Latest news with #LucyStewart
Scoop
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Budget 2025 Robs Researchers To Pay For Regulation
Press Release – New Zealand Association of Scientists This years budget allows us to update our analysis showing how far short of the 0.6% of GDP target we fall. We advocate for alternative budgets that initially restore core public research investment to inflation-adjusted 2019 levels and then proceed … NZAS Co-Presidents Lucy Stewart and Troy Baisden have made initial comments on the Budget released by the coalition government this week, highlighting the 're-prioritisation' of frontline research funds to pay for the government's science reforms. Pre-Budget commentary has emphasised that Aotearoa New Zealand's research and science system has been under-funded by successive governments for decades and that meaningful new funding is needed if we want to achieve the same level of science and innovation as other small advanced economies [1]. The need for funding from government was also a key theme of the first Science System Advisory Group report released in January 2025 [2]. Prof Troy Baisden laments, 'Following last year's nothing-burger budget for science, this year edges toward a black hole budget for the research system. Many areas of research may now be heading across a threshold where there's no escape and they can no longer rebuild what is being lost.' Dr Lucy Stewart comments, 'The Government signalled that there was unlikely to be new spending for research and science in this Budget. They have also, in the past six months, demonstrated a willingness to take funding away from areas of research that they do not see as priorities. This was most clearly illustrated by the changes to the Marsden Fund in December 2024, which removed social sciences and humanities from the eligible areas of research. In recent weeks they have also announced that the Endeavour Fund will not award new funding in 2026 and will only offer extensions to current projects which are considered to be 'value for money' and to align with the government's priorities. At the same time, they have committed to significant reforms to the science system including the establishment of three – or perhaps four – new Public Research Organisations, two created by merging existing Crown Research Institutes, as well as the establishment of a new regulator for genetic technologies. These reforms will cost money. In this Budget, we learn that they propose to pay for them by cutting yet more money from our core research funds – primarily the Health Research Fund, which has $17 million less budgeted in the 2025/2026 financial year, as well as the Catalyst Research fund, which loses $12 million. The Strategic Science Investment Fund is also hit by significant 'reprioritisation' of funds forecast across the next three years, and cuts of approximately $5 million are proposed for the Marsden Fund in 2026/2027 and 2027/2028 as well. The Marsden Fund has effectively not received any new funding for nearly a decade, so it is already very hard-hit by inflation. As I said last year, I expect to see more job losses across the sector before the end of the year. Many researchers depend entirely on contestable funding to support their jobs and less contestable funding available means fewer researchers will be employed. I do note that there are small but relatively meaningful increases budgeted for funds supporting the development of mātauranga Māori researchers and organisations, PhD students working on applied science, and early and mid career researcher fellowships. This is good to see. However, at the same time the research system that these researchers are part of is being torn down around them. Small increases cannot make up for that.' Prof Troy Baisden adds: 'Today's budget continues to double down on a pattern spanning four decades, in which New Zealand's governments have been world leaders in choosing not to invest in the future. We appear determined to fall behind peer nations with our investment in research, science, innovation and technology. This is increasingly true for universities, which continue to see the increasing support they saw across the decade to 2020 reversed. There's almost no good news, with significant areas now having gone many years without any adjustment for the pulse of inflation. Areas we depend on such as GeoNet, which helps us understand earthquakes and tsunamis as they affect us, are seeing budget cuts of around 13%. The significant research programmes supported through the Ministry of Primary Industries are not immune, with reductions of $25 million across areas such as sustainable land management and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. We're seeing not just funding cuts in the future, but also 'efficiencies' where underspending has occurred relative to signalled allocations. Relatively small new initiatives in space science, touted as an important new area while Judith Collins was Minister, appear to be petering out to nothing. The Table of Estimates produced with Budget 2025 also allows us to look back, from an estimate for the year just ended to finalised funding in previous years. Funding for the entire tertiary education sector has flatlined then declined, following the period when Government helped stabilise the sector during the pandemic's