Infrastructure
Jessica Beever opening the Beever Plant Pathogen Facility
Goal: Landcare Research’s investments in science infrastructure are recognised by scientists as providing excellent science capacity and by Government stakeholders as benefitting New Zealand.
Our investments in science infrastructure are aligned to our Statement of Core Purpose, Outcomes and Impacts, and so have inherent benefit to New Zealand. Our investment in NeSI is covered in the Informatics section.
The Beever Plant Pathogen Facility
The most significant investment project completed this year was our new ‘state of the art’ plant pathogen and invertebrate transitional and containment facility in Auckland; it was opened in November 2012. The facility is the only one of its kind in New Zealand. It removes our dependence on overseas facilities to complete work on plant pathogens, and will allow new projects to be undertaken. For example, the Brazilian yellow leaf spot fungus is a potential biocontrol agent for Tradescantia, but as Brazil has no pathogen containment facilities, it has never been possible to obtain safe, clean isolates needed for release. As well as weed biocontrol studies, the facility is also suitable for safely undertaking research into exotic plant pathogens that pose a threat to native flora (e.g. kauri dieback PTA) and the primary sector (e.g. kiwifruit Psa bacterium).
Our staff make significant contributions to the design of specialist facilities such as this one. Their input ensures the infrastructure is truly fit for purpose and able to meet future needs. Where possible (within the constraints of containment requirements) facilities comply with our sustainability principles, e.g. energy and water efficiency and environmentally-friendly fit-out.
Laboratory equipment
We purchased and installed three significant pieces of laboratory equipment. A genetic analyser replacement for our EcoGene® laboratory supports new services and enables increased throughput. A LECO Analyser supports the high volume of carbon and nitrogen analyses for our Environmental Chemistry Laboratory. And a reverse osmosis water system supplies ultra-pure water to our laboratories at Lincoln.
Emergency generators for business continuity
We installed a new generator to extend the emergency power capacity at our Lincoln site, particularly to laboratories, the Greenhouse Gas Research and Invertebrate Containment facilities, and computer servers. As well as significantly reducing business continuity risks, the new generator improves our capacity to meet/offset expensive winter peak-demand electricity pricing at our largest site. Lincoln’s ‘old’ generator will be relocated in August 2013 to our Hamilton site.
Building upgrades to protect assets
As part of our programme of works to upgrade archival conditions to help protect our nationally significant biological collections, we invested in improved climate control (humidity and temperature conditions) in the Auckland site’s collection vaults. We also improved the refrigeration and alarm systems.
IT upgrades
We improved WiFi services across all Landcare Research offices to near 100% access for staff and visitors. We redesigned our Wide Area Network (WAN) providing a second Internet gateway at Palmerston North to improve performance and disaster recovery resilience (mitigating business continuity risks). We moved to REANNZ (Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand) as our Internet service provider to improve service for staff and reduce costs for the company.
Microsoft Lync was made available to all staff for desktop video conferencing within Landcare Research and externally. Uptake of Lync has been excellent with staff readily adapting to the new way of ‘face-to-face’ communicating and working together on documents.