Engaging our stakeholders
Goal: Landcare Research’s partnership with central and local government, industry and Māori organisations is valued by them as a way of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of science expenditure that leads to National Outcomes being achieved
Context
Government is encouraging partnerships between government, industry and science so that science better informs management and policymaking by government and underpins innovation by industry. Increasingly, we are working directly with industry on solutions to specific issues and in identifying opportunities for sustainable economic growth.
Our most significant stakeholder partners in terms of science funding are DOC, MPI, MfE, AHB, and local and regional government. While we work with many businesses and industry sectors, strategic engagement is mostly through BusinessNZ and sector bodies such as ZESPRi, DairyNZ, FAR, and IrrigationNZ. Our science needs to be strongly aligned to the needs of these partners. Steering groups, technical advisory groups and regular meetings provide formal conduits for them to influence our science direction, priorities and delivery. As tangata whenua, Maori are important stakeholders – in addition to our contribution to Vision Matauranga (page 34), we participate in regular meetings, hui and capability-building initiatives with collaborating iwi.
Our National Outcomes, Impacts and science Portfolios have all been developed with considerable input from the relevant stakeholders who have helped develop the science priorities addressed by our Portfolios and who will co-invest in the science.
We are committed to making a significant step change in stakeholder and community access to the knowledge Landcare Research holds, especially in our databases and collections. We have a vested interest in knowledge stewardship – acquiring new data when and where they are needed, data-sharing synergies, data integrity, and their uptake and use by others. Two years ago, we proposed a national collaborative centre to facilitate access to land resource information across a number of agencies. The concept received a remarkable level of support from stakeholders, and in July 2012, we launched the National Land Resources Centre.
