social welfare.

The recent Statistics New Zealand survey of research and development attracted little coverage and no analysis.

It showed that research and development (R&D) activity rose 13 per cent from 2002 to $1.6 billion in 2004 - led by a 25 per cent increase in private sector R&D. We now invest 1.17 per cent of GDP into science, a percentage growing each year in the face of a rising GDP.

But Australia invests 1.62 per cent and the OECD average is 2.26 per cent.

While some nations put in 4.5 per cent of GDP, a New Zealand politician suggesting the same would be sent a "please explain" note from the electorate. So, how do we turn this around?

By telling stories from our past and present that demonstrate value and by inspiring the young to see science as a way in which to make a difference, for themselves and for their society.

We certainly have stories to tell.

From our past we have the science heroes who in the 1930s identified cobalt deficiency and transformed millions of hectares of central North Island volcanic soils into productive land.

In the 1950s, phosphate chemistry transformed our pastoral lands and created a booming economy.

In the 1990s improved plant and animal genetics and new land-management strategies transformed food production, using less land for more food.

Science has lifted horticulture from a $116 million industry 25 years ago to one with export earnings today of $2.2 billion. Science underpins forestry as our third-largest export earner.

The "100 per cent pure" New Zealand that supports our tourism industry depends on environmental science to preserve our unique land, water, flora and fauna.

High valued added industries are being created around biotechnology.

Industrial Research Limited, a CRI, has helped to design two new drugs with an estimated annual market value of $630 to $945 million.

Let's shout loudly that our scientists are the most productive in the world, with more high quality research publications per research dollar than anyone else. Few other sectors of our economy can claim to be five times as productive as Japan.

It is encouraging to see industry leaders acknowledge the importance of science in the success of their sectors; even more so to hear that science is multiplying their future opportunities.

We need more of those stories in the business and general news headlines. Research shows we like science stories, albeit that many are about health, cancer "cures" and science oddities from elsewhere in the world.

The Herald has pioneered treating science as a news round like health or business. Journalists now convey the consequences, context and possibilities of the science-based development, rather than attempt a science lesson.

Those of us in the system have to lift our eyes beyond the daily grind.

Let's talk about science as a route by which to make a difference, become wealthy, become my own boss, work in teams with like-minded others, express creativity, teach others and learn from the young, see the world, have an effect which lives beyond my lifetime. All these things are true of science in New Zealand today.

By showing New Zealanders that we add value to their lives, we will ensure it is even truer in the future.

* Anthony Scott is Executive Director of the Association of Crown Research Institutes Inc