impacts. Up until 2019 the sector was growing consistently. Although the current budget is consistent with the pre-2019 trend in dollar terms, it doesn't account for the recent pulse of inflation. Institutional budgets are undergoing increasing stress and provide little solace to top research teams who miss out or are now deemed ineligible for contestable research funding such as the Marsden fund. A very disappointing case is the significant cuts to the Health Research Fund, slowing the front of a pipeline into an innovation ecosystem where New Zealand has global companies. When last year's budget emerged with cuts to science, we noted that our hope for this year sat with Sir Peter Gluckman's Science System and University Advisory Groups (SSAG and UAG) to make a case for future funding. The first SSAG report made a very strong case, in part noting that we should focus more on the foundation that core public research investment provides. When carried out with sufficient quality, core public research investment of about 0.6% of GDP ensures that additional investments by government and business have strong payoffs. These payoffs across the economy have been tallied as an average of $11 for every dollar invested in Europe, or $5–20 for every dollar invested in Australia. The government is calling for that further investment, but we continue to undermine the foundation that's needed for these payoffs to be reliable. This year's budget allows us to update our analysis showing how far short of the 0.6% of GDP target we fall. We advocate for alternative budgets that initially restore core public research investment to inflation-adjusted 2019 levels and then proceed to the 0.6% target over 5 years.' 2
Irish Examiner
21-05-2025
- Health
- Irish Examiner
CHI head 'deeply and unreservedly sorry' for non-medical devices used in children's spinal surgeries
The head of Children's Health Ireland says the organisation is 'deeply and unreservedly sorry' for some children having had non-medical devices inserted into their bodies during spinal surgery. Lucy Stewart, the recently-appointed chief executive of CHI, is to tell the Dail's Public Accounts Committee 'what happened should not have happened and children should have been protected from harm'. She will tell the committee on Thursday morning that CHI 'fully accepts the recommendations' of a recent Hiqa report regarding the practice, and will post updates on their implementation to 'ensure transparency and openness around improvements to services'. The Hiqa report found the use of metal springs during spinal surgery on children in CHI at Temple Street Hospital was 'wrong'. It found non-CE-marked springs were implanted into three children between 2020 and 2022. In the aftermath of the report's publication, Dr Jim Browne resigned as chair of the board of CHI to allow for 'renewed enthusiasm and passion to guide this great organisation'. It has also emerged many hundreds of children may have undergone unnecessary hip surgeries at children's hospitals over the past five years, with a draft report compiled for CHI by a British NHS consultant asserting nearly 80% of surgeries at one Dublin hospital may have been unnecessary. Ms Stewart will tell PAC she knows there are 'families impacted by other issues related to the orthopaedic service, specifically where reports are awaited', adding those families 'will be communicated with in the first instance' when the final reports are received, with that publication expected later this week. CHI, along with the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board will be the first witnesses at the new iteration of PAC, in light of the controversies surrounding the hip surgeries and the much-delayed new National Children's Hospital build. It emerged at last week's PAC hearing that former chief executive of CHI Eilish Hardiman, who left her role after former minister for health Stephen Donnelly declined to endorse her retention, came to a 'settlement' with the organisation in order to keep her €177,000 salary while taking over a new strategic role, with that issue likely to feature at Thursday's meeting with CHI. Meanwhile, chief officer with the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board David Gunning is to tell the committee the ongoing delays to the new NCH is 'a cause of great frustration', describing the rate of construction by main contractor BAM as being 'insufficient' to meet the agreed-upon substantial completion date of June 30 this year. Mr Gunning will add early access to the build has not yet commenced, a fact which is likely to delay the commissioning of the €2.2bn hospital even further. It emerged last weekend the Children's Hospital is now not expected to reach substantial completion before September of this year at the earliest, setting back the likely best-case-scenario go-live date of the hospital to June of next year.
RNZ News
06-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Govt sets up new science and tech advisory council
science politics 12 minutes ago The government's new science and technology advisory council has been described as group set up to make money rather than provide direction to a science sector that has been overhauled. New Zealand Association of Scientists co-president Dr Lucy Stewart spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.
