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Job title: Chief scientific officer, Ovita.

The chance to be part of an "exciting new venture with a substantial research budget and shape it from scratch" has persuaded Tanzanian-born Australian Dr Rob Bower to move, with his wife and 4-year-old child, to Dunedin from Perth.

He will shape the science strategy of Ovita, which was set up by by the Wool Board, Meat New Zealand and AgResearch to research sheep biotechnology, and which has $100 million to spend in the next five years.

In pursuing sheep research, Bower, 42, is leaving behind years in crop biotechnology.

He was involved in creating the world's first transgenic sugar cane crop, while in a post-doctorate role at the University of Queensland.

Bower, who has spent the past three years in a chief scientific officer role in Perth, is unruffled by controversy over genetic engineering in New Zealand.

"It seems to me that the Labour Government has a sound, middle-ground approach," he says.

"We're not doing genetic tinkering at Ovita, [but] using molecular biology and biotechnology to produce sheep with better productivity - augmented, conventional breeding with no creation of transgenic organisms.

"That's too controversial and difficult. There are so many other ways you can get improvements without doing that."

Although he has relatives in the North Island - his mother is a New Zealander - Bower first visited Dunedin for his job interview and was impressed.

"There's quite a buoyant biotech sector there," he says.

"They're making an effort to make it a centre of excellence."