Landcare Research - Manaaki Whenua

Landcare-Research -Manaaki Whenua

Science for sustainability

Our Vision is “science and environment for a better New Zealand”.

Image – Bruce Thomas

Image – Bruce Thomas

Landcare Research has a key role in helping New Zealand address its sustainability challenges.

However, ‘science for sustainability’ is more than just the type of research that we do. It is also about how we sustain our research capabilities and impact, how we engage with end users and stakeholders, and how we deliver our science. This is outlined in our Statements of Corporate Intent, Annual Reports, Innovation Case Studies, newsletters and other resources, and throughout our web pages. Our Research Portfolios encompass clusters of research projects with similar common purpose and which are aligned to users’ needs.

We continue to monitor and report a wide range of performance indicators to ensure we maintain science excellence and integrity.

Shared research capability & infrastructure through collaborative research centres, consortia & networks

We are part of several national and international initiatives to pool research capability and infrastructure that are relevant to our Core capability as outlined in the Statement of our Core Purpose.

Ecosystems and ecosystem services, terrestrial vertebrate pest control, biosecurity, integrated social and biophysical research:

  • The Centre for Biodiversity and Biosecurity (CBB) with the University of Auckland, including the Joint Graduate School
    www.cbb.org.nz
  • The Regional Councils’ Biodiversity Forum that decides their priorities for biodiversity research · The Australian - funded Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), which is Australia’s largest integrated invasive animal research programme
    www.invasiveanimals.com
  • The Southern Temperate Ecosystems Research Network (STERN), with the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity in Chile, which is initially focused on invasive species
  • The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), which collates records from biological collections around the world, and Species2000 Catalogue of Life, which is creating a valid checklist of the world’s species
    www.gbif.org
    www.sp2000.org
  • The B3 (Better Border Biosecurity ) consortium with four other CRIs , Lincoln University, MPI, DOC and the New Zealand Forest Owners Association. The members collaboratively research ways to reduce the entry and establishment of new pests in New Zealand
    http://b3nz.org

Carbon storage and greenhouse gas emissions, climate change adaptation and mitigation:

  • The New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC) – a partnership of five CRIs, Massey and Lincoln universities, DairyNZ and the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium (PGgRC)
    www.nzagrc.org.nz
  • The New Zealand Climate Change Centre (NZCCC) with Victoria University of Wellington, University of Canterbury, Massey University, and many of the CRIs
    www.nzclimatechangecentre.org
  • The Global Research Alliance on agricultural greenhouse gases, which brings more than 30 countries together. It focuses on research, development and extension of technologies and practices that will help deliver ways to grow more food (and more climate - resilient food systems) without increasing greenhouse gas emissions
    www.globalresearchalliance.org

Land cover, land use, and spatial land information; land, soil and freshwater management; integrated social and biophysical research:

  • KiwImage, which was an All-of-Government project to acquire new higher resolution, multi-purpose satellite imagery for all of New Zealand and its subantarctic islands. Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) is now the custodian of the imagery, with Landcare Research part of the MoU and able to use KiwImage products
    www.linz.govt.nz/topography/kiwimage
  • The Sustainable Land Use Research Initiative (SLURI) pools soil science expertise across three CRIs in a programme that develops new tools for regulators and land managers
    www.sluri.org.nz

Soil characterisation, processes and services; integrated social and biophysical research:

  • The Soil and Land Use (SLU) research alliance between four CRIs for a more collaborative and integrated approach to research and capability development
  • The National Land Resource Centre (NLRC) provide s a gateway to soil and land data, and has responsibility for coordinating capability development across SLU
    www.nlrc.org.nz
  • The Global Soil Map is a global consortium to make a new digital soil map of the world using state-of-the-art and emerging technologies for soil mapping and predicting soil properties at fine resolution to assist better decisions in a range of global issues such as food production and hunger eradication, 43 climate change, and environmental degradation. We are the Scientific Coordinator of the Oceania Node and lead the Cyberinformatics working group
    www.globalsoilmap.net

Industry and business environmental performance, including verification:

  • Agri-Food Innovation Hub with two other CRIs, Fonterra and Massey University. The Hub is based on the university’s Manawatu campus.

Urban environments:

Antarctica:

  • The New Zealand Antarctic Research Institute, an initiative led by Antarctic New Zealand to leverage overseas and philanthropic funding
    http://nzari.aq

General:

  • The Kiwi Innovation Network (KiwiNet), a consortium with WaikatoLink, Plant & Food Research, Otago Innovation Ltd, Lincoln University, AUT Enterprises, AgResearch, University of Canterbury, Callaghan Innovation, VicLink, Cawthron Institute, ESR a nd NIW; with principal support provided by MBIE
    www.kiwinet.org.nz
  • The New Zealand eScience Infrastructure (NeSI), with the University of Auckland, University of Canterbury, NIWA, Otago University and MBIE
    www.nesi.org.nz

Summary of Key Non-Financial Performance and Pan-CRI indicators Landcare Research Indicators

SCI section Indicator 2012/13 Actual Target range 2014/15
Stakeholder Engagement Percentage of relevant end - users who have adopted knowledge and/or technology from Landcare Research (data provided from MBIE’s biennial external client survey; next survey 2015/16) 95% 90 – 100% [no survey in 2014/15]
Percentage of relevant funding partners and other end - users that have a high level of confidence in Landcare Research’s ability to set research priorities, and the effectiveness of the collaboration or partnership (data provided from MBIE’s biennial external client survey; next survey 2015/16) 78% 80 – 100% [no survey in 2014/15]
Vision Mātauranga Number of positive strategic partnerships with iwi and Māori organisations in which we are linking science and mātauranga and which address Māori goals and aspirations 23 18 – 23
Science Excellence & Collaboration Percentage of relevant national and international research providers that have a high level of confidence in the Landcare Research’s ability to form the best teams to deliver on its (data provided from MBIE’s biennial external client survey; next survey 2015/16) 85% 80 – 90% [no survey in 2014/15]
Digital Strategy & Informatics Availability of data from Landcare Research’s Core - funded databases, collections and information systems (assessed by a variety of metrics appropriate to each) Refer to annual report Increase in availability and accessibility [metrics online]
Commercialisation Number of new and existing licensing deals of Landcare Research - derived IP (including technologies, products and services) with New Zealand and international partners 8 5 – 10
People, Learning & Culture Staff engagement in survey evaluations 71% 70 – 80%
Turnover of key science staff 5.9% but different definition 3 – 5%
Infrastructure & Collections Specimen transactions, identification requests and visitors for our Core - funded biological collections and associated infrastructure. Revised this year to focus on service delivery Different definition previously 90 – 100% of requests responded to

MBIE generic indicators1 for all CRIs

SCI section Indicator 2012/13 Actual Target /target range 2014/15
Stakeholder Engagement Revenue per FTE ($000s) parent $162.5 >$166
Revenue per FTE from commercial sources ($000s) $49.9 >$53
Commercial reports per scientist FTE 0.61 0.5 5 – 0.65
Science Excellence & Collaboration Publications with collaborators Other NZ: 39%; Overseas: 61% Other NZ: 30 – 40%; Overseas: 45 – 65%
Impact of scientific publications (mean citation score) 2.9 2.9 – 3.3

1 Generic indicators are at the Landcare Research Group level