Crown Research Institutes

As a Crown Research Institute referred to New Zealand means the national research institutes , which in 1992 under the Crown Research Institute Act 1992 were founded.

These include the following institutes:

• AgResearch (AgResearch).
• Industrial Research (IRL).
• Institute of Environmental Science & Research (ESR).
• Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS Science).
• Landcare Research New Zealand (Landcare Research).
• National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).
• New Zealand Forest Research Institute trades as Scion
• The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research (Plant & Food Research).

history

In the 1980s, the research area and the responsible departments in the ministries were subjected to a review. The objective for this was to make research and science more effective and efficient. Studies prepared for this purpose demonstrated the poor state of financial support and prioritization of research and science projects. This led to the reform of this sector in the early 1990s.

With the Crown Research Institutes Act 1992 , responsibilities were outsourced from the ministries on July 1, 1992 and initially ten independent research institutes were founded. With the Companies Act 1993 , all institutions were converted into limited companies.

It was now the task of the institutes to operate independently, to organize research and science projects independently, to improve and better prioritize the financing of projects, to improve funding from the private sector and to improve the efficiency of the entire system.

Division of responsibility

The 1992 reform led to the following new organizational form and separate areas of responsibility:

• The Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MoRST) was from now on responsible for the political guidelines and recommendations.
• The Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST) should be responsible for funding research and science.
• The Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) should be there for actual scientific research.

Changes

As of 2009, eight of the original ten institutes still exist (see above). The Institute for Social Research and Development was dissolved in August 1995 due to a lack of profitability and in December 2008 the New Zealand Institute for Crop & Food Research and the Horticulture & Food Research Institute of New Zealand were merged to form the New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research .

Profit orientation

The institutes were encouraged to generate their own equity . From 1992 to June 30, 2008, all institutes combined had assets of NZ $ 669.2 million . The number of employees on the same reporting date was 4,235, of which 3,478 were working directly on research projects.

In 2006 the New Zealand government formulated its return targets for the Crown Research Institutes in detail. According to this, the institutes should generate an annual return of 9% in order to be able to a) further strengthen their equity capital and b) secure their long-term profitability.

Web links

• Crown Research Institutes . The Treasury , November 11, 2013,accessed July 12, 2015. 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Crown Research Institutes '(CRIs') Target Return on Equity . (PDF 406 kB) The Treasury , February 2006, archived from the original on March 18, 2005 ; Retrieved on July 12, 2015 (English, document no longer available on original website).