Say New Zealand and think 40 million sheep, 4 million people - and scenery fit for a film epic. But beyond the sheep and the Lord of the Rings geography, there's a big surprise. For a country with half the population of London, New Zealand punches way above its weight, with world-leading research in a range of fields including nanotechnology and materials science, fetal development, animal cloning, visual effects and volcanology, as well as the more traditional agricultural and farming. New Zealand's universities have a reputation for top-quality science and technology research. In 2001 the country ranked nth in the world in terms of papers published per capita, and an amazing first for papers published per research dollar spent. Over the past decade, there has been a concerted effort to push the country's knowledge-based economy further with the creation of a host of science and technology R&D companies by the government, and a fledgling biotech industry beginning to spread its wings. But there is an increasing realisation that hard choices will have to be made about where to put the cash. As it stands, the national pot is just too small to fund all the research, and the essential but expensive equipment and infrastructure needed to do everything that would be economically desirable. Whether the government can or will stump up extra cash remains to be seen.
展开▼
