Sir

Anyone reading your article about the science reforms in New Zealand (Nature 391, 426–427; 1998) could be forgiven for thinking that their main purpose must have been to provide more scientists with more pay, more equipment and jobs for life, simply because science is a good thing. But that was not the purpose at all.

I would like, first, to dispel a major misperception regarding funding. Your correspondent, Peter Pockley, writes of concern that the government “will cut spending on R&D by as much as NZ$40 million” and that I admit that future prospects for science and technology are not good because, although there will be no reduction in government spending, I stated that “baselines won't grow”.

But the future of science and technology in New Zealand is of increasing importance; I have never said its prospects are not good. Already built into the funding ‘baseline’ (a technical budgetary term in this context) are increases in spending for each of the next two years. The possible “cuts” referred to by some would at worst amount to a smaller than expected increase, certainly not an actual reduction in funding. Funding in the first years of the next decade will be more strongly influenced by the outcome of the recently initiated Foresight Project — whose significance your article seriously underestimates — than by the government's 1996 commitment to increase funding towards a target of 0.8% of gross domestic product. The comments in your leading article (Nature 391, 419; 1998) are relevant and perceptive. Your call for a “new burst of imagination” for New Zealand science is one with which we have already challenged ourselves, in the form of the Foresight Project. This is intended to encourage strategic thinking about the future by all New Zealanders.

My ministry wants to stimulate understanding and awareness of the future we face as a ‘knowledge society’. The impact of globalization, new technologies and demographic, economic and lifestyle trends can be analysed and discussed. The Foresight Project will allow us to think about a range of future scenarios in a way that will help to identify the factors that will determine whether nations, sectors and individuals can prosper. There must be increased focus at all levels on education, research, science and technology. Sectors across the economy and society will be invited to think about the future, and the project will provide a common framework within which to do this. In the process, the government will use sector-level thinking about the knowledge and capabilities each will require to succeed as one input into setting priorities for publicly funded science and technology.

The real benefits of the reforms to New Zealand science and technology will not be measured in the numbers of dollars spent or scientists employed. They will be measured in the extent to which both sectors and individuals come to recognize that their future well-being depends on science and technology — and spread this view to their children, their politicians and their boards of directors. Watch this space.