Different hemispheres, same ambitions: New Zealand and Europe
Similar scientific priorities, a shared worldview and scientific excellence make Europe and New Zealand very compatible research partners, believes Steve Maharey, New Zealand's Minister for Research, Science and Technology. The Minister was in Europe for 10 days to raise the profile of New Zealand science in Europe, to discuss the establishment of a formal agreement with the EU, to boost bilateral relations and to learn from how some European countries have set up their science systems. 'This isn't about just saying 'let's do some science', it's about trying to get the process of science internationalised, working out where the best pockets of science might be and drawing on the network that's been established here,' said Mr Maharey, summing up his visit to Europe. Around 23 teams from New Zealand participated in about 13 projects under the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6), and the minister is confident that there is a place for his country in FP7. Since 1991 New Zealand has had an Arrangement for Cooperation in Science and Technology (S&T) with the European Commission, and is now hoping to upgrade this to an S&T Agreement, based on mutual benefit and reciprocal opportunities for access to each other's programmes. Mr Maharey has agreed with EU Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik that both sides will work towards the agreement, and New Zealand is hopeful that it could be signed during 2007. 'Everyone we've met has been talking the same language - that we would be good partners to develop further,' Mr Maharey told CORDIS News. The minister was eager to highlight exactly how important the trip to Europe was for New Zealand. The 13-person delegation was much larger than usual New Zealand delegations. The group included a wide range of scientific and administrative experts so that their counterparts in Europe would 'get a real sense that this matters to us', says the minister. The minister also announced new money for funding mobility under FP7 - NZD 150,000 (over €79,000) per year. 'We want to signal that we wouldn't simply be coming and asking for things, we want to build on the money that we're putting into exchanges already,' he said. The shared research priorities are one of the reasons why Mr Maharey believes that there is room for more collaboration. Both the EU and New Zealand have set health, information and communication technologies (ICT), biotechnology, food production and the environment as research priorities. 'These are almost no-brainers because of the areas of expertise that exist in Europe that match where we are. But there's room for discussion about other areas of expertise,' he says. Some of these areas are however universal priorities, so one may wonder why New Zealand is particularly interested in collaboration with Europe when Australia and Asia are much closer. While Asia is important to New Zealand, particularly its emerging economies, New Zealand has historic links with Europe, which means that most of its scientists have ties with scientists in Europe. The worldview of New Zealanders is more similar to that of Europeans than the Asian worldview tends to be, Mr Maharey added. From the style of government to attitudes to life and scientific priorities, New Zealand and Europe are compatible. Europeans even tell the same jokes as New Zealanders, he pointed out! 'I think that makes it work at the level that people will want to work together,' he said. The minister's visit included visits to Germany, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and France. In Germany he renewed a Memorandum of Understanding with the German Government on cooperation, while in Finland talks addressed their different science systems. The New Zealand science system has been a fairly competitive one, and the government has been working to change this in recent years. That these changes make it significantly easier for foreign research teams to collaborate with New Zealand bodies was another key message that the minister wished to get out during his time in Europe. The Finnish system has been very successful, and New Zealand has been looking at it closely. Denmark, like New Zealand, has a land-based economy. In addition to discussions on agricultural research, environmental issues and meat production, the delegation went to visit Medicom Valley, a cluster of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, to see how Denmark is managing to use its land-based economy to excel in biotechnology. New Zealand is particularly keen to strengthen its links with France. While there are quite a lot of New Zealanders living in France, there is much less collaboration than with Germany. 'We are keeping the contacts going, and hopefully in time those contacts will turn into something that is a little more formal,' said Mr Maharey. Although New Zealand is, quite literally, on the other side of the world to Europe, attracting foreign researchers to its universities and laboratories has never been a problem. 'My perception is that there's one overwhelming reason why Europeans seem to pop up in New Zealand all the time, and that's lifestyle,' says the minister. 'They know that they can do good science, but if there's a choice of doing good science somewhere else in the world or in New Zealand, I've noticed that European scientists right through, whether they're Germans or British or whatever, will talk about the fact that they knew the lifestyle would be what it is.' New Zealand also has unique natural advantages. In fact, one of the challenges facing New Zealand is trying to manage the sheer number of European researchers that want to spend time in the country conducting research into biodiversity. The country also offers a unique counterpoint model for the study of volcanoes or earthquakes, and has expanses of ocean that are virtually unmodified by human behaviour. In New Zealand as in Europe, a government priority is increasing research funding, and in particular that coming from the private sector. The target is to meet the OECD average for research investment. 'One of the interesting things in coming here has been talking with the smaller countries about how they have managed to get more money out of their private sector, and in particular how they have managed to get it out of their SMEs [small and medium sized enterprises].' Mr Maharey describes the lack of funding from small companies as New Zealand's Achilles Heel, and as the country only has one multinational, larger companies cannot fill the gap. 'Somehow we have to motivate our small businesses to put money in. The Finns have given us some ideas, we've got some more from the Danes and we've taken up other bits and pieces as we've been travelling along [...]. Even if we wanted to, we shouldn't be paying a whole lot more from the public purse.' Auckland may be over 18,000km from Brussels, but the priorities and the problems sound fairly similar.
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