Engaging stakeholders
Our key stakeholders
Our most significant stakeholder partners are members of the Natural Resources Sector in government: the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), the Ministry for the Environment (MfE), the Department of Conservation (DOC), also OSPRI (which includes TBfree New Zealand, previously AHB), several Māori organisations, local and regional government and clients in the certification programmes run by Enviro-Mark Solutions Ltd. While we work with those businesses directly, strategic engagement with the private sector is mostly through BusinessNZ and sector bodies such as DairyNZ, the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR), the Fertiliser Association of NZ, IrrigationNZ and ZESPRI®.
Increasingly, we work directly with industry on solutions to specific issues and in enhancing environmental performance with integrity. As tangata whenua, Māori are important stakeholders and research partners – our contribution to Vision Mātauranga is explained in that section. Engaging these stakeholders in our science planning supports the Government’s Business Growth Agenda, which explicitly recognises the role of innovation in growing the export economy and the importance of science in supporting the sustainable use of New Zealand’s natural asset base.
Staff from key stakeholder organisations are members of our Outcome Advisory Panel. The Panel provides a streamlined conduit for stakeholders to influence our science direction, priorities and delivery. During the year, we worked with the Panel to review investment strategies and priorities for our four National Outcomes. Changes to the investment strategies are summarised in our Statement of Corporate Intent for 2013–18, which can be found on our website at www.landcareresearch.co.nz/publications/corporatepublications.
Examples of Strategic Engagement
National Land Resource Centre
Since the launch of the National Land Resource Centre (NLRC) in July 2012, we have worked across and within sectors (government, business and science) to develop a shared work programme to deliver high-quality and fit-for-purpose land and soils information to major end-users, determine needs of major users, and enhance science communication to key user groups. A pan-sector capability survey revealed a growing demand for short-course technical training in the use of science data and tools, so work is underway to respond to this.
The Regional Council Land Monitoring Forum and Land Managers Group have also been working with the NLRC to help ensure land and soils research is better aligned to their rapidly changing land management needs – for example in response to freshwater and RMA reforms.
While Landcare Research will continue to coordinate the NLRC, all CRI partners will collectively set direction and agree on priorities for shared work programmes. Similar discussions on potential collaborations are underway with the regional councils, government departments in the natural resource sector, and key universities.
Development of the NLRC has been supported by Landcare Research investment.
Productive Land Innovation Hub
During the year, we worked with DairyNZ , AgResearch, Plant & Food Research and Lincoln University to develop the concept for a Productive Land Innovation Hub (aka ‘the Lincoln Hub’) for collaborative research, education and industry development with the goal of improving achievement of national outcomes, stimulating innovation, and building capability within the land-based and supporting agricultural industries. The Hub was officially launched on 29 April 2013. The Hub will facilitate industry–science engagement, collaborative partnerships, training of work-ready graduates for the land-based sectors, and generate opportunities to increase the economic and environmental performance of both the productive and science sectors.
The Land Cover Database (LCDB) and Land Resource Information System (LRIS) steering groups
Robust information on land cover and land use (though less developed) is required by many agencies to underpin international negotiations, state of the environment reporting, and research. Development of the Land Cover Database 3rd edition (LCDB3, launched last year) and 4th edition (LCDB4, currently in progress) has been overseen by a steering group on which MBIE, MfE, MPI, DOC, LINZ, the NZ Fire Service and regional councils are all represented. This steering group, plus the technical advisory group and collaborator checking group, met regularly throughout the year. The LCDB projects use a ‘public research consortium’ approach with multiple government agencies (central and local) contributing to the research, both with financial contributions and with significant in-kind contributions, such as datasets and ground-truthing activities.
In line with the successful LCDB stakeholder engagement model, we also held a stakeholder workshop to prepare a roadmap for the future of the New Zealand Land Resource Inventory (NZLRI) and the Land Use Capability (LUC) classification system. Wide support was given indicating the future value of the existing NZLRI, not just by managing the dataset, but also by managing much of the ancillary documentation and knowledge surrounding it.
LRIS is supported by Core funding. The LCDB is supported by MBIE contestable funding with considerable in-kind support from DOC and regional councils. Both LCDB and LRIS are managed in the Characterising Land Resources portfolio.
Key Performance Indicators
The Science + Innovation Group in MBIE commissioned Colmar Brunton to conduct an independent stakeholder survey across a wide range of organisations, and 57 stakeholders (61 in the 2012 survey) commented on Landcare Research:
- 78% are satisfied with the way we set research priorities (83% in 2012)
- 69% are confident that we consider their sector’s priorities when setting research priorities (70% in 2012)
- 85% have confidence that we have the ability to put together the most appropriate research teams (91% in 2012)
- 95% of respondents for Landcare Research had adopted knowledge or technology from Landcare Research in the past three years (97% in 2012)
- 92% of respondents are satisfied with their experience of accessing knowledge or technology from Landcare Research (93% in 2012)
- 91% of those interacting with us in the past 3 years are satisfied with the overall quality of their experience (87% in 2012)
Stakeholder relationships
| For the year ended 30 June: | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
| Client staff on Landcare Research advisory groups | 60 | 69 | 461 | 541,2 |
| Staff secondments to other agencies | 3 | 3 | 5 | 6 |
| Staff secondments from other agencies | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Other agency staff co-located with us | 100 | 110 | 102 | 893 |
| Our staff co-located with others | 7 | 9 | 10 | 44 |
1 With Core funding we have moved to a smaller number of strategic advisory groups. Previously, advisory groups were attached to the myriad of smaller research programmes and research areas with a governance group having oversight of OBIs.
2 54 staff representing 33 agencies and groups
3 DOC staff who were co-located with us at Hamilton and Lincoln sites have now moved to their own premises
4 6 of our staff were previously co-located in a building leased by Science New Zealand. This year, we leased new premises for our Wellington staff and Science New Zealand and Scion staff are now co-located with us